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A new step forward in forensic investigation: if suspect’s DNA is not available, relatives one’s might be. And can become investigation material.
This is what lead lately to the arrest of the so-called “Grim Sleeper” serial killer, who has been terrorizing Los Angeles for over twenty years.
The police said they were able to charge Lonnie Franklin Jr. with at least 10 counts of murder after doing a familial DNA search on his son, Christopher, who was in prison on a felony weapons charge, and cross-referencing the findings to unsolved crimes. After the father came under suspicion, the police obtained his DNA from a pizza slice he had discarded — evidence that connected him to the Grim Sleeper case, they said.
This type of DNA search is quite new — only California and Colorado allow it. District attorneys say the tool is essential. But civil-liberties advocates say the technique can be misused, invading the privacy of people.
Once more is investigation vs. civil rights. And DNA use is the defendant.

Brooke Greenberg looks like a toddler, but is actually 17 years old. Born healthy, her parents noticed that something was wrong sometime between her first and second birthday, as she she was not developing and growing like other children.
Seventeen years later, Brook still holds the cognitive level of a baby, is 30 cm high, has all her baby teeth and enjoys been pushed around in her stroller. She hasn’t aged.
Despite the tragedy of a family confronted with a daughter that will never have the chance to become a healthy adult, Brook’s case fascinates  doctors and scientists who where not able to identify her problem until recent studies of her DNA. No answer was found yet, but apparently it has something to do with a defect in the genes that are in charge of the aging process.
Studies of Brooke’s DNA could eventually reveal how to slow the aging process and show the way towards treatments of diseases linked with old age. Or perhaps help us all to live longer.

Investigating following a DNA track is not unique to murder scenes and serial killing crimes. Well, at least not unique to the human species.

DNA analysis has been recently used to track down how whale sushi ended up in the plates of restaurants in California and Korea.

Such tracking is already being conducted on a limited scale by academic researchers and the makers of the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, using hidden cameras and sophisticated DNA analysis to uncovered the illegal sale of whale meat at a Santa Monica restaurant and at a sushi restaurant in Seoul.

Since the imposition of an international whaling moratorium in 1986 only the Japanese continue whales hunting today. The fact raises many questions regarding the illegal worldwide whale meat trade. Investigators from the Korean Federation of Environmental Movements and Seoul National University helped identify the types of marine animals served at the Korean sushi restaurant. One sample, from a fin whale, genetically matched meat purchased in Japanese markets in 2007, strongly suggesting it came from the same whale.

Dna analysis made possible a deeper understanding of the spreading of whale meat’s black market, even though the total closure on the japans government side on the issue make further investigations quite difficult to pursue.

The first monetary settlement for misuse of DNA sample has been payed after  four years court battle by the Arizona State University.
The beneficiaries of the $700,000 fine are 41 members of the ancient Indian Tribe Havasupai, who have been living in almost complete isolation for centuries in an enchanted corner deep in the Grand Canyon. What brought the two counterparts together was a cry for help from the Havasupai people: the tribe had been struck by an devastating rate of diabetes for years and asked the University to run DNA tests to spot the causes of the epidemic.

It is only years later that one of the few members of the tribe to have attended College, Carletta Tilousi, 39, a member of the tribal council, learned that heir blood samples had been used to study many other things, including mental illness and theories of the tribe’s geographical origins that contradict their traditional stories.

The case raised the question of whether scientists had taken advantage of a vulnerable population, and genetics experts and civil rights advocates say it may also fuel a growing debate over researchers’ responsibility to communicate the range of personal information that can be gleaned from DNA at a time when it is being collected on an ever-greater scale for research and routine medical care.
“I’m not against scientific research,” said Mrs. Tilousi. “I just want it to be done right. They used our blood for all these studies, people got degrees and grants, and they never asked our permission.”

Researchers and institutions that receive federal funds are required to receive “informed consent” from subjects, ensuring that they understand the risks and benefits before they participate. But such protections were designed primarily for research that carried physical risks, like experimental drug trials or surgery. When it comes to mining DNA, the rules — and the risks — are murkier.

Is it necessary, for instance, to ask someone who has donated DNA for research on heart disease if that DNA can be used for Alzheimer’s or addiction research?

Many scientists say no, arguing that the potential benefit from unencumbered biomedical research trumps the value of individual control.

As for any new discipline, the legal system is showing its flaws in terms of proper DNA use regulation.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday said farmers could harvest their genetically engineered sugar beets this year, ruling that the economic impact would be too great if the crop were to be destroyed.

The judge, Jeffrey White of the United States District Court in San Francisco, also ruled that the environmental groups, including the Center for Food Safety, waited too long to request that the crop be yanked from the ground and barred from the market.

Nearly all sugar beets planted are genetically engineered and the crop accounts for half the nation’s sugar supply.

Judge White sided with the groups last year when he ruled that federal regulators improperly approved the genetically engineered crop for market five years ago. Judge White said in September that further environmental studies were required before the Agriculture Department could decide the issue.

In January, the Center for Food Safety, Earthjustice and several other groups and organic farmers asked Judge White to immediately halt the planting and harvesting of all genetically engineered beets while determining how to resolve the lawsuit, which was filed in 2007.

The groups and organic farmers fear the biotech beets will cross-pollinate with conventional beets, as well as Swiss chard, and upset some consumers.

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Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys has become the 22nd person, three of whom have gone on to become Nobel Peace Prize winners, to receive the award.
He will receive the accolade on 14 April during the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
DNA profiling is now a major tool in solving crime, and the standard method of resolving paternity disputes.
The professor’s “eureka” moment came on the morning of 10 September 1984, when he went into his darkroom to develop an X-ray film from an experiment looking at highly variable bits of DNA.

The film threw up an unexpected result - every individual in the sample had a different bar code and could be identified with precision.
More than 30 million people worldwide have had a DNA profile.
Sir Alec, however, has said in the past that the practice of retaining DNA taken from innocent people in the UK raises serious issues.
While having no regrets over the development of the DNA profiling, Sir Alec does have strong reservations as to how authorities are using the information, particularly the long term storage of information on the English National DNA Database.
Speaking at a House of Commons home affairs select committee meeting earlier this year, Sir Alec said England and Wales should follow Scotland’s lead, where police only retain the DNA profiles of innocent people under specific circumstances, with those accused of sexual assaults having their profiles held for a maximum of five years.

An international research team at the University of Edinburg just discovered that an inactive gene in patient’s brain might be the cause of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

The results show that gene ABCA13 plays a crucial role in brain health. More specifically, the gene is responsible for the way fat cells are processed inside the brain, a key element on which further research will be focused.

Lead researcher Douglas Blackwood, professor of Psychiatric Genetics at the University of Edinburgh, said ”this is an exciting step forward in our understanding of the underlying causes of some common mental illnesses.

These risk genes could signpost new directions for treatments.”

Dr Ben Pickard, of the University of Strathclyde, stresses that ”this study is the first to identify multiple points of DNA damage within a single gene that are linked with psychiatric illness. It strongly suggests that this gene may regulate an important part of brain function that fails in individuals diagnosed with these devastating disorders.”

Once again, the importance of DNA analysis show how it will be able to spare many the atrocious pain that comes with severe physical and mental conditions. Genetic analysis and targeted prevention and cure is just proving once again to be the key to a healthy future

T-Mobile UK experienced earlier this week a massive breach into its data base: a yet undisclosed number of customers records have been stolen and, most likely, sold to an unidentified third party.

“The number of records involved runs into the millions and it appears that substantial amounts of money changed hands”, said in a document Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) acknowledging the breach. The data included customers’ personal information and contract expiration dates. The UK’s Data Protection Act prohibits the selling of data without prior permission from the owner. The ICO said in its report that it believes T-Mobile competitors used the information to call customers prior to the expiration of their contracts and offer them deals with a new operator.

Well. guess what: the thief was a T-Mobile UK insider, not some random hacker looking for easy money. This fact highlights the problem of the threat posed by insiders, especially during an uncertain global economy, which has resulted in layoffs and mergers.

When Swiss DNA Bank’s storage system was designed, one of the questions was: who can access the data our uses will upload? The answer we came up with was no one except its legitimate owner. Our service provides a digital safety box only the user can access. There is no way an insider could ever enter a Forever account and share its content with a third party. It is just impossible.

That is because there are three separate keys to decrypt the information and each one is in a different Swiss DNA Bank’s trustee hands. Because your privacy is always our priority.

Last week an every-day matter such as a Facebook status turned into something more: a rock-solid alibi. It happened to a 19-year-old Newyorker, who has been identified by a robbery witness during a police line-up.

After a couple of weeks in jail, his attorney submitted his computer’s activity record to the court. His Facebook status was updated from his 12-miles-away home computer just one minute after the crime was committed.

The case of course raised both eyebrows and approvals. The important aspect we want to focus on is the increasing credibility on-line records are gaining even on the legal side. If something like a status update on a social network can get you out of jail, we believe that on-line digital document storage is getting closer and closer to becoming tomorrows one and only document storage solution.

If you think about it, the judge ruled the Facebook records as more reliable compared to an eyewitness deposition. So why should an on-line stored will, for instance, be less valid than a regular one. Nothing can be more precise and trackable than a computer record, leaving little chance a fraud is taking place.

At Swiss DNA Bank we believe firmly in the value of the data you store securely and forever in our nuclear shelter. The extra assurance that comes from the DNA sample storage makes it impossible to fake one’s identity.

We believe we were actually able to set the most effective and safe data storage and the the strongest link between the information and its owner.

The issue with Government holding citizen’s DNA profiles is hot topic in the UK right now. Britain has in fact one of the largest DNA databases in the world, with profiles of over 5 million people, or 8 percent of the population.

Police currently have the power to take DNA or fingerprints from anyone at the point of arrest and keep the information indefinitely — much longer than in many other countries.

Last year the European Court ruled against this praxis labeling it as violation of human rights in accordance to the Human Rights Convention, which Britain has signed. Yesterday came the British response: it plans to get rid of DNA profiles of most innocent people after six years. Human rights organizations are roaring against this decision, since there appears to be no differentiation between those arrested for petty crimes and those with more serious charges. Most other European countries only retain the DNA of individuals suspected of crimes like terrorism, rape and pedophilia.

DNA is a very sensitive subject, especially when it comes to one’s privacy. This is why we selected the most innovative technologies to protect the data you store at Swiss DNA Bank and rely on our country’s privacy policy.