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Just wait until the news comes out!!!
Watson ancestory questions exposes race enigmas
BY DELTHIA RICKS | delthia.ricks@newsday.com
December 11, 2007
News that geneticist James Watson inherited 16 percent of his DNA from an African ancestor may provide the Nobel Prize winner with a new perspective on his ancestry.
But experts Monday said the percentage of Watson's DNA possibly contributed by someone of African descent illustrates that race is a counterfeit concept, having more to do with social notions than biological ones. Many people are unaware of their DNA links to cultures worldwide.
Watson disparaged the intelligence of Africans in a series of remarks two months ago, and as a result lost book-promotion engagements and resigned under a cloud as Chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Scientists at deCode Genetics, the highly respected enterprise of gene-trackers in Reykjavik, Iceland, used Watson's genome, which he had posted online, to plumb his ancestral roots. Tucked in his DNA was a story never told -- at least not in his biographies.
Watson did not return Newsday's telephone calls Monday. DNA-trackers say African genes are not rare among Caucasians. "I am Caucasian but I have about 8 percent sub-Saharan African heritage and my family originates from Alsace-Lorraine," said Richard Gabriel, chief operating officer of DNAPrint Genomics in Sarasota, Fla. Alsace-Lorraine is the region in France that borders the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains. Gabriel's company scans DNA to illuminate virtually anyone's genetic dowry.
"I don't know what deCode's methodology is but we want to look at his DNA to see if we can replicate the finding," Gabriel said. He thinks a 16 percent contribution of African genes is somewhat higher than would be found among most Caucasians in the United States.
However, Dr. Rick Kittles, a medical geneticist at the University of Chicago and one of the pioneers in ancestral gene searches, said a 16 percent inheritance of African genes does not strike him as high. Kittles, a Central Islip native who, ethnically is African American, has scanned his own genes and found he is 16 percent European.
"Genes flow through populations, and they reflect who we truly are," said Kittles, who is co-founder of African Ancestry, a Washington, D.C.-based company that helps African Americans find where their ancestors originated.
Race, Kittles said, is a social concept not a biological one, and that the genes of many ethnicities flow through individuals who identify with one or another race.
Watson has a Midwestern background, Kittles said, and the social flux of earlier centuries brought people of many backgrounds together as that region was settled. Stories about the ancestor may have left family lore, he said, but traces of that person still can be revealed in the DNA.
Kittles finds humor in Watson's genes. "I laughed. It was funny because it brings back this whole issue of the African experience in America. This guy, who's considered a genius and discovered the structure of DNA, can make very sad statements about genetics and IQ. And the funny thing is that a significant portion of his genome is from the people he insulted."
DNA pioneer James Watson is blacker than he thought
The genome of James Watson
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor
JAMES WATSON, the DNA pioneer who claimed Africans are less intelligent than whites, has been found to have 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European.
An analysis of his genome shows that 16% of his genes are likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1%.
The study was made possible when he allowed his genome - the map of all his genes - to be published on the internet in the interests of science.
“This level is what you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African,” said Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics, whose company carried out the analysis. “It was very surprising to get this result for Jim.”
Watson won the Nobel prize, with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, after working out the structure of DNA in 1953. However, he provoked an outcry earlier this year when he suggested black people were genetically less intelligent than whites.
This weekend his critics savoured the wry twist of fate. Sir John Sulston, the Nobel laureate who helped lead the consortium that decoded the human genome, said the discovery was ironic in view of Watson’s opinions on race. “I never did agree with Watson’s remarks,” he said. “We do not understand enough about intelligence to generalise about race.”
The backlash against Watson forced him to step down as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York state, after 39 years at the helm. He had said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospects for Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really”.
The analysis by deCODE Genetics, an Icelandic company, also shows a further 9% of Watson’s genes are likely to have come from an ancestor of Asian descent. Watson was not available for comment.
James Watson: genetic risk to diseases compared with other people of European ancestry
- Age-related macular degeneration (blindness) - 20% less than average
- Asthma - 31% less than average
- Breast cancer - 1.45 times greater than average
- Coeliac disease - 66% less than average
- Colon (bowel) cancer - 16% greater than average
- Glaucoma - 1.42 rimes greater than average
- Inflammatory bowel disease - 31% less than average
- Multiple sclerosis - 29% greater than average
- Heart attack - 33% less than average
- Obesity - 5% greater than average
- Prostate cancer - 1.02 times greater than average
- Psoriasis - 31% less than average
- Restless leg - 29% less than average
- Rheumatoid arthritis - 20% greater than average
- Type 1 diabetes - 65% less than average
- Type 2 diabetes - 33% greater than average
Results are calculated by comparing one person's genetic sequence to the sequences of other participants in studies published in world literature on genetic risk for disease
23andme now offers genetic ancestry tests...
https://www.23andme.com/ourservice/ancestry/
The site officially launches on Monday.
The actual article from "Science" magazine which is referenced in the FOX news link does not mention DNAPrint. However, it does reference AncestryByDNA in a positive light... Here's a direct quote:
"A third option, known as AncestryByDNA, or admixture testing, is more promising in that it examines non-sex chromosomes inherited from both parents, chromosomes that contain DNA segments from all ancestors. To a limited extent, this test can track the geographical movements of ancestors by examining single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), some of which influence such traits as skin color and resistance to regional diseases..."
JF - Thank you... I guess I'm trying to make a connection that's not there... however, it does look like NeoCodex, BioServe,and DNAPrint are all working together.
DNAPrint==> NeoCodex==> BioServe==> Merck...
And... BioServe Signs Distribution Deal With Merck Specialties
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=713972&k=
LAUREL, MD -- (MARKET
WIRE) -- January 9, 2007 -- BioServe Biotechnologies, the leader for fast, economical processing and analyses of genomic content from biological samples, today announced a distribution deal with Merck Specialties Private Limited (MSPL), 100% Indian subsidiary of Merck KgaA. Under terms of the contract, MSPL will market and distribute BioServe's genomic products and services, including DNA and RNA purification reagents, DNA sequencing, oligonucleotide synthesis and molecular biology teaching kits in India, with plans to extend distribution coverage across Asia in 2007. This partnership will bolster MSPL's genomics offering and gives BioServe expanded sales coverage across the Indian sub-continent.
"Merck is making use of the superlative quality of BioServe molecular research products to rapidly broaden our offerings," said Mr. A. R. Bhattacharjee, Director - Chemicals, MSPL. "We are pleased to provide our customers with proven products to tackle a wide range of genomic challenges," added Mr. Bhattacharjee.
For the past 15 years BioServe has been helping pharmaceutical, biotech and leading public research institutions accelerate their discovery programs with pioneering molecular research products and services. Built around core services spanning nucleic acid purification, DNA synthesis, DNA sequencing and genotyping, and a cutting-edge production facility in India, BioServe delivers a complete "biomaterial to validated data" genomics solution. Today BioServe's serves over 600 customers across 20 countries benefiting from project turn-around times that are 50% faster than the industry norm.
"BioServe's partnership with MSPL will broaden the reach of our technology and services into laboratories worldwide, allowing us to better serve our customers," said Rama Modali, President of BioServe Biotechnologies. "We look forward to building on the success achieved with scientists in basic research, drug discovery and development who trust the reliability of BioServe's data compared to other quantitative approaches."
About BioServe
BioServe delivers a complete 'biomaterial to validated data' genomics solution. BioServe's fast, economical processing and analyses of genomic content from biological samples helps researchers worldwide to gain the pre-clinical genomic results required to achieve breakthroughs in research, drug discovery and molecular diagnostics. BioServe's technology, products and services form the foundation for optimal pre-clinical workflows spanning innovative methodologies for processing nucleic acids, DNA synthesis, high throughput sequencing and genotyping, genome wide-scans and gene expression analyses. BioServe's customers include leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and government and academic research institutions. BioServe has headquarters in Laurel, MD and Hyderabad, India. For more information visit www.bioserve.com or call 301-470-3362.
Contacts:
Vipin Adhlakha
BioServe
301-470-3362
Email Contact
Constantine Theodoropulos
617-619-9801
Email Contact
Interesting... Here's a related PR... BioServe Signs Co-Distribution Deal With NeoCodex
Sep 17, 2007 09:00 ET
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=770358
Companies Gain Expanded Access to Human Tissue Samples Needed for Medical Research and Discovery
BELTSVILLE, MD--(Marketwire - September 17, 2007) - Bioserve today bolstered its Global Repository® of tissue, DNA and serum samples with the announcement of a joint distribution deal with NeoCodex SL. Headquartered out of Seville, Spain, and dually focused on advancing biomarker discovery and maintaining operation of Europe's largest commercial biobank, the synergistic alliance now provides collaborators working with both companies, expanded access to human samples deemed critical in advancing medical research.
Through this agreement, BioServe will now be able to provide customers with access to clinically annotated human specimens from the uniquely homogenous Spanish population. Featuring a nationwide network capable of acquiring DNA, FFPE's (fixed formalin paraffin embedded tissue), fluids, and tissues, the NeoCodex biobank continues to grow through continual procurement of samples donated from patients afflicted with the most pharmaceutically relevant disease states, as well as from patients affected with rare neuropsychological disorders.
In return, NeoCodex gains access to BioServe's Global Repository, a growing library of over 600,000 human DNA, tissue and serum samples linked to detailed clinical and demographic data from 140,000 consented and anonymized patients collected on four continents.
"We are committed to making the Global Repository a prized asset for the life sciences industry by continually providing a data set unparalleled in both its integrity and comprehensiveness. Working with NeoCodex, we further extend the range of DNA and tissue samples that researchers can use to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and drugs in a myriad of diseases," stated Dr. Kevin Krenitsky, Chief Executive Officer, BioServe.
"We are pleased to enter into this collaboration with BioServe whose Global Repository is widely considered the industry's gold standard for biological samples. With access to the Global Repository, we are able to provide our customers throughout Spain and Europe with case/controls data sets covering most every major disease," said Dr. Enrique Vázquez Tatay, Chief Executive Officer of NeoCodex.
About NeoCodex SL
NeoCodex was founded in 2002 by some of Spain's top scientists, who together, shared a vision of bringing the best of biomaterials and innovative methods to the world of genomic discovery, diagnostics and drug development.
Coupling Europe's largest repository of DNA and tissue samples with a breakthrough approach to whole genome association analysis (WGA), NeoCodex provides pharmaceutical, government and academic partners with a compelling array of study services -- from design, subject recruitment, biomarker discovery and validation through to patenting and publication. For more information please visit www.neocodex.com.
About BioServe
BioServe is a leader in the processing, development, and validation of diagnostic tests for the practice of personalized, predictive and preventive medicine including DNA methylation analysis services. Leading pharma, biotech and diagnostic firms collaborate with BioServe to identify and validate markers that cause disease while correlating clinical and molecular data to develop new diagnostic tests promoting wellness around the world. BioServe offers the Global Repository®, a growing tissue bank of over 600,000 human DNA, tissue and serum samples linked to detailed clinical and demographic data from 140,000 consented and anonymized patients from four continents. Leveraging BioServe's robust genomic analysis services, technology, Global Repository and CLIA-certified laboratory, collaborators gain a complete, highly efficient platform for processing diagnostic test results and identifying genomic markers for powerful new assays. BioServe has headquarters in Beltsville, MD and Hyderabad, India. For more information please visit www.bioserve.com or call 301-470-3362.
All trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Kevin Krenitsky
Chief Executive Officer
BioServe
301-470-3362
Email Contact
Constantine Theodoropulos
Boston Communications
617-292-7319
Email Contact
Four Years To Day One: A Saga of Science and Inquest
http://www.forensicmag.com/articles.asp?pid=151
By: Douglas Page, Issue: June/July, 2007
How a small town murder investigation stimulated science on the forensic frontier.
Figure 1: Det. Paul Dostie at the site of the shallow grave where the victim was found.
At first, no one knew how she died or when she was disposed of in a shallow grave on a ridge above Mammoth Lakes, California. Her remains were found in 2003. It has taken four years to figure out who she is.
“In homicide investigation, on Day One you want to know who the victim is, and if it’s a woman who the husband or boyfriend is,” Detective Paul Dostie said. Dostie, a propensive 20-year veteran of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department (MLPD), caught the case. Mammoth Lakes, a ski resort community 8,000 feet up the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, doesn’t get many murders. This was his third homicide.
“The vast majority of the time when women are killed it’s by a significant other. Women don’t get into bar fights and get stabbed,” Dostie said. “Once we have a positive identification we have a place to go.” He meant the suspect. Dostie thinks he knows where he is.
Then, instead of focusing all his attention on learning the victim’s identity, he can get to the fun part.
“That’s the most satisfying thing of all – getting the guy who thinks he got away with it,” Dostie said.
What’s most gratifying so far, though, is the help he’s gotten from the Dream Team of scientists and academics he’s recruited, most of whom have contributed technologies never before used forensically. The search for her identity has led to arcane studies of the victim’s teeth, bones, flesh, and hair to find clues about her diet, the water she drank, where she lived, and when she gave birth.
“This is a world that law enforcement is unaware of and with the exception of ancestral DNA none of this has been used in a criminal investigation before,” Dostie said.
Without these technologies Dostie would still be holding a box of unknown bones. Instead, he believes he knows who the victim is. Final mitochondrial DNA confirmation is pending.
One recent Sunday morning, Dostie slipped on a pair of latex gloves, opened an evidence box marked “03-0929 187 PC,” then placed a skull on the table.
“Meet Barbara,” he said.
Dostie believes the remains found scattered on that hillside are Barbara Pacheco Santiago.
MISSING REPORT
No one reported her missing. Only her killer knew where she was until a dog found her skull on a slope 1,000 feet above Mammoth Lakes, in May, 2003.
Later that week pieces of the rest of her were found, in and around a nearby shallow, clandestine grave, at the top of a ridge known as Mammoth Knolls, near the edge of a cliff with a lover’s lane view of the city – an almost affectionate place to leave someone.
The grave, now no more than a small depression in the shade of a red fir surrounded by a low buffer of manzanita shrubs, was empty but for some torn clothing and a few bone fragments. Her Kmart Jaclyn Smith wristwatch was still running.
After a forensic examination at the medical examiner’s office in San Francisco, Dostie was informed the victim was 4-ft, 6-in to 4-ft, 9-in, female, 30-40 years, and had been dead for close to nine months. This meant she had spent the winter in the snow, exposed to mountain climate and carnivores.
The examiner also said she could be Asian. Dostie focused the investigation in that direction.
After a fruitless 15 months looking at Oriental angles, Dostie learned that DNA can be used to determine genetic heritage. Dostie sent a femoral fragment containing bone marrow to DNAPrint Genomics (Sarasota, FL) for the analysis of nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). SNPs frequencies have been shown to differ considerably between major geographic populations and when analyzed can be used to make inferences about a person’s bio-geographic ancestry, or BGA. DNAPrint uses a proprietary test called DNAWitness 2.5 to show relative amounts of European, East Asian, Native American, and Sub-Saharan African ancestry.
The results came back in August, 2004. The victim was not Asian, but 100 percent Native American.
The case was redirected. Dostie could now focus the investigation on the Western Hemisphere, and probably North America.
“This not only turned the investigation around, it opened up a new DNA world,” Dostie said. “None of the information DNAPrint provided is available in any government-run crime lab.”
Currently, when DNA is collected at a crime scene and there is no match in the 4.4 million profiles (as of Feb 2007) contained in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the case likely goes cold unless there is other evidence.
“Now, from DNA BGA analysis, we can get racial makeup and eye color,” Dostie said. “Before long BGA will also give us hair color.”
Matthew Thomas, DNAPrint’s senior scientist, believes within five years crime scene DNA will yield complete descriptions.
CONFLICTING REPORTS
At the time, however, Dostie had conflicting reports. The medical examiner said she could be Asian. DNAPrint said she was Native American. Now what?
Soon after he got the DNAPrint results, Dostie went online. Since he had a box of old skin and bones he figured he needed a physical anthropologist. He Googled “physical anthropology” and discovered the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. He called the president.
“I started at the top,” Dostie smiled.
The president at the time was Phillip Walker, Ph.D., a well-known anthropology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Walker, who is an expert on prehistoric Native Americans in California, agreed to lend his expertise, and his extensive academic contacts, for free provided Dostie agree to follow the case to the end. That was easy; the tenacious Dostie is known in the 20-person MLPD as someone who never lets go.
Dostie shrugs when asked why he spent so much time trying to identify a woman from outside his jurisdiction no one missed. “It’s what I do.”
The remains were delivered to Walker’s campus lab. Walker still has everything except the skull. They are stored in a flimsy cardboard shipping box the size of a beer cooler, double wrapped inelegantly in black cinch bags with loose red draw strings, alone on the bottom shelf of a doubledoor storage cabinet in the locked Lab Supply room on the ground floor of the Humanities and Social Sciences building.
The box is surprisingly light, considering it contains the remains of a human female.
Inside the box, enfolded in waxed paper, resting on a bed of bone fragments, is what remains of her torso after spending a winter in the woods – hollow, mutilated, the skin nearly unrecognizable now, gnarled, tough, and twisted, like a dry chamois, braided almost by the alpine beasts that tore at her flesh.
“Based merely on size and hair color I immediately thought this person looked like a Mesoamerican farm worker,” Walker said at his lab one recent afternoon.
One of the first things Walker did was perform a proper autopsy; something he suspects was neglected when the remains passed through the San Francisco medical examiner’s office 15 months earlier.
“At first I just wanted to figure out how old she was and get an idea of her ancestry,” he said.
As Walker and two students did their examination on the mummified abdominal skin, they found a couple of narrow, one-inch slits in the chest, one just below what Walker believes is a nipple.
“That’s a knife wound, not an animal bite,” Walker said, pointing to it later. Until the slit was found this was a homicide in name only. Dostie said when someone fully clothed is found buried in a clandestine grave it’s safe to assume homicide. Still, until the Walker autopsy there was no cause of death.
Walker asked Santa Barbara County coroner Robert Anthony, M.D., his opinion. Anthony said the slits were consistent with stab wounds.
Dostie now had a homicide and a cause of death.
Walker then took cranial measurements and delivered them to Stephen Ousley, Ph.D., at the Smithsonian Institution’s anthropology department. Ousley used a beta version of Fordisc 3 software he developed (with Richard Jantz, University of Tennessee) that uses sophisticated statistical procedures called discriminant function analysis to find the most morphologically similar groups to an unknown individual using only skeletal measurements. The technique has often been used to reliably estimate tribal identity of Native American remains for the Repatriation Office. Walker is a member of the Repatriation Review Committee.
The results indicated the victim had significant Native American ancestry, confirming DNAPrint’s analysis.
NEW FORENSIC GROUND
New DNA extraction methods and growing DNA databases can provide forensic insight into a person’s heritage and lifestyle, although few of these technologies have yet found their way into police crime labs.
Dostie is effuse, almost evangelic, about getting the word out to the law enforcement and forensic communities about the results he’s seeing.
“I don’t want attention, I want the case solved,” he said. “The guys that do a hundred more cases than I’ll ever do need to know what we’ve done here, that none of this is forensically routine.”
Next, Walker suggested Dostie contact Henry Erlich, Ph.D., director of research at Roche Molecular Systems (Alameda, CA), to have the victim’s human leukocyte antigen genes, or HLA, analyzed. HLA loci are the most polymorphic genes in the human genome. There are four types of HLA (HLA-A, -B, -C, and -D) expressed on surfaces of white blood cells. Erlich was able to extract only a B-type from the available DNA but this was sufficient to genotype two homogenous haplotypes (two closely linked alleles found on the same chromosome) – a condition extremely rare in most human populations but common among Native Americans.
Erlich’s conclusion: the decedent was a Mexican or Central American.
The search narrowed.
Walker then surmised that the victim was probably an immigrant from Oaxaca, from which many of the workers from California’s Central Valley have migrated. In order to substantiate his suspicion Walker wanted to know whether she ate corn, as in tortillas. He asked geochemist Henry Schwarcz, Ph.D., McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, to work up an isotope profile.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
The ratios of carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) isotopes differ slightly in different foods. Thus, it is possible to determine some aspects of a person’s diet by comparing the corresponding isotope ratios of food samples. For instance, the 13C component of hair, which is made largely of the protein ker-atin, reflects the 13C content in the protein of the food eaten.
This was the first time Schwarcz had tried these techniques on contemporary human bits. Normally, Schwarcz works with ancient human remains. The adage – you are what you eat – is true, whether you lived last year or 2,000 years ago.
An analysis of carbon and nitrogen ratios on samples of the victim’s hair was performed using an isotope ration mass spectrometer. Separate analyses were done of the scalp-end and hair tips to see whether there had been any change in diet over the last months of life.
Schwarcz concluded that over the last 16-18 months of life (the length of her hair) her diet included 57 percent maize (corn), 15 percent higher than the typical American diet. (The American diet is high in maize due to the widespread use of corn as animal feed in the production of meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy foods – the main sources of protein in the domestic diet.) However, it is not possible to determine where the maize she consumed had been grown.
Therefore, an isotopic analysis of the victim’s teeth and bone was done, using the isotopic ratio of oxygen to attempt to determine the geographic origin of the water she drank. Traces of oxygen isotopes from drinking water, known to differ by latitude, are deposited in teeth and bones.
Schwarcz’ data imply that during the last decade of her life the victim drank water found only in southern Mexico —more specifically, in the state of Oaxaca, near the Pacific coast. The search narrowed again.
INDIAN DNA
Walker wanted Dostie to run the victim against existing Native American mtDNA databases.
Abundant amounts of mtDNA are found in all human cells, making it easily extractable even from ancient remains. Because it doesn’t recombine with other DNA and is passed down only by mothers, scientists use mtDNA to isolate maternal ancestry
Walker sent the detective to David Glenn Smith, Ph.D., a University of California, Davis biological anthropologist. Smith maintains a database of 3,000 mitochondrial DNA samples of dozens of different Native Americans tribal groups from Alaska to Argentina that he uses to trace the ancient movements of people over the past 150 centuries.
Almost miraculously Smith found a match.
“The match was from a Zapotec Indian woman in the small village of San Mateo Macuilxochitl in the valley of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico,” Smith said. The woman’s name is Apolo-nia Mendoza, although in a subsequent interview with investigators she claimed no relationship to the victim.
The San Mateo sample was collected in 1994 by William Klitz, Ph.D., a UC Berkeley public health researcher. Klitz took blood samples from 33 Oaxacan villages, the mtDNA of which was eventually added to Smith’s Davis database
Matching mtDNA means the two women – Mendoza and the Mammoth Lakes murder victim – have a mother, grandmoth er, or great-great-great-grandmother in common. However, DNA experts warn that a mtDNA match is not to be interpreted as a unique individual fingerprint. While mtDNA of a specific pattern will be found among female descendants (and single generation males), if that pattern has been in the population long, apparently unrelated members of the population may share the type.
Nevertheless, the search beam now fell on that Oaxacan village. Dostie’s instinct is to eliminate most nearby villages as candidates, that mtDNA is probably village-specific. Linguists say 50 Zapotec dialects exist, and that people living only 20 miles apart cannot speak to each other. “People tend to marry people they can talk to,” Dostie said
ABOUT FACE
At about this time Dostie arranged to have the victim’s face reconstructed by Betty Pat. Gatliff, a noted Oklahoma forensic artist who specializes in 3D facial reconstructions using nothing other than the skull and clay. Gatliff spent about three days recreating the face.
When Dostie saw the resulting photographs he was aston ished at how closely the reconstruction resembled police draw ings of the victim by a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department forensic artist from descriptions taken from U.S. Forest Service Visitor Center employees who may have seen the victim and her husband the previous fall. Gatliff had not seen the police sketch.
The photograph and police sketch were printed on flyers and distributed to Oaxacan-immigrant leaders in Los Ange les to be posted in business windows. One community leader, Ray Morales, president of the Oaxacan Businessman’s Association, travels frequently to Oaxaca. Dostie asked Morales if he would take some flyers down. Morales has done more than that. Not only has Morales shown the flyer personally in Oaxaca, he has even taken DNA samples of principals, with kits provided by the California Department of Justice.
Since being seduced by Dostie’s benign charm, Morales has made four trips to Oaxaca on Dostie’s behalf.
On his second trip the woman on the flyer was identified as Barbara Pacheco Santiago by her stepmother, who had not seen her for over seven years. Santiago’s biological parents have been dead for many years. The stepmother said Santiago had two sons, neither of whom has been located.
Morales has also learned that Santiago’s full sister, Rosa Pacheco Santiago, lives in Chiapas, address unknown. Rosa’s three daughters do live in Oaxaca, but according to Morales have no contact with their mother and want nothing to do with her after being abandoned in childhood. Morales, nevertheless, was able to obtain a DNA sample from one of the sisters.
At this point, positive identification of the victim is a numbers game. John Tonkyn, of the California DOJ DNA lab, said the more people maternally related to Barbara Pacheco Santiago that can be located the better chance of a definitive match. Dostie said the Holy Grail would be DNA from Barbara’s children.
TOOTH OF THE MATTER
Meanwhile, back in Santa Barbara, Walker recommended trying another technology that he thinks might provide additional, confirming proof of identity. This one is called Tooth Cementum Annulation, or TCA.
Cementum is the calcified tissue that surrounds the dentine and forms the attachment site for the periodontal fibers that link the tooth to the alveolar bone. New layers of cementum are laid down on tooth roots annually.
TCA is normally used to determine age at time of death of skeletal remains. The technique is based on microscopic images taken of toothroot cross sections. In a process similar to counting tree rings, age is then estimated by manually counting the incremental lines of cementum, then adding the chronological age at assumed point of tooth eruption.
An Italian researcher, Ursula Wittwer-Backofen, however, believes TCA can indicate more than age. She thinks the rings also indicate when someone has given birth, that traces left by the stress placed on the body by events like pregnancy and childbirth can be found in the rings.
“If we get the right age and the right number of births at the right intervals, then I think it will pretty much nail it,” Walker said.
Whether Barbara Pacheco Santiago’s identity is confirmed through some combination of DNA, BGA, HLA, or TCA, or whether the moldering remains resting in boxes on lab shelves and evidence rooms turns out to be someone else, one thing is certain. Whoever she is, she is no longer alone. Her cortege is led by a small town police detective and a distinguished anthropology professor. Like the victim’s watch, they are still running, determined to learn her identity, and then apprehend her killer.
Douglas Page writes about forensic science and medicine from Pine Mountain, California. He can be reached at douglaspage@earthlink.net
Precious Doe’s mother pleaded guilty to felony murder today...
The mother of a young girl known as “Precious Doe” pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old daughter, whose decapitated remains were found in a park and left unidentified for four years.
Michelle Johnson, 32, of Muskogee, Okla., also pleaded guilty to child endangerment, abandoning a corpse and tampering with evidence. She admitted that she knew her daughter, Erica, was badly injured but did nothing to help her as she lay dying after allegedly being abused by her stepfather.
As part of the plea agreement, Johnson will testify against her husband, Harrell Johnson, in his February trial for first-degree murder, assistant prosecutor Tim Dollar said. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against him.
As some of you may remember, DNAPrint "made a huge difference" in this case ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-16-dna_x.htm
DNA tests offer clues to suspect's race
By Richard Willing, USA TODAY
Police seeking the killer of an unidentified girl who was found decapitated in Kansas City, Mo., four years ago kept a secret from the public.
The child, dubbed "Precious Doe" by local residents, appeared to be black. But new DNA tests that can determine a person's heritage indicated she was of mixed ancestry — about 40% white. That meant she almost certainly had a white grandparent.
This year, a tip led police to an Oklahoma woman who had not reported her young daughter's disappearance. When the woman was found to have both a black and a white parent, police moved in. Further DNA tests determined that the woman, Michelle Johnson, was the girl's mother. Johnson and her husband, Harrell Johnson, the victim's stepfather, have been charged in the slaying.
Precious Doe was identified as 3-year-old Erica Michelle Marie Green of Muskogee, Okla. During a trip to Kansas City, prosecutors allege, her stepfather kicked her to death because she wouldn't go to bed on time.
In the past 12 years, police across the USA have identified thousands of suspects by testing DNA profiles in blood, sweat, semen or skin tissue left at crime scenes, and then comparing them to the profiles of known offenders on file in government databases. But as the Kansas City case showed, advances in DNA testing are allowing investigators to learn more about suspects whose profiles are not in the databases. Tests that can identify a suspect's ancestry are being used not to identify the suspect by name, but rather to give police an idea of what he or she looks like.
DNA ancestry testing "made a huge difference" in the Precious Doe case by helping investigators sort through reports about possible suspects, says Dave Bernard, a Kansas City police detective. "It allowed us to prioritize our tips, to give special attention to tips about mixed-race children, for instance. It was invaluable."
How the test works
DNA is a cellular acid that carries a person's unique genetic code. The company that invented the ancestry test, DNAPrint Genomics of Sarasota, Fla., says that by examining tiny genetic markers on the DNA molecule that tend to be similar in people of certain population groups, it can tell whether a suspect's heritage is European, Sub-Saharan African, Southeast Asian, Native American or a mix of those.
The test works, the company says, because population groups developed different DNA characteristics after splitting off from common African ancestors more than 60,000 years ago.
In 2003, police in Louisiana used ancestry testing to help find the suspect in seven rape/murders. Since then, police in Missouri, Virginia, Colorado, California and the United Kingdom also have used such tests to develop leads in more than 80 other homicide, rape and missing-persons cases, according to DNAPrint Genomics and USA TODAY research.
Using the same genetic principles, DNAPrint Genomics is developing tests aimed at determining a suspect's eye color from a DNA sample. In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, the government's Forensic Science Service has begun examining DNA samples for indications of hair color.
DNAPrint Genomics also sells the test to people who want to trace their roots. The test, which costs $219, has been especially popular among those seeking to determine whether they are descended from Native Americans, lab director Matt Thomas says. DNAPrint Genomics charges police departments $1,000 for each ancestry test, because testing crime scene evidence for DNA can be particularly difficult.
Bernard and many other police detectives hail the ancestry tests as a breakthrough in crime-fighting. But medical ethicists, defense lawyers and even some police officials are troubled by the push to use DNA tests to identify suspects by what amounts to their race.
Some, such as Terry Melton, president of Mitotyping Technologies of State College, Pa., say the reliability of ancestry testing remains unproved.
William Shields, a biology professor and genetics specialist at State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, says that even if the tests are correct, a person's ancestry often is a poor predictor of what he will look like. Human beings, Shields adds, are too scientifically similar to one another to be distinguished by a "layman's term" such as race.
Some defense lawyers say they fear that using ancestry testing to determine suspects' heritage could lead to genetic racial profiling, or promote the idea that certain races are more inclined than others to commit crimes.
"How far are we from having (ancestry tests) used to justify taking DNA from any black man on a street corner, because we think a Sub-Saharan African committed the crime?" asks Ingrid Gill, a Chicago lawyer who has lectured on ancestry testing at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
George Rhoden, a detective with London's Metropolitan Police and president of the force's Black Police Association, also is a skeptic. He says that in a society in which marriages between people of different ethnic backgrounds are increasingly common, racial designations often are "very broad" and "don't do us coppers much good."
Rhoden points out that suspects with similar genetic ancestry can look significantly different from one another. A person whose profile is 75% Sub-Saharan African, for example, may have skin color that is nearly identical to someone whose profile is 35% Sub-Saharan African.
"As a detective, I don't care where (a suspect's) grandfather came from," Rhoden says. "I want to know what he looks like."
Mark Shriver, an anthropological geneticist at Penn State University and a consultant to DNAPrint Genomics, acknowledges that "there's a huge sensitivity about race in our society. We are making a strong attempt to be sensitive to the issue."
But "that doesn't take away the reality that people often describe each other in terms of race. We're saying: Let DNA be the witness."
Beyond standard DNA tests
Conventional DNA analysis compares 13 relatively large areas on the molecule where the DNA sequence is known to vary greatly among individuals. If two DNA samples match at all 13 positions, statistics maintained by the FBI say it's highly likely they came from the same person.
Ancestry tests, by contrast, examine 176 mutations in which the DNA varies at only one position. Some of the mutations, called single nucleotide polymorphisms (or SNPs), have been found to occur only in certain ancestral groups. Others tend to cluster in one group more than others because of centuries of geographic separation and inter-marriage. Together, Thomas says, SNPs are "highly informative of ancestry."
In 2003, DNAPrint Genomics began to license its test to police agencies. The scientists realized, Thomas says, that knowing a suspect's race or ancestral background "may not be great for, 'Who do we arrest?' " but could help police determine, "Who do we question?"
The company's test was first used in a criminal investigation in the Baton Rouge area, where a series of at least seven rape/murders had authorities stumped. Witnesses had reported seeing a white man in a white truck near the scene of two of the killings. Police had taken DNA samples from more than 1,200 white men in the area and had not found a match to samples from the crimes.
Then the DNAPrint Genomics ancestry test found that the unknown attacker was mostly of Sub-Saharan African ancestry with a smattering of Native American.
That led authorities to focus on Derrick Todd Lee, a black man with convictions for burglary and stalking. Additional testing matched Lee's DNA to samples taken from victims. He has been convicted in two of the slayings.
In 2004, police in Charlottesville, Va., used ancestry testing to confirm the race of a suspect in six unsolved rapes that began in 1997. Police had been criticized for seeking DNA samples from local black men based on victims' descriptions of the assailant. The testing indicated that he indeed was of Sub-Saharan African descent.
Ancestry testing also has been used on a female skeleton that was found in the snow near Mammoth Lake, Calif., in May 2003. The slain woman initially was misidentified as southeast Asian, based on witnesses' descriptions of a woman seen in the area. DNAPrint Genomics found she actually was a Native American, a finding confirmed by analyses of her diet and bone composition and further DNA tests.
The ancestry test "turned around the whole investigation," says Paul Dostie, the police detective investigating the case. "We're still looking for the killer, but we know a lot more now."
New technology 'scares me'
For all the promise of ancestry testing, there are increasing concerns about how police will use such information.
Defense lawyer Bruce Unangst, who defended Lee in his second murder trial, says the new technology "scares me. It's supposed to be new and foolproof, but that's traditionally what they say about all new" crime-fighting innovations. "By the time we find out there are serious questions ... a whole bunch of innocent people have had their DNA searched."
Last year, London police sought DNA samples from officers of Afro-Caribbean backgrounds to compare them with evidence from nine unsolved rapes. The suspect's accent and the neighborhood in which he operated suggested to police that he was a black man with Caribbean roots.
Working with DNAPrint Genomics, London police hoped to develop a database of DNA characteristics that are particular to Afro-Caribbeans to confirm their suspicions and to help them find suspects in other cases.
Rhoden, as head of the Black Police Association, urged members not to cooperate. "In our view, this promoted racial stereotyping while adding little to the investigation."
Melton, the private lab president from State College, Pa., says inferring a suspect's appearance by examining only 176 ancestry markers is "more than (labs) ought to be doing."
Because scientists have identified thousands of SNPs, Melton says, many more should be tested.
DNAPrint Genomics reviewed about 25,000 DNA markers before choosing the 176 that were "most informative of ancestry," Thomas says. The company now has a test that can tell whether a European's DNA came from a northern or southern European, he says.
For detectives who use its service, the company provides photographs of people whose ancestral profile matches that of the detectives' suspect.
"What does a Northern European, Native American and Southeast Asian mixture look like? That's a fair question," Thomas says. "We're told the photographs are extremely helpful."
The company's research is continuing. After Afro-Caribbean police in London refused to donate DNA samples, DNAPrint Genomics collected about 150 samples from police on Caribbean islands.
More samples are needed, Thomas says, but the DNA profiles collected so far suggest there are markers that distinguish Afro-Caribbean blacks from others in the Sub-Saharan group.
London police, Thomas says, were "on the right track" in their rape investigation.
Rhoden draws a different lesson from the episode. He notes that few of the Caribbean officers who gave DNA samples were willing to have their photographs added to the company's files.
"Even for these guys, who wished to be helpful, that was going too far," Rhoden says. "We should take notice of how nervous it makes such people before we endorse any kind of mass DNA taking from ordinary people."
jpmccoy57 - Great recap... Thank you
cloud ... I saw that too ... IMO it's actually good news for DNAprint. The DNAPrint approach weeds out poor responders and those who for whom a drug might have adverse effects...
Code Amber Alert is sponsored by DNAPrint Genomics...
This was already posted on the Investor Village website, but I thought I would share it here...
http://codeamber.org/ticker_code.html
Clicking on the DNAPrint logo on the right side of the screen takes you to the DNAprint storage services website...
http://www.dnasafestorage.com/DNAprintlink.html
gunnabe - Who knows? Maybe the reporter just asked the right questions. I don't think DNAPrint has office in PA and CO. Those employees most likely work from offices in their homes.
gunnabe - I believe the Colorado employees are either Tandy Herren, Neil Kabrun, or both.
Here's a link to a news release announcing their respective appointments as Directors of Simulation Technology and Biological Modeling:
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=129996
DNAPrint Genomics Appoints Two Scientists to Key Positions at Computational Biology Division
SARASOTA, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 18, 2006 -- DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. (OTC BB: DNAG) today announced the appointment of two experienced scientists to key positions in the Computational Biology Division of DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Company's wholly owned subsidiary.
Tandy Herren, Ph.D., was named Director of Simulation Technology and Neil Kabrun, Ph.D., Director of Biological Modeling. Dr. Herren will be responsible for applying DNAPrint's proprietary BioFusion™ simulation technology, as well as other modeling techniques to support the Company's drug and diagnostics product development programs. Dr. Kabrun is responsible for the acquisition and implementation of a toolbox of techniques and systems that will continue to advance the role of computational methods in improving product development.
Dr. Herren, formerly a scientist at Kenna Technologies, (acquired by DNAPrint Genomics in November 2005) was a co-founder and a co-inventor of the simulation methods currently utilized by DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Kabrun served as an independent consultant before joining DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals.
"DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals has already benefited from the impact of simulation technology in the development stage of the Company's first drug, PT-401, an enhanced form of the blood 'booster drug' erythropoietin," stated Barbara Handelin, Ph.D., DNAPrint General Manager of Computational Biology. "The team of Herren and Kabrun developed a simulation model for PT-401 that provides key insights into PT-401's performance characteristics, including its benefits over conventional forms of erythropoietin. Their work is crucial to our research leading to preclinical studies of PT-401."
"DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals is pleased to have attracted two experienced scientists in this important new field of computational biology," stated Hector J. Gomez, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. and head of the DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals subsidiary. "We are committed to the value that computational biology brings to our drug and diagnostic development programs."
Dr. Herren earned a Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Ohio State University, with minors in Cognitive and Quantitative Psychology. Her early experience in computer intelligence led to novel approaches for aiding the modern biologist in understanding and interpreting complex biological systems. Dr. Herren holds two fundamental patents in the biological modeling industry. They were issued in 1997 and 1999, presaging today's growing acceptance of computer modeling in the biomedical research industry. Dr. Herren is leading the Company's development of simulation systems in the field of human diseases. The Company plans to utilize these simulations for its drug and diagnostic pipeline.
Dr. Kabrun has 20 years of experience in the fields of computer science and biomedical research. With his Ph.D. training in Molecular Microbiology at the State University of New York (Stony Brook), coupled with a Masters in Computer Science, Dr. Kabrun was an early entry into the rapidly growing field of integrated computational biology. While serving with Transgenomic, Inc., in Denver, Colorado, he developed systems for a broad range of computational solutions to complex biological research problems, including design of scientific instrumentation software for mutation detection and microbial analysis. In addition, he led a cross-disciplinary team of scientific analysts, software engineers, and database production personnel supporting creation, maintenance, and successful release of Reference Database products at Genomica Corp. in Boulder, Colo.
About DNAPrint Genomics, Inc.
DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. (www.dnaprint.com) is a developer of genomics-based products and services in two primary markets: biomedical and forensics. DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, develops diagnostic tests and theranostic products (drug/test combinations) using the Company's proprietary ancestry-informed genetic marker studies combined with proprietary computational modeling technology. Computational Biology and Pharmacogenomics services are also offered externally to biopharmaceutical companies. The Company's first theranostic product is PT-401, a "Super EPO" (erythropoietin) dimer protein drug for treatment of anemia in renal dialysis patients (with end stage renal disease). Preclinical and clinical development of all the Company's drug candidates will benefit from simulated pre-trials to design actual trials better and are targeted to patients with genetic profiles indicating their propensity to have the best clinical responses. DNAPrint is proud of its continued dedication to developing and supplying new technological advances in law enforcement and consumer ancestry heritage interests. Please refer to www.dnaprint.com for information on law enforcement and consumer applications which include DNAWITNESS™, RETINOME™, ANCESTRYbyDNA™ and EURO-DNA™. DNAWitness-Y and DNAWitness-Mito are two tests offered by the Company. The results from these tests may be used as identification tools when a DNA sample is deteriorated or compromised or other DNA testing fails to yield acceptable results.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this press release that are not historical are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, uncertainties relating to technologies, product development, manufacturing, market acceptance, cost and pricing of DNAPrint's products, dependence on collaborations and partners, regulatory approvals, competition, intellectual property of others, and patent protection and litigation. DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking, except as may be required by applicable law or regulation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in DNAPrint's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements are based.
________________________________________
Company Contact:
Richard Gabriel
CEO and President
941-366-3400
Ron Stabiner
The Wall Street Group, Inc.
212-888-4848
SOURCE: DNAPrint Genomics, Inc.
Last Minute Holiday Gift Buyers Turn to DNA for Help
Monday December 18, 4:15 am ET
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061218/ukf012.html?.v=34
LONDON, December 18 /PRNewswire/ -- It's Official - Christmas shoppers are leaving their gift buying to the last minute this year and many are being helped by DNA! With TV shows such as "Who do you think you are" and "100% English" focused around the latest DNA tests that allow you to trace your ancestry back thousands of years many gift buyers are choosing to give these gifts to their loved ones as a family legacy.
As a leading firm in the market DNA Testing Direct provides eager gift buyers with the complete range of painless, easy to use home Ancestry DNA tests; Founder and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, 2001, David Nicholson notes "The demand for Ancestry DNA Testing has been beyond our expectations, so much so that we're now allowing customers to order up to the morning of the 24th December and receive an online gift certificate to present to their loved one on Christmas day"
When asked what he thinks this sudden surge in demand has been caused he says "The question on most customers minds is where I come from? Until now this was incredibly difficult to answer! With these cutting edge DNA tests the subject of Family History starts to attract a much broader audience and provides a truly interesting gift for all the family".
One of the most popular tests is 'Ancestry by DNA' which breaks your DNA down in to the four main population groups; Native American, European, East Asian and African. It comes with a CD-Rom of your DNA results, 32page guide and beautiful certificates. Other tests break down your DNA to specific areas in Europe or allow you to explore your father's heritage (paternal line) or mother's heritage (maternal line).
For many people struggling to find that perfect gift, it's no wonder that something so personal and exciting as exploring your family history with DNA is solving that problem.
DNA Testing Direct is offering a special 10% discount for customers that order online before 25th December.
Tests cost from GBP175 / $295 and can be bought online from http://www.dnatestingdirect.com/ancestry
Note for Editors
10% Promotion is strictly for orders placed on line only
Contact;
David Nicholson UK +44(0)845-2571217 opt3
david.nicholson@dna-worldwide.com
Should be another one within the next week or so... notice was mailed a couple of weeks ago...
DNAPrint may be able to raise close to $1 million from the Biofrontera IPO, if they were to participate in the greenshoe. I believe their allotment (18% of 285,000) would be 51,300 shares. At 15 Euros/share that would be approximately $969,000 US.
That might be enough to hold them until other financing arrangements could be made for DNAPrint Pharma (i.e no more Duchess shares).
Karen Surplus has already helped one company IPO...
From her bio in a filing for one of her previous employers:
"Karen Surplus, 41. Ms. Surplus has served as our Chief Financial Officer since January 2001. She became our Vice President of Administration in March 2000. Prior to joining us, she was the Vice President of Finance of digital fusion, inc. Prior to her position with digital fusion, Ms. Surplus was Chief Accounting Officer of PowerCerv Corporation, whom she helped take public in 1996. Before her time at PowerCerv, she spent ten years at Florida Progress Corporation and its subsidiaries, the last position held being Controller and Assistant Treasurer with the Financial Services subsidiary. Ms. Surplus spent four years with Arthur Andersen public accounting firm where she received her Certified Public Accounting license. Ms. Surplus holds a BA degree in Business from Kansas State University and an MBA degree from the University of Tampa."
As of Spring 2006, Phase I clinical supplies are exempt from good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements. The GMP exemption applies to all Phase I studies, except those that involve an already approved product.
Early Studies Aim to Spur Development
http://www.actmagazine.com/appliedclinicaltrials/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=310804
Mar 1, 2006
By: Jill Wechsler
Applied Clinical Trials
As part of its campaign to streamline the drug development process, the Food and Drug Administration is encouraging sponsors to conduct simpler, safer, and less costly exploratory clinical trials before launching traditional Phase I studies. Its Exploratory IND (investigational new drug) policy allows researchers to examine whether very low doses of a candidate drug has a pharmacologic effect before investing in the full battery of preclinical in vitro and animal testing required for usual safety studies. By quickly examining a large number of candidate compounds, scientists will be able to cull out those that show promise and merit further testing in more science-based trials.
FDA also seeks to better inform physicians and patients about the safe and appropriate use of prescription drugs by overhauling the format and content of approved drug labeling to make it more accessible [see sidebar]. The agency published a long-awaited final rule on labeling for drugs and biologics in January that adds a controversial "highlights" section to prominently display the most important prescribing information. All labels now will present clinical trial results and toxicology information, among other additions and revisions.
Low-dose options
By identifying promising drug candidates more quickly and efficiently, FDA's early-into-man initiative aims to speed up pharmaceutical R&D, reduce research costs, and avoid unnecessary and possibly toxic testing in both animals and humans. Nine out of ten compounds fail in human studies, reported FDA Acting Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach in announcing the new policy in January. FDA aims to reduce this high failure rate as a prominent part of its Critical Path Initiative.
The Exploratory IND guidance [available at www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/7086fnl.htm] describes the process for conducting early trials: Administer very low doses of a drug to very few individuals (less than 20) for a short period of time (under seven days) in studies intended to have no therapeutic or diagnostic benefits for the participant. Such trials may test very low microdoses (less than 1/100th of the dose calculated to yield a pharmacologic effect) or slightly higher doses that do not produce a pharmacologic or toxic effect in the participant. Single-dose studies may collect pharmacokinetic information or perform imaging studies, while short, multiple-dose trials may test pharmacologic endpoints.
Even with such low doses, researchers will be able to use modern imaging technology and analytical methods to detect whether a test substance hits a target organ or metabolizes in a certain way. Traditional Phase I studies, explained FDA Deputy Director Janet Woodcock, escalate doses for trial participants until they reach a toxic level, but usually provide information only on what dose patients can tolerate.
Less up-front data
Sponsors of exploratory studies still have to file an IND with FDA, but this may be modified. Early study INDs may briefly describe the research program and anticipated outcomes, including a rationale for selecting the test compound and for adopting a certain study plan. Chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) information can be presented as a summary report that describes the product's characteristics, source, therapeutic class, dosage form, route of administration, formulation, method of preparation, manufacturer, and composition. A certain amount of analytical testing should demonstrate the identity, structure, purity, and potency of the candidate product. And preclinical animal testing may involve only toxicology studies in one species. FDA always will require some animal study data, Woodcock noted, but this policy creates opportunities to spare animals from testing.
To make early trials even easier, FDA also issued a new rule that permits sponsors to produce Phase I clinical supplies without complying with good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements. The GMP exemption applies to all Phase I studies, except those that involve an already approved product, and it does not apply to drug production for Phase II or III trials. This modification of GMP requirements is "incredibly important," says Woodcock, because it will allow researchers in labs to produce small quantities of a test product without adopting policies for large-scale commercial manufacturing. Industry sponsors may continue to produce clinical supplies in GMP-compliant facilities, but this modification may help move products from the lab to the clinic, which would overcome a major bottleneck in drug development.
Cancer researchers are particularly enthusiastic about FDA's modification of GMP requirements and the exploratory study option, which National Cancer Institute (NCI) officials helped develop. Up until now, pointed out NCI Chief of Surgery Steven Rosenberg, NCI scientists who wanted to test a promising compound in human trials had to find a company with GMP-compliant facilities to produce it.
The GMP exemption goes into effect this spring if no one objects to it. If, however, a third party files "significant adverse comments," FDA will have to launch a notice-and-comment process to make this change, which could take months, if not years.
Even with the GMP exemption, researchers still must establish systems and maintain records to ensure the quality and safety of test products. A companion draft guidance to the GMP rule [www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/6164dft.htm] advises sponsors to keep complete records of production processes, including equipment maintenance, analytical tests, distribution, reagents, and components. It also offers recommendations for preventing the contamination of investigational biologics and sterile products.
Reduced exposure
If an exploratory low-dose study shows promising results, sponsors have to start all over. Before launching conventional Phase I studies, researchers will have to conduct additional animal and in vitro testing and file a new IND. At this point, though, scientists should be moving forward only with those products that appear most likely to have a positive effect on human health.
Although some skeptics regard the new policy as merely a way for drug companies to cut costs while creating additional risks for patients, Woodcock maintains that this approach will save people from being exposed unnecessarily to higher and more risky doses. Von Eschenbach emphasized that the new policy does not compromise standards for clinical trials or laboratory testing, but offers a way to use modern diagnostic tools to gain more insight. Instead of changing FDA's rules, Woodcock noted that the new policy advises researchers on "how they can take advantage of the inherent flexibility in the current regulation."
Jill Wechsler is the Washington editor of Applied Clinical Trials, (301) 656-4634 jwechsler@advanstar.com
Unfortunately this board has become a complete joke, allowing posters like Zooluu to post misinformation, slander, and outright lies. - JW
May 18, 2006 - DNAPrint™ Genomics Appoints Two Scientists to Key Positions at Computational Biology Division
http://www.dnaprint.com/welcome/press/press_recent/
SARASOTA, Fla., May 18, 2006 – DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. (OTCBB: DNAG) today announced the appointment of two experienced scientists to key positions in the Computational Biology Division of DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary. Tandy Herren, Ph.D., was named Director of Simulation Technology and Neil Kabrun, Ph.D., Director of Biological Modeling. Dr. Herren will be responsible for applying DNAPrint’s proprietary BioFusion™ simulation technology, as well as other modeling techniques to support the Company’s drug and diagnostics product development programs. Dr. Kabrun is responsible for the acquisition and implementation of a toolbox of techniques and systems that will continue to advance the role of computational methods in improving product development. Dr. Herren, formerly a scientist at Kenna Technologies, (acquired by DNAPrint Genomics in November 2005) was a co-founder and a co-inventor of the simulation methods currently utilized by DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Kabrun served as an independent consultant before joining DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals.
“DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals has already benefited from the impact of simulation technology in the development stage of the Company’s first drug, PT-401, an enhanced form of the blood ‘booster drug’ erythropoietin,” stated Barbara Handelin, Ph.D., DNAPrint General Manager of Computational Biology. “The team of Herren and Kabrun developed a simulation model for PT-401 that provides key insights into PT-401’s performance characteristics, including its benefits over conventional forms of erythropoietin. Their work is crucial to our research leading to preclinical studies of PT-401.”
“DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals is pleased to have attracted two experienced scientists in this important new field of computational biology,” stated Hector J. Gomez, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. and head of the DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals subsidiary. “We are committed to the value that computational biology brings to our drug and diagnostic development programs.”
Dr. Herren earned a Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Ohio State University, with minors in Cognitive and Quantitative Psychology. Her early experience in computer intelligence led to novel approaches for aiding the modern biologist in understanding and interpreting complex biological systems. Dr. Herren holds two fundamental patents in the biological modeling industry. They were issued in 1997 and 1999, presaging today’s growing acceptance of computer modeling in the biomedical research industry. Dr. Herren is leading the Company’s development of simulation systems in the field of human diseases. The Company plans to utilize these simulations for its drug and diagnostic pipeline.
Dr. Kabrun has 20 years of experience in the fields of computer science and biomedical research. With his Ph.D. training in Molecular Microbiology at the State University of New York (Stony Brook), coupled with a Masters in Computer Science, Dr. Kabrun was an early entry into the rapidly growing field of integrated computational biology. While serving with Transgenomic, Inc., in Denver, Colorado, he developed systems for a broad range of computational solutions to complex biological research problems, including design of scientific instrumentation software for mutation detection and microbial analysis. In addition, he led a cross-disciplinary team of scientific analysts, software engineers, and database production personnel supporting creation, maintenance, and successful release of Reference Database products at Genomica Corp. in Boulder, Colo.
About DNAPrint Genomics, Inc.
DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. (www.dnaprint.com) is a developer of genomics-based products and services in two primary markets: biomedical and forensics. DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, develops diagnostic tests and theranostic products (drug/test combinations) using the Company's proprietary ancestry-informed genetic marker studies combined with proprietary computational modeling technology. Computational Biology and Pharmacogenomics services are also offered externally to biopharmaceutical companies. The Company's first theranostic product is PT-401, a "Super EPO" (erythropoietin) dimer protein drug for treatment of anemia in renal dialysis patients (with end stage renal disease). Preclinical and clinical development of all the Company's drug candidates will benefit from simulated pre-trials to design actual trials better and are targeted to patients with genetic profiles indicating their propensity to have the best clinical responses. DNAPrint is proud of its continued dedication to developing and supplying new technological advances in law enforcement and consumer ancestry heritage interests. Please refer to www.dnaprint.com for information on law enforcement and consumer applications which include DNAWITNESS(TM), RETINOME(TM), ANCESTRYbyDNA(TM) and EURO-DNA(TM). DNAWitness-Y and DNAWitness-Mito are two tests offered by the Company. The results from these tests may be used as identification tools when a DNA sample is deteriorated or compromised or other DNA testing fails to yield acceptable results.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this press release that are not historical are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, uncertainties relating to technologies, product development, manufacturing, market acceptance, cost and pricing of DNAPrint's products, dependence on collaborations and partners, regulatory approvals, competition, intellectual property of others, and patent protection and litigation. DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking, except as may be required by applicable law or regulation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in DNAPrint's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements are based.
DorsyE - It's replaying all over the country over the next week or so. Plus it was in the same time slot as the Grammys last night so a lot of people will be watching it on Tivo over the next few days.
My guess is that we'll see AncestryByDNA.com's web traffic continue to rise over the next few days and Web traffic means orders.
Based on Alexa.com, AncestryByDNA.com had 6 times its normal traffic today. I would say the PBS special did have an impact.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=ancestrybydna.com
Rick Kitttles' site, AfricanAncestry.com also had a huge increase in traffic today. It had to be a direct result of the PBS special...
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=africanancestry.com
What is Admixture Testing? (from the "African American Lives" site on pbs.org)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/science_tests3.html
To get an overall picture of your genetic heritage, admixture tests focus on autosomal DNA -- those 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes that exist in every cell. In each pair, one has been inherited from your mother and one from your father and since this process has taken place over and over again for generations, these autosomes contain recombined segments of DNA from all your ancestors.
DNA sequences in autosomes are 99.9 percent identical in every human. The slight variations in the remaining one-tenth of one percent are what make each of us unique and different, as well as what create the differences that (through a lens of belief and received social ideas) we perceive as race and ethnicity
The variations examined in admixture testing are "highly informative" single nucleotide polymorphisms, grouped together into haplotypes and haplogroups whose frequencies have been found to correlate strongly with membership in one of four general anthropological groups: Sub-Saharan African; European; East Asian; and Native American.
The test itself takes your DNA sample and compares it (for the purposes of AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES, DNA samples were compared at 176 SNPs) against a reference database of DNA samples from people belonging to those four ancestral groups. Based on how the genetic markers in your DNA match up to genetic markers in the database, the test estimates your admixture, defined as what proportion of your gene pool comes from one population, what proportion from another population, what proportion came from a third or a fourth. The results are plotted in either bar graphs or scatter charts (as seen in AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES), which display, respectively, either a breakdown of the components of your personal genetic makeup, or your genetic heritage in the context of other people who have contributed DNA to one of the databases used in the test.
It is important to keep in mind that the markers this test looks for do not necessarily define the physical characteristics of these population groups, nor are they markers found exclusively in these groups. Rather, these markers are simply common among people with similar recent -- recent in the evolutionary sense, over the past 10,000 or so years -- ancestry. Some markers are shared among several groups (there is considerable overlap between Native American and East Asian populations, for example). This is why the test looks for large numbers of markers, haplotypes, and haplogroups -- the larger the sample, the more confident the tester can be in making a deduction about your ancestry.
Imagine a town which has 4 different clothing stores. Store 1 specializes in yellow clothes, but also sells red, green and blue clothes. Store 2 specializes in red, but also sells yellow, green and blue clothes. Store 3 specializes in green clothes but also sells red, yellow, and blue clothes. Store 4 specializes in blue clothes but also sells clothes of the other three colored. Let's assume every person in town shops at all these stores. Now if we go out on the street and look at you, an individual who lives in this town, based on what you are wearing, we can form a probability statement on how much time you have spent in each of the 4 stores. The clothes you are wearing are analagous to your unique gene sequences; and the clothing stores are the population groups to which you may trace your ancestry.
-- Tony Frudakis, DNAPrint Genomics
So if we are all one race, we've all shopped at the same genetic stores, to take Dr. Frudakis' example. Though the anthropological groups are a useful shorthand for understanding the results of these tests, (and a helpful reminder that we are more alike than different), the tests can both reveal important parts of our genetic inheritance and show us, very clearly, that racial identity is not as concrete and compartmentalized as some might think.
And things are not always as they seem. Interestingly, as seen in the series AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES, Dr. Mark Shriver's own admixture test showed that he had some 11% West African, 3 % Native American and 86% European ancestry. Though Shriver has always identified as "white," he means that 11 out of one hundred -- approximately one out of ten -- of his recent ancestors were black. Or one great-grandparent came from the West African population group.
African American Lives
PBS.org web traffic has shot up in the last couple of days...
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=pbs.org
There's a big spike today...
It looks like "African American Lives" is really going to get some attention.
By the way, "American Idol" is only one hour tonight and "African American Lives" is in the time slot immediately following. So I suspect there will be a lot of people out there channel surfing that just might turn in.
The segments which cover the DNA analysis are not on tonight. That’s next week. One article I read said the DNA evidence is introduced at the tail end of the second hour of tonight’s segment, so we’ll have to wait until next week to see the part about DNA. Oh well. Let’s just hope a lot of people turn in tonight and even more next week.
One final thought… Anyone else notice there was no 8K for Duchess in January? The pattern lately has been that one has been issued in the last couple days of the month. Maybe they are expecting Ancestry By DNA sales to pay the bills in February. If they sell 5000 kits as a result of the show that’s $1 million. 10,000 is $2 million, etc. It’s not out of the realm of possibility. 5000 would be just 100 people from each state. There’s going to be a lot of people watching the show…
We’ll see what happens.
(By the way, AncestryByDNA web traffic is also up today http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=ancestrybydna.com )
Video: 'African-American Lives'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11059627/site/newsweek/
Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the rediscovery of familial histories of prominent African-Americans through U.S. history and back to Africa using the help of genealogists, DNA analysis, and paper trails in February's new PBS series.
"Do you realize how big this is? This is huge."
Quote from Oprah Winfrey in the video referenced above...
X and Y and You: Laboratories that can help trace your lineage
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11080816/site/newsweek/
Feb. 6, 2006 issue - Does the blood of Viking conquerors run in your veins? How about Apache warriors, Yoruba kings or priests at the Temple of Solomon? The best available evidence may lie in your DNA, and laboratories are happy to help you find it, for a price—typically a few hundred dollars. Be aware, though, that some data are couched only in estimates, not certainties. Nor will you be able to fill in all the names on your family tree. Here are some choices, all easily found on the Web:
FAMILY TREE DNA: Not just a testing service, it also assists with genealogical research, including surname searches, and offers a "time predictor" for the likely date of the most recent common ancestor of two related individuals. Cool family-migration and Native American territory maps.
OXFORD ANCESTORS: Y-chromosome and mitochondrial searches, with a specialty in the "tribes of Britain" and the "seven matrilineal clans" of Europe, based on the research of company founder Bryan Sykes (of the Clan of Tara).
AFRICAN ANCESTRY: Matrilineal and patrilineal tests for descent from specific countries of Africa and/or ethnic groups, using a database weighted toward the parts of the continent where slave traders operated.
TRACE GENETICS: A professional forensic and anthropologic laboratory that offers genealogical services; claims to have the world's largest Native American DNA database.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
DNA Testing: In Our Blood
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11080815/site/newsweek/
It is connecting lost cousins and giving families surprising glimpses into their pasts. Now scientists are using it to answer the oldest question of all: where did we come from?
By Claudia Kalb
Feb. 6, 2006 issue - Brian Hamman had always wondered: what was up with his great-grandfather Lester? Hamman, an avid genealogist, could trace his patrilineal line back to 19th-century rural Indiana, but there was a glitch in the family records. Great-Grandpa Lester, the documents showed, was born before his parents were married. So was Lester really a Hamman? Was Brian? Three years ago DNA tests confirmed the lineage and a simple family mystery was solved: Lester's parents had hooked up before they walked down the aisle on July 25, 1898. Lester was indeed a Hamman, and so is Brian. "I'm delighted," he says.
For Debra Anne Royer, DNA unlocked a deeper mystery. Adopted at birth, Royer knew nothing about her biological parents. But certain physical traits—wide nose, dark skin—led people to guess that she was Iranian or even Cambodian. "I always wondered," she says. Two hundred dollars and a swab of her cheek gave her an answer: Royer's maternal ancestors were most likely Native American. The knowledge, she says, "makes you feel more of a person."
And then there's Prof. Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr., head of Harvard University's African-American Studies department. Gates always knew he wasn't 100 percent African-American. According to family legend, Gates's only white ancestor was a slave owner named Samuel Brady, who had sex with Gates's great-great-grandmother Jane on his farm in Maryland in the 1800s. But recent DNA analyses turned Gates's world upside down. There was no trace of Brady on Gates's genome. Further testing revealed that Gates, in fact, carries as much Western European blood as he does African—and that one of his white ancestors was probably an Irish servant who met Gates's sixth or seventh great-grandfather sometime before 1700. "I'm thinking I'm a Brady and maybe I'm from Nigeria, and here I am descended from some white woman," says Gates. "It's incredible."
Our blood holds the secrets to who we are, and, increasingly, individuals, families and research scientists are using genetic testing to tell us what we don't already know. Human genomes are 99.9 percent identical; we are far more similar than diverse. But that tiny 0.1 percent difference holds clues to our ancestries, the roots of all human migration and even our propensity for disease. Tens of thousands of Americans have swabbed their cheeks and mailed in their DNA to companies nationwide for testing. Far-flung cousins are finding each other; family legends are being overturned. Six years ago the term genetic genealogy was meaningless, says Bennett Greenspan, head of Family Tree DNA, which has 52,000 customers. "Now the interest is huge." So huge that celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Quincy Jones are signing on. This week Gates and other high-profile black Americans will tell their stories on PBS's new series "African American Lives."
As individuals track down their personal family narratives, population geneticists are seeking to tell the larger story of humankind. Our most recent common ancestors—a genetic "Adam" and "Eve"—have been traced back to Africa, and other intriguing forebears are being discovered all over the map. Last month one group of scientists found that 40 percent of the world's Ashkenazi Jews descend from just four women; another reported that one in five males in northwest Ireland may be a descendant of a legendary fifth-century warlord. The most ambitious effort by far is the National Geographic Society's $40 million Genographic Project, which aims to collect 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations around the world over the next five years. The goal: to trace human roots from the present day back to the origin of our species. To create, says project director Spencer Wells, "a virtual museum of human history."
Human history lives in our genes. The DNA in each of our cells not only dictates the color of our eyes, it also contains the footprints of our ancestors. A child's genome is almost entirely a mix of genetic material created by the union of mother and father. Only two parts of the genome remain pure, untainted by the influence of a mate's DNA: the Y (passed down from father to son), and mitochondrial DNA (from mother to both sons and daughters). Occasionally, spelling mistakes or mutations arise in these regions, creating unique sequences of A's and G's and C's and T's that serve as genealogical signposts or markers—providing links backward in time, not just to paternal and maternal ancestors but to the places they lived in the world. Scrape the inside of your cheek a few times, and for $100 and up, a testing company will put your DNA under its microscope, map your markers into your own genetic pattern called a haplotype, then tell you which "haplogroup," or major branch of the human tree, you hail from.
Genetic genealogy has developed a cultlike following. Last fall, 175 genetic sleuths from as far away as Hawaii gathered for the second annual Family Tree DNA conference at National Geographic's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to share their haplogroups and bone up on the latest science. The genealogy garb was everywhere. Most notable: double-helix ties and pins with haplogroup logos. Forget HI, MY NAME IS JANE. Here it was R1b (Western Europe) meets J2 (Middle East). Participants who once relied only on birth records and marriage licenses to trace their family roots now listened spellbound as scientists presented arcane PowerPoints with daunting DNA lingo ("nucleotides," "autosomes," "short tandem repeats"). Over cafeteria hamburgers and hot dogs, they shared information about roadblocks they'd encountered in their ancestral paperwork—"nonpaternity events" (polite term for an affair, for example, which may have muddied the lineage) and families that had "daughtered out" (a much-bemoaned end to the family surname). Then they raved about the new frontier of DNA testing. "This is a group of geeks," Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak said with a smile during a coffee break. Her T shirt: GENEALOGY: IT'S IN MY DNA.
For Smolenyak, DNA blew up a family legend. Paper records had her believing that every Smolenyak in the world could be traced back to one of four families in Osturna, Slovakia. But after testing the DNA of individuals in each group, she discovered no genetic connection. "I got smacked upside the head," says Smolenyak, co-author of "Trace Your Roots With DNA." "I was wrong." It wasn't just family lore that interested her: she was dating a Smolenyak at the time (now her husband), and it was nice to confirm that she could bury any fear of a kissing-cousins nightmare. "As it turns out," she says, "I could not have picked a guy more distantly related to me."
DNA testing is forcing some people to rethink their identities. Phil Goff, 42, of Naperville, Ill., thought his heritage was pure English, but a Y chromosome test matched him at least partially to Scandinavia. Now he wonders if he has any Viking blood in him. Alvy Ray Smith, 62, uncovered roots tracing back to the Puritans in 1633. "It was astonishing," says Smith, who thought his closest relatives were Irish potato farmers. "It gave me a whole different model of myself." Nick Donofrio, executive VP of innovation and technology at IBM, which is partnering with National Geographic on the Genographic Project, is a proud Italian. He was stunned when his Y test came back saying he was a member of haplogroup J2, meaning his ancestors had lived in the Middle East some 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. "You could have pushed me over with a feather," he says. After Donofrio announced his results on IBM's Web site, his in box started filling up with J2 colleagues. "A lot of Armenians have been sending me e-mails saying 'J2 rocks!' "
Armed with their haplotypes, which function as genetic blueprints, genealogists can now join Surname Projects on the Internet. These online communities bring together other Doolittles or Sanchezes or Epsteins, allowing people to compare genomes. Find a match, and you may be able to fill in branches on your family tree. Looking for relatives without your surname? You can also search within individual testing companies or in public databases like the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, funded by Mormon philanthropist John Sorenson, which has collected 60,000 DNA samples and ancestral charts over the past 4½ years. "Eventually, you'll be able to query the database and find relatives you don't even know you have," says Sorenson's chief scientific officer Scott Woodward.
Some people think they already have. After genetic testing in 1998 revealed that Thomas Jefferson was most likely the father of at least one of Sally Hemings's children, Julia Westerinen, 71, of Staten Island, N.Y., and Shay Banks-Young, 61, of Columbus, Ohio, found each other. They look nothing alike—Westerinen's skin is white, Banks-Young's is black—but they claim one another as cousins. Neither one can prove through DNA that she is related to Thomas Jefferson himself, but that doesn't faze them. Nor does it bother Prinny Anderson, a white descendant of Thomas and Martha Jefferson's. Last week Anderson mingled with Jefferson's "unproven" black relatives at a gathering in Virginia. DNA testing isn't the end-all and be-all, she says. "I'm delighted with these additional cousins."
The science can also uncover links to ancient cultures, even religious heritage. Dr. Karl Skorecki was told from childhood that he was one of the Cohanim, descended from Moses' brother Aaron, a high Jewish priest. He was sitting in synagogue one day when he noticed that another Cohan who was called to the Torah looked nothing like him. "He was a Jewish male of African ancestry, I am a Jewish male of European ancestry," Skorecki, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, remembers thinking. "If he has that tradition and I have that tradition, perhaps there's a greater chance that we share similar markers on the Y chromosome." Would the oral history passed down from Cohan father to Cohan son also be inscribed in their DNA? After studying DNA samples, Skorecki and geneticist Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona uncovered a genetic Cohan signature.
The research led Skorecki's team to Africa, where they tested members of the Lemba tribe, a group that believed they were descended from the Biblical land of Judea. Some of their DNA matched the Cohan signature. "We share a common paternal ancestry," says Skorecki. In 2001, Father Bill Sanchez, a Roman Catholic priest in Albuquerque, N.M., discovered he closely matched the Cohan signature, too. Sanchez's Jewish roots go back to Spain (his mother's heritage is Native American). Today he keeps pictures of his Christian and Jewish ancestors on his wall; in November he traveled to Israel. Now his niece Jessica Gonzales, 24, wants to go. Raised Catholic, she wants to learn more about her family roots. "I've been reading a lot about Judaism," she says.
DNA can now link regular people to high-profile ancestors—from Genghis Khan to the Iceman to the Irish warlord Niall of the Nine Hostages. Genghis-as-Great-Grandpa might be cool cocktail chatter, but since we don't have his DNA, proving direct descent is virtually impossible. Testing family roots through the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA has serious limitations, too: it tells you only about your direct paternal or maternal lineage, not the ancestor footprints hidden in the rest of your genome. Go back 10 generations, and that's 1,024 ancestors, says Stanford bioethicist Hank Greely. "Your Y might be from Japan, your mitochondrial DNA from Mexico and all other 1,022 ancestors from Sweden." Greely worries that customers may not fully understand what they're getting.
One company, DNAPrint Genomics, does test markers outside of the Y and mitochondrial DNA, then maps them to four regions of the world (West Africa, Europe, East Asia and the Americas)—that's where Gates got his 50/50 ancestry. But the percentages are only estimates, not certainties. Some scientists are more than a little bit uncomfortable with the test. "I think the science of genetics is too important to become an entertainment," says Stanford geneticist Marcus Feldman, who also worries about the potential for racial stereotyping. With DNA tests, people may begin to link behaviors or characteristics with race, an idea that has been reviled in recent history. "I'm worried the more this is done, the more of that there's going to be."
The mutations in our DNA not only point to long-lost ancestors and homelands, they may also be markers for genetic disease. It's known as the founder effect: populations with marked susceptibilities to certain illnesses tend to be descended from a small group of ancestors who bred only within their own community. Sticking together meant a higher chance of inheriting a disease. The Amish, for example, are more likely to carry a genetic mutation for a condition called polydactyly, which causes extra fingers or toes. Ashkenazi Jews have an unusually high risk of certain cancers, as well as Gaucher and Tay-Sachs diseases. Men and women who inherit the mutation that causes Tay-Sachs are unaffected, but if they mate, they have a one-in-four chance of having an afflicted child. That's why Jewish parents-to-be are offered a panel of genetic tests before conceiving.
In rare instances, genetic mutations can offer medical benefits. Sickle-cell anemia is one of these double-edged swords. Patients who inherit a gene for the hereditary blood disease, which is common among people of African descent and causes red blood cells to lose oxygen, are also more likely to survive malaria. And the gene is highly prevalent in malaria-infested areas of Africa. Why? Scientists believe the gene has been naturally selected for its protective effect. Genealogical-testing companies aren't in the business of medical testing, but if you happen to discover an African ancestry you didn't know you had, should you be tested for sickle-cell? Possibly. In the brave new world of DNA testing, it would be a circuitous route to take. The express highway: submitting your genome for medical, not genealogical, analysis. In the future, this could be as routine as a physical. Already, the marketplace is eager to help. Most genealogical-testing companies stay as far from disease testing as possible, but other entrepreneurs are diving in. For $200 and up, a company called HealthCheckUSA will test your DNA (provided by cheek swab) for eight genetic illnesses, including celiac disease (an intestinal disorder) and hemochromatosis (an overload of iron). "People call us on a daily basis and let us know we helped save their life," says company president Holt Vaughan.
The more we learn about our families, the more we learn about our beginnings. Using DNA markers and mathematical time-clock calculations, researchers have identified our ancestral Adam and Eve. Scientists say that by using Y and mitochondrial DNA, they can date the earliest female to 150,000 to 250,000 years ago and the earliest male to 60,000 to 100,000 years ago. Until DNA testing, scientists debated whether humans originated in Africa or in a number of different places around the globe. These recent findings support the theory that humans descended from a small group of people who lived in Africa tens of thousands of years ago.
But when did groups of travelers leave that continent? Whom did they encounter and mingle with along the way? (At Arizona, Hammer is investigating the question of whether Homo sapiens and, say, Neanderthals mated and bore children.) Do major historical events, such as Alexander the Great's conquest of Central Asia, leave a genetic trail? These are questions National Geographic's Spencer Wells hopes to answer. The Genographic Project, launched last year, is inviting the public to test its own DNA, and already 110,000 individuals have purchased swabbing kits for $99.95. But the project's overarching goal is to collect DNA from indigenous populations worldwide whose DNA could hold clues to our origins and global migration—and to do it fast, before whole populations die out and leave their ancestral homelands. Early testing has already started in Southern Africa, where collaborator Dr. Himla Soodyall has collected blood samples from a small group of the San tribe. Genetically the San have among the oldest roots on earth and, it is believed, they provide a direct chromosomal link to ancestral Adam and Eve. Fi Mntungwa, 28, was one of the first to donate. "We were told about genes and a huge project that is looking into the origins of people across the world. It was very interesting," says Mntungwa. "I want to revive our ancient culture."
Last fall, Wells packed up 500 blood-collection tubes, needles, alcohol wipes and cheek swabs and headed off to Chad, one of the project's first testing sites, where he took 300 DNA samples from towns and villages around the country. Thirty-five to 40 came from members of the isolated Laal community, whose population, at fewer than 750, is declining. Wells fears that this community will die out within the next 10 to 30 years, taking with it valuable DNA and cultural traditions and an ancient language—information that could provide critical insights into the first people to live in Central Africa more than 40,000 years ago. "We can use DNA to figure out some of these great mysteries, to make sense of the past," says Wells.
Not everybody supports the Genographic Project. Indigenous populations have had their share of colonialist pillaging and many, still distrustful of the dominant culture, are wary of handing over their blood and the information it contains. Debra Harry, director of the advocacy group Indigenous People's Council on Biocolonialism, has posted a petition on her Web site opposing the project, which she says has 1,000 signatures so far. But some members of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe in Seekonk, Mass., have already been tested. "We have our cultural story of creation, but there's another story that needs to get out, and it's right inside each and every one of us," says the tribe's chair, Michael Markley. Wells says he understands indigenous concerns, but he has found in his travels that once the details are explained, the excitement builds. "Everybody finds it fascinating that they're carrying this historical document inside their cells." In May, the project will announce plans to sponsor cultural and educational initiatives in participating indigenous communities.
The more we discover our differences, the more we find connections. Wayne Joseph grew up a black American in Louisiana and Los Angeles—even writing a My Turn for NEWSWEEK in 1994 about Black History Month. He heard about DNA testing several years ago and, seeking details about his mixed ancestry, sent away for a kit. "I figured I'd come back about 70 percent African and 30 percent something else," he says. When the results arrived in the mail "I was floored," he says. The testing company said he was 57 percent Indo-European, 39 percent Native American, 4 percent East Asian. No African blood at all. For almost a year, Joseph searched his soul, sifting in his mind the decisions he'd made based on his identity as a black man: his first marriage, his choice of high school, his interest in African-American literature. Before the test, "I was unequivocally black," he says. "Now I'm a metaphor for America." And not just for America, but for all of us.
NEWSWEEK COVER: Genes & Family
Sunday January 29, 10:34 am ET
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060129/nysu008.html?.v=42
NEWSWEEK COVER: Genes & Family
Tens of Thousands of Americans Using DNA Samples to Learn About Ancestry; 'The Interest Is Huge' Says Head of 'Family Tree DNA' Population Geneticists Seeking to Tell Larger Story of Humankind
Science Can Also Track Genetic Markers For Disease
NEW YORK, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Tens of thousands of Americans have swabbed their cheeks and mailed in their DNA to companies nationwide for testing to find out about their ancestry, Newsweek reports in the current issue. Far-flung cousins are finding each other and family legends are being overturned. Six years ago the term genetic genealogy was meaningless, Bennett Greenspan, head of Family Tree DNA, tells Newsweek. "Now the interest is huge." His company has 52,000 customers.
ADVERTISEMENT
As Senior Writer Claudia Kalb reports in the February 6 Newsweek cover story, "Genes & Family" (on newsstands Monday, January 30), one example is Prof. Henry Louis (Skip) Gates, head of Harvard University's African-American Studies department. According to family legend, Gates's only white ancestor was a slave owner named Samuel Brady, who had sex with Gates's great-great- grandmother Jane on his farm in Maryland in the 1800s. But recent DNA analyses turned Gates's world upside down. There was no trace of Brady on Gates's genome. Further testing revealed that Gates, in fact, carries as much Western European blood as he does African-and that one of his white ancestors was probably an Irish servant who met Gates's sixth or seventh great-grandfather sometime before 1700. "I'm thinking I'm a Brady and maybe I'm from Nigeria, and here I am descended from some white woman," says Gates. "It's incredible."
But there is a larger picture, Kalb reports. As people track down their personal family narratives, population geneticists are seeking to tell the larger story of humankind. A genetic "Adam" and "Eve" have already been traced back to Africa, and other intriguing forebears are being discovered all over the map. Last month one group of scientists found that 40 percent of the world's Ashkenazi Jews descend from just four women; another reported that one in five males in northwest Ireland may be a descendant of a legendary fifth- century warlord. The most ambitious effort by far is National Geographic Society's $40 million Genographic Project, which aims to collect 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations around the world over the next five years. The goal: to trace human roots from the present day back to the origin of our species. To create, says project director Spencer Wells, "a virtual museum of human history."
Kalb also reports that the same science being used to trace ancestry through DNA can also be markers for genetic disease and explains how one day, submitting our swab for medical analysis will be as routine as a physical.
Taking 'Roots' to a DNA level
In PBS series, black luminaries tracetheir ancestry, with revealing results
By Suzanne C. Ryan, Globe Staff | January 29, 2006
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/01/29/taking_roots_to_a_dna_level/
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is still a little shocked.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts The chairman of Harvard University's Department of African and African-American Studies has just produced a four-part series for PBS, ''African American Lives," in which DNA testing is used to trace the African ancestry of nine famous Americans, including Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and former astronaut Mae Jemison.
The series, which premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. on WGBH-TV (Channel 2), will reveal lots of surprises, including the news that Jemison is 13 percent East Asian (''I don't even know how that happened," she says), Winfrey's people come from the rain forests of Liberia (''That is astounding," Winfrey says), and Jones's family hails from an area in Cameroon known for its music (''I would have never guessed," he marvels).
''I'm glad Chris Tucker is getting in touch with the motherland, but how many of us have the resources and time to go over there and do the research? And what purpose does it serve? Do we want to establish yet another hierarchy in the black community? We're already dealing with issues of class, ethnicity, and skin color. Now we can say, 'I'm from the Yoruba tribe. Who are you?'
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts ''I think we're better off putting our money into improving our schools here and doing research around the AIDS epidemic," she adds.
''African American Lives" opens on Ellis Island, a place with few historical answers for African-Americans. Gates goes on to interview his famed guests one-on-one and then speaks with family members. When oral history runs dry, he turns to courthouse records, the 1870 census -- the first to list blacks as citizens, not property -- and war service records.
Eventually, Gates turns to various scientists who use DNA analysis to trace ancestral roots.
Along the way, viewers follow him from Dallas to Chicago to Los Angeles, learning details about historical events like the post-World War I great migration north and the civil rights movement.
Finally, he travels to Angola with Tucker to visit what may be the comedian's ancestral village.
Key to the series is the work of Rick Kittles, an associate professor at Ohio State University, who is cofounder of African Ancestry Inc. That firm has built a DNA database, still incomplete, of present-day African populations. Series participants used the database to cross-reference similar genetic signatures.
Gates, who spent two years on the project, was initially inspired after talking to his friend Quincy Jones one day about what he calls their mutual '' 'Roots' envy."
''We were saying how lucky Alex Haley was to go to his grave believing he had found his lost tribal ancestry," Gates recalled in the interview.
''I thought, 'Heck, using the new genetics, why don't we try?' I asked Quincy -- who wrote the score for 'Roots' -- if he would try, and he said, 'I'm in.' Oprah called a week later from Quincy's house and said she's in."
Hobbling on crutches with a broken ankle during the filming, Gates did research at the Family History Library in Utah, which houses public records for millions of people. He also visited the National Archives in Washington, which has records of black Civil War troops.
Although Gates sold the series around the concept of American blacks connecting with Africa, the professor was surprised that he and his guests responded so emotionally to the discovery of unknown ancestors here in the United States.
''Everybody knew their grandparents, but getting beyond that was quite a voyage for people," he says. ''I cried. I found out my fifth great-grandfather fought in the American Revolution. I didn't know he existed. I now have a real family tree going back to 1750. That's amazing."
T.D. Jakes, a televangelist and author of ''Woman, Thou Art Loosed," learned via DNA testing that his family lore was correct; his people come from Nigeria. ''It's kind of weird because for the last 10 years I've been increasingly focused on Africa, doing ministerial and philanthropic work there, including in Nigeria," he said in an interview. ''I went to Lagos, and I had the most odd feeling of being home. I thought, 'You look so familiar to me: your humor, your music, your food. I swear I know you from somewhere but I don't know where.' . . . My Nigerian friends are all going to say, 'See, I told you!' "
Tucker is the only guest on the program to actually travel to an African village, in Angola, where his ancestors might have once lived. His DNA test indicates a perfect match with the Mbundu people of that region.
After visiting a local slave museum, where he handles rusty shackles that once bound slaves, Tucker and Gates are directed by a historian to a region in the bush where the Mbundu people were enslaved in the early 1700s.
There, Tucker is greeted warmly in an emotional homecoming by villagers who dance for him in celebration.
''I've seen the real Africa. . . . I just fell in love with it," a clearly moved Tucker says in the series. ''There's wisdom in knowing where you're from and I know now. This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me."
But Gates -- who at one point refers to himself as ''Captain Black Man" in the program -- can't get over his own results: He's half European.
''I'm going to have to give up my job . . . I'm descended from that African province known as Ireland or France or Northern Europe," he jokes in the series. ''I'm heartbroken."
It's been 29 years since Alex Haley riveted the country with ''Roots," the story of his search for African ancestors. That miniseries was a milestone, particularly among African-Americans for whom it is difficult to trace a family tree before the Civil War -- the US census at the time did not list slaves by name, and property records often listed them by age and gender only.
Today, in the wake of advanced technology using DNA samples, the documentary aims to demonstrate that -- with the swipe of a cotton swab inside a cheek -- African-Americans have a good chance of tracing the ethnic group they descended from in Africa.
But before blacks head overseas, Gates maintains in the show, there is plenty of personal history they can learn about their families here using modern genealogical resources like ancestry.com, an online database.
''It's important that we are able to narrate the great African-American saga through regular Negroes, and not just through famous people like Booker T. Washington," he explained last week in an interview. ''History is so much more interesting when it involves your own family. You won't find those family stories in a history book."
Gates's celebrity guests are hardly regular Joes, but their ancestors were; in the show, the professor attempts to find out how they rose from slavery.
His subjects are Whoopi Goldberg, comedian Chris Tucker, Dallas-based Bishop T.D. Jakes, Baltimore-based pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Harvard professor of education Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, as well as Winfrey, Jones, Jemison, and Gates himself.
The series, which encourages African-Americans to explore genetic testing, has raised questions in some academic circles. Elizabeth Amelia Hadley, a professor of Africana Studies at Simmons College, maintains that while finding one's lost heritage is noble, it's really a hobby for the wealthy, as evidenced by the cast list, and not a viable new way to uncover American history.Continued...
He disappeared from here about the same time as the trial started...
DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. Has Licensed a Diabetes Diagnostic Test Developed by Dr. Jose Halperin at Harvard Medical School
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=107479
SARASOTA, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/26/2006 -- DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. (OTC BB: DNAG) today announced that the Company and Harvard University have entered into a sponsored research and a field-exclusive licensing agreement. Under the agreement, DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. will sponsor further development in the Laboratory for Translational Research (LTR) at Harvard Medical School of a diagnostic test devised in the Laboratory to target early identification of the population at risk of developing vascular diabetic complications. The Company also will conduct work directed toward its eventual commercialization of the test.
Diabetes is the number one cause of renal transplants, blindness and leg amputations. These are all vascular (blood vessel) complications of diabetes and are the most serious and burdensome effects of the disease for diabetic patients. Treatment of these complications of diabetes consumes 10-15% of the overall US health budget. Therefore, early detection of the diabetic population at risk is a major public health priority as set out by the National Heart Lung and Kidney Institute of the National Institutes of Health in the 1990s. Dr. Jose Halperin, head of the LTR, and members of his research group discovered that a molecule -- called CD59 -- which is a regulator of the complement system, appears to be a key player in how small blood vessels are damaged during the spikes in blood glucose levels that are common in diabetic individuals. Continuous damage to these microvessels is the underlying cause of the kidney, nerve and heart disease that more than 60% of diabetic patients suffer over a lifetime. This discovery of a molecule that is a hallmark of such vessel damage will enable DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. to develop a test to identify even very early stages of microvascular complications.
"Unfortunately, by the time patients are diagnosed with a major complication of diabetes, it may be too late for effective therapy by most available medications and changes in life style," said Dr. Hector Gomez, Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. and the newly formed DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. This collaboration will further the development of new diagnostic tests that will help physicians and healthcare providers re-direct predisposed patients to healthier lifestyle changes and perhaps even some day, medications to help slow down or prevent the onset of vascular diabetic complications.
"This well advanced technology licensed by DNAPrint Genomics Inc. was developed with support from the National Institutes of Health, which funded much of the early discovery work. We are pleased to have the opportunity to sponsor research that will further develop and eventually commercialize this important diagnostic test that could significantly improve the management of diabetes," said Richard Gabriel, CEO and President of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc.
About DNAPrint Genomics, Inc.
DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. (www.dnaprint.com) is a developer of genomics-based products and services in two primary markets: biomedical and forensics. DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, develops diagnostic tests and theranostic products (drug/test combinations) using the Company's proprietary ancestry-informed genetic marker studies combined with proprietary computational modeling technology. Computational Biology and Pharmacogenomics services are also offered externally to biopharmaceutical companies. The Company's first theranostic product is PT-401, a "Super EPO" (erythropoietin) dimer protein drug for treatment of anemia in renal dialysis patients (end stage renal disease). Pre-clinical and clinical development of all the Company's drug candidates will benefit from simulated pre-trials to better design actual trials and are targeted to patients with a genetic profile indicating their propensity to have the best clinical response. DNAPrint is proud of its continued dedication to developing and supplying new technological advances in law enforcement and consumer ancestry heritage interests. Please refer to www.dnaprint.com for information on law enforcement and consumer applications which include DNAWITNESS™, RETINOME™, ANCESTRYbyDNA™ and EURO-DNA™.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this press release that are not historical are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, uncertainties relating to technologies, product development, manufacturing, market acceptance, cost and pricing of DNAPrint's products, dependence on collaborations and partners, regulatory approvals, competition, intellectual property of others, and patent protection and litigation. DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking, except as may be required by applicable law or regulation, to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in DNAPrint's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements are based.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company Contact:
Richard Gabriel
CEO and President
941 366-3400
Ron Stabiner
The Wall Street Group, Inc.
212-888-4848
SOURCE: DNAPrint Genomics, Inc.
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Here's a job for Trace Genetics...
(Gavin Menzies is already working with DNAPrint...)
Newman Weekly: History in the Making
By Muriel Newman
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0601/S00058.htm
New Zealand history is full of contradictions. In the very week that the government launched their $1 million road show to educate the public about the “official” history of New Zealand and the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi, a UK based group released a different interpretation of world history (see the Economist).
Gavin Menzies and his 1421 Team presented new evidence of early Chinese exploration by Zheng He, strengthening their belief that Chinese colonies existed in New Zealand for hundreds of years before the arrival of Maori.
While our government appears to hold tightly onto the view that Maori are tangata whenua (with even the stories of the early Moriori occupation that our generation was taught in school having almost disappeared), local and international research is now painting a different picture of the early history of New Zealand.
Claims have been made that New Zealand was discovered from as early as 600BC by Phoenician, Indian, Greek and Arab explorers. In fact, claims of these visits help to explain the existence in the South Island of the fossilised remains of rats that have been carbon dated at 160 BC - more than 1,000 years before Maori!
There are further claims that before Maori arrived in New Zealand settlements had already been established, by the Waitaha, the peace-loving fair skinned ancestors of the Moriori, by Chinese miners, and by the Celts.
The testing of Maori DNA – a technique that is now frequently used in historical research - would go a long way towards confirming or refuting these claims, but sadly, many Maori appear to be opposed to it’s use. In fact, last July, the Herald reported on the unwillingness of Maori to participate in the National Geographic’s Genographic Project. This ambitious project aims to use DNA analysis to help explain how the ancestors of indigenous people moved out of Africa 60,000 years ago to spread across the globe. But the response from many Maori groups has been lukewarm, with their concern focusing on: “What’s in it for indigenous people? What’s the point of challenging generations of oral history and spiritual belief?”
Should evidence of pre-Maori colonization be discovered, the ramifications would be obvious. In the words of historian Dr James Belich, the greatest dread of historians is to discover an artifact or skeleton “which would invalidate the research of decades”.
As a result of his investigations, Gavin Menzies is sure that the early Chinese played a far more significant part in our history than we realise. He would like to be given permission to DNA test some early human remains. He says, “The New Zealand Government posses several skeletons carbon dated to centuries before the Maori claimed to have reached the North and South Islands. These skeletons should have their DNA examined. I have approached the leading expert (at Cambridge University) and he agreed to carry out this examination. However we need the consent of the New Zealand government who, as may be expected, have passed the buck by saying we need Maori consent".
Of further concern are claims that officialdom is making historic investigation nigh on impossible. If discoveries are on Department of Conservation land it is apparently extraordinarily difficult to gain permission to carry out scientific analysis. In cases where the discoveries include ancient human remains, it appears that rather than allowing carbon dating and DNA testing, the normal protocol (as Gavin Menzies and many others have found), is to return the material to local iwi for disposal.
This process poses two ironies. Firstly, when it is claimed that the remains are not of Maori descent, iwi should have no prior right of access or possession. Secondly, it would be a tragic twist of fate if people conquered, enslaved and killed by Maori were given back to Maori, thus preventing the detail of their background and history from ever being discovered.
In fact, as a matter of standard protocol, such remains should be held in Museums - as the safest and most appropriate place - until the origins and dates are clearly established.
The refusal of the government to cooperate over DNA testing of human remains is a huge contradiction. Such an isolationist attitude is in complete contrast to the Prime Minister’s stance this week with regard to building closer trade relations with the United States. One would think that the answers to the unsolved mysteries of mankind would lay in greater international cooperation not less, just as the PM has now finally realised that New Zealand’s future prosperity depends on closer economic relations with our international trading partners.
Opening one’s eyes to international trade yet closing one’s eyes to international history is contradiction that has not yet been put to the government at a political or fourth estate level. Just as the public would show immense hostility to the censorship of current news, so it should also be revolted by the censorship of historical record. If we live in the open and free society we like to presume, then all opinions should have an opportunity to be aired, considered and either accepted or rejected.
This week’s poll asks whether you believe that the government should allow ancient human remains to be DNA tested.
*******
Newman Weekly is a weekly article by Dr Muriel Newman of the New Zealand Centre for Political Debate, a web-based forum at http://www.nzcpd.com for the lively and dynamic exchange of political ideas.
Beyond CSI: Careers in Forensic Science
January, 2006
http://www.mlo-online.com/articles/0106/0106education.pdf
When Louisiana authorities hit a stone wall in their search for a serial killer, they turned to DNAPrint genomics. Its DNAWitness forensics technology was used in the analysis of the killer’s DNA lifted from several crime scenes. Viewers of a recent episode of Court TV’s Forensics Files program, “Tight-Fitting Genes,” saw — in a surprising twist — how DNAPrint’s DNA analysis changed the course of the investigation and, ultimately, led to the capture of the killer — a man who, based on eyewitness accounts, no one would have suspected.
While the popular TV shows like Forensics Files and CSI have fascinated fans and glamorized the profession, these types of programs may have contributed to misconceptions about what forensic science can and cannot do. Employees of DNAPrint genomics Inc. in Sarasota, FL — primarily a developer of genomic-based products and services (i.e., drug development, pharmacogenomic diagnostic tests, forensics technology, and consumer genetic tests) — confirm that misconceptions exist among the general public about forensic science.
“Many people believe all cases have DNA and also that a case can be solved in a day. Both of these are untrue,” says Shannon Boyd, currently a DNA analyst for DNAPrint genomics and formerly a forensic analyst at the National Forensic Science Technology Center.
According to James Crippen, the director of The Western Forensic Law Enforcement Training Center at Colorado State University-Pueblo, many students entering the study of forensic science do not realize that they may have to carry a weapon during crime-scene responses or be commissioned as a police officer, or even pick up dead bodies for removal to the morgue.
A realistic evaluation of forensic science as a potential career is essential before investing the time, energy, and money to complete a course of study. Boyd, who has a bachelor of science in forensic science and a minor in chemistry, says that potential forensic scientists should put a strong emphasis on studying math and sciences such as biology and chemistry, as well as technical writing. Having an inquisitive and analytical mind is also a key trait of the successful forensic scientist.
Boyd says, “The person pursuing a forensic-science career should be the type of person who questions everything.” Another consideration for a potential student of forensics might be to onsider what a “typical day” in the life of a forensic scientist involves. A forensic chemist will analyze drugs all day, while a DNA analyst may spend hours extracting, quantitating, and analyzing biological materials. The work performed is as varied as the list of specialty areas such as arson,ballistics/firearms, crime-scene processing and photography, explosives, fingerprints, forensic archaeology and anthropology, and forensic chemistry/narcotics. Each of these fields requires a wholly different set of skills and involves a broad range of activities.
According to The American Academy of Forensic Scientists (visit www.aafs.org for Resources/Choosing a Career), the forensic scientist is solely responsible for the work he performs; no one else can testify to his opinion or write his scientific reports. Scientists work closely with police officers, sheriff’s deputies, prosecuting and defense attorneys, DEA, CIA and FBI agents, immigration workers, and crime-scene investigators, to name a few. A forensic scientist’s goal is the unbiased use of all available data in order to identify the facts, and ultimately, the truth.
Most importantly, a person looking to forensic science as a career path needs to know the drawbacks of the profession. Some of these are the possibility of having to move in order to secure a job; a lower-than-expected pay base — because most forensic labs tend to be financially limited — and the probability of a long wait from beginning as an intern (doing less “glamorous” jobs) to becoming a technologist and, finally, an analyst.
In a field as varied and interesting as medical laboratory technology, forensic science may be the one discipline that appears more challenging or interesting than others. But when considering forensic science as a lifelong pursuit, examining the details of such a choice is imperative.
There's also the Case of the "Walker Murders". Cliff and Christine Walker and their two children, Jimmie and Debbie, were murdered on Dec. 19, 1959. The case is the oldest open murder case in Sarasota.
I don't think it's been previously posted that DNAPrint is helping with the case.
Here are the links to some of the articles:
A Last Hope: DNA could crack the case - 12/20/2005
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051220/NEWS/512200330
The suspects: A litany of names and clues - 12/19/2005
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051219/NEWS/512190338
The Walker murders: Decades of headlines - 12/19/2005
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051219/NEWS/512190421
Special section: Walker family murder
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?CATEGORY=SPECIAL12
Photos of Matt Thomas at work
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=SH&Date=20051214&Category=PHOTOGALLE....
"A Sarasota company called DNA Print Genomics is taking some of the evidence from the 50-year-old unsolved Walker family murder, and trying to use modern methods to gain more clues. Senior Scientist Matthew J. Thomas, Ph.D., logs information about a hat that was among the evidence collected. Photographed Dec. 1, 2005."
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=SH&Date=20051214&Category=PHOTOGALLE...
"DNA Analyst Shannon Boyd points to a section of the hat while Thomas observes."
Cosmic... Looks like things are picking up speed on several fronts... Here's a story from last night's episode of "America's Most Wanted". It's about an unsolved double homicide from 1990 in Cape Coral, FL.
It looks like DNAWitness was used to determine the killer is a white male.
Here's the the case profile:
http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=28120
Unknown Robin Cornell and Lisa Story Killer
Robin Cornell, 11, was found murdered in her own home.
It was May 9, 1990 and it seemed like just another quiet night in a small condominium community in Cape Coral, Fla. Around 10:30 p.m., Jan Cornell, a single mother, was tucking her 11-year-old daughter Robin into bed for the night. Jan told Robin that she was going to her boyfriend's house to watch some late night TV, so she gave the girl a kiss and headed for the door.
Before Jan walked out, she made sure her roommate, Lisa Story, was fine with watching Robin while she was gone -- after all, Lisa had just moved in the day before. Lisa told her it wasn't a problem, and with that, Jan left the house.
Jan fell asleep on her boyfriend's couch, but woke up shortly after 4:00 am and immediately began panicking. She was due at work in a half hour, but still needed to go home to shower and change. Jan raced back to her house, but was shocked by what she found there.
First of all, the bottom lock on her front door was locked and Jan had told both Robin and Lisa before she left the house not to lock it because it was broken and she wouldn't be able to get in the house. Jan knocked lightly on the front door and thought she heard footsteps coming down, but after a couple of minutes she decided to try the back door.
A Mother's Worst Nightmare
Jan's heart began racing when she she found the sliding glass back door wide open. Jan began trying to justify to herself why the door was open -- maybe her roommate had let their cat out and forgot to close the door. When she entered the house and took a quick look around, everything seemed to be in place -- until she got to the kitchen.
That's when Jan noticed that photos of Robin and her older sister, had been taken off of a shelf in the living room and were laying on an ironing board. Jan immediately knew something was wrong.
Jan ran upstairs to the bedrooms. When she arrived at the top of the steps and looked down the hallway, she could see Robin's naked body lying on the floor of her bedroom. Robin was unresponsive and her body was cold to the touch. Jan quickly called 911 and began administering CPR. Jan worked in the medical field and the rational side of her brain knew that her daughter was dead, but she desperately wanted to breathe Robin back to life. There was nothing Jan could do.
Within minutes, police officers arrived to the scene. They found Lisa Story in her bed. She was also dead. Police say both Robin and Lisa had been suffocated. Jan remembers thinking to herself, Oh my God. What happened here?
To this day, she is still asking that very same question.
Police say both Robin and Lisa had been suffocated.
The Search For Answers
Detectives have spent the last 15 years going over the evidence again and again, searching for anything that could help them identify a suspect and close this case.
Police believe the killer entered and exited the home through the rear sliding glass door. Investigators believe the killer may have locked the front door, not knowing it was broken, to give himself more time in case anybody came home.
Investigators say the killer used a pillow to suffocate both Robin Cornell and Lisa Story. They also say that evidence shows that both Robin and Lisa were sexually assaulted after they were murdered.
Clues Left Behind
Police say they recovered the killer's DNA from the crime scene. They've learned the killer is a white male with type "O" blood. Police say the killer took several items from the crime scene, including, Lisa Story's driver's license, her credit cards, her checkbook, and a new wrist watch that Lisa had bought to give to her boyfriend. None of the items have ever been recovered. Detectives found a pair of white socks, that didn't belong to anyone in the house, on a dining room chair. They also found a set of car keys, sitting on a TV in Jan's room. The keys didn't belong to Jan Cornell or Lisa Story. Police believe they may have belonged to the killer, who accidently left them behind.
The killer's DNA has been placed in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement database as well as a national database, but detectives have yet to receive any matches. Police say they've cleared more than 70 people using DNA analysis. Investigators have also entered details about the case into an FBI database searching for matches to similar crimes.
Officer Down
Jennifer Fettig knew Robin Cornell when she was growing up.
View LargerIt was around 2 a.m. on February 16th, 2004, when Detroit police officers Jennifer Fettig and Matthew Bowens, stopped a car in the southwest part of the city. A 23-year-old man named Eric Marshall was behind the wheel of the vehicle. The officers thought they had just seen Marshall soliciting a prostitute. Jennifer and Matthew were sitting in their patrol car when Marshall jumped out of his vehicle armed with a handgun. Marshall fired the weapon, striking both officers multiple times.
Matthew and Jennifer were rushed to the hospital but both died from their wounds. Marshall was arrested at his home later that day. Marshall was convicted of murdering Jennifer Fettig and Matthew Bowens and sentenced to life in prison.
A Name From The Past
Jennifer Fettig grew up in Cape Coral, Florida and knew Robin Cornell. Jennifer's mother, Kathy Fettig, worked with Jan Cornell and was close to the family. Jan Cornell hadn't spoken to Kathy in years, but when she learned about Jennifer's death, she reached out to offer support to her long lost friend.
Jan learned that Robin's murder was one of the reasons why Jennifer became a police officer in the first place. In an essay Jennifer wrote at the Detroit Police Academy, she mentions Robin. This is part of the essay:
I met this young girl a few times prior to her death. She was a sweet friendly girl whose life was only beginning. How someone could commit such a terrible and horrific crime we may never know but as a police officer and a crime scene investigator I would like to do all I can to help prevent such tragedies from happening or help solve the mystery so a family may obtain some kind of closure.
Jan wishes she could have thanked Jennifer for never forgetting about Robin. According to Jan, that is a parent's second biggest fear, "When they take your child from you, that's your first. And then your second, everyone will forget they were ever here." Cape Coral detectives haven't forgot about Robin Cornell or Lisa Story and they haven't given up on finding the killer.
Recent Biofrontera Powerpoint (from Dec 2005)... Shows their lead product in phase III clinical trials beginning February 2006 and IPO in 2006...
http://www.biofrontera.com/downloads/Kurzpraesentation_23-11-05.pdf
Love You, K2a2a, Whoever You Are
By AMY HARMON
Published: January 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/weekinreview/22harmon.html?pagewanted=2
THERE are a lot of things I may never know about K2a2a, one of four founding mothers of a large chunk of today's Ashkenazi Jewish population and the one from whom - I learned last week - I am directly descended.
I may never know whether she lived 1,000 years ago or 3,000. I may never know if she was born in the Judea, as the scientists who identified her through mitochondrial DNA say they suspect. I will certainly never know her name.
I do know that I carry her distinctive genetic signature. My mother carried it, my mother's mother carried it, my daughter now carries it, too.
And the thrill of that knowledge - for the price of the $100 cheek swab test of my own DNA - may be all I can handle.
The popular embrace of DNA genealogy speaks to the rising power of genetics to shape our sense of self. By conjuring a biologically based history, the tests forge a visceral connection to our ancestors that seems to allow us to transcend our own lives.
But will our genetic identity undermine our cultural identity? The tests can add depth to what we have long believed, but they can also challenge our conception of who we are. The trauma some experience when their tests conflict with what they have always believed to be true has prompted some researchers to call for counseling to accompany the results.
Just how informative the tests are is also a matter of considerable debate.
Because the Y chromosome, which determines maleness, is passed unchanged from father to son, scientists can use it to determine whether two men share a common ancestor. When rare mutations do occur, they are unique to a single man and his male descendants, and scientists can often pinpoint when and where this founding father lived.
Mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on largely intact from mothers to their children, can be used similarly to trace maternal ancestry.
But each test can trace only one lineage back to a single ancestor. K2a2a was my mother's mother's mother's ... mother, for instance, and my father has taken the test so we can learn about his father's father's father's ... father.
But these kinds of tests can't teach me anything about any of the thousands of other ancestors of mine who were living 1,000 or 2,000 years ago.
A different kind of test, which promises to parse the percentage of a customer's genome that came from different geographical regions, can be misled by the reproductive shuffling of each generation.
Some anthropologists worry that what they call the "geneticization of identity" could lead to a dangerous view of race and ethnicity as biologically based. But many who have taken the tests say that the details of their DNA can underscore that we are all genetic cousins.
Why the genetic claiming of an ancient grandmother holds such emotional sway I am not quite sure. I mean, I've never even been to Ellis Island. And I have spent too many Christmases ordering in Chinese for it to come as a surprise that I am more likely to share mitochondrial DNA with Ashkenazi Jews than other groups.
But to judge by the growing throngs of other newly minted DNA genealogists, I'm not the only one to find appeal in the idea that the key to our past is lodged in our own genes.
On the "DNA-Genealogy" e-mail group last week, the buzz about the Jewish founding mothers was quickly supplanted by the news that scientists had traced a widely distributed genetic signature among people of Irish descent to a legendary Irish king.
"I've never felt more Irish," e-mailed Larry Slavens, a computer programmer in Des Moines whose family had immigrated from Ireland in 1740 but hadn't known of ties to Niall of the Nine Hostages, a high king of the fifth century, until last week. "I tell ya, my next tattoo is going to incorporate the Red Hand of Ulster in honor of my O'Neill kin."
Others were less impressed by the connection. "My understanding was that he was one of the nine hostages, not that he took nine hostages," wrote a disdainful John O'Connor, whose DNA links him to a different genealogical pretender to the ancient Irish throne.
Once used almost exclusively by research scientists, the tests used to cost thousands of dollars apiece. Now, thanks largely to the Human Genome Project, they are relatively cheap, and a cottage industry of commercial test companies has sprung up to take advantage of it.
By some estimates, 200,000 Americans have explored their ancestry through such ventures, which include a collaboration between the National Geographic Society, I.B.M. and Family Tree DNA of Houston whose goal is to build a database of 100,000 DNA samples from ethnic groups around the world to detail the history of human migrations. The project charges the public $99.95 to send in their DNA and find out where they fit on the resulting map.
Genetic genealogy may simply be the most recent way of fulfilling an age-old need to tell stories about our origins, anthropologists say. But because Americans put so much faith in science, our DNA results can seem more meaningful than the more standard family lore, or even years of painstaking archival research.
"DNA don't lie," said Ed Martin, 61, a retired telecommunications engineer in Orange Park, Fla., whose test put his paternal ancestors in Central Asia.
Mr. Martin had already traced his paternal line through the 1500's to a town in Germany using family records. The DNA test results, however, have persuaded him that he is descended from the Huns, who invaded an area of Germany where he still has living relatives - an area, he wrote in an e-mail message, "known as the HUNSruck."
"I spend time now visualizing what their lives may have been like, moving and attacking and conquering," he said with obvious relish. "All these groups were trying to kill the other one off. They were just brutal."
The adoption of new ancestral identities does not come so easy to everyone.
Given her previous research, Lisa B. Lee, a black systems administrator in Oakland, Calif., was sure she would find a link to Africa when she submitted her father's DNA for testing. Family lore had it that his people were from Madagascar. But after tests at three companies, the results stubbornly reported that he shared genetic ancestry with Native Americans, Chinese and Sardinians. No Africa.
"What does this mean; who am I then?" said Ms. Lee, who was active in the Black Power movement of the 1960's. "For me to have a whole half of my identity to come back and say, 'Sorry, no African here.' It doesn't even matter what the other half says. It just negates it all."
"Am I Sardinian?" she said. "Am I Chinese? Well that doesn't mean anything to me. It doesn't fit, it doesn't feel right."
DNA skeptics worry that there is a threatening side to the rise of DNA genealogy. Historically, associating human difference with genetic characteristics has had disastrous social consequences. These tests, marketed as tools to connect to a familial past, DNA skeptics say, often rely on the ability to differentiate people by the parts of our genetic makeup that correlate with racial identity.
DNAPrint Genomics in Sarasota, Fla., for instance, produces reports stating that an individual is, say, 15 percent Native American, 50 percent Western European, 10 percent African, 5 percent South Asian and 20 percent Middle Eastern.
Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, senior research scholar at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, said that history teaches the dangers of trying to define racial groups with science. "If we're going to relinquish control of our identities to science, we need to realize that we're embarking on that trajectory," she said.
When I called Dr. Karl Skorecki, one of the scientists in Israel who had tracked down K2a2a, to ask him what more he could tell me about her, he acknowledged that he finds the potential social implications of his work troubling.
"I like to confine it to what it tells us about history, and to insights about disease patterns," said Dr. Skorecki, a professor of medicine at Technion and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. "That's different than identity. Identity is metaphysical, not physical."
So why had K2a2a's line thrived, I had wanted to know, while others had died out?
"It is rather remarkable, after having gone through plague and wars left and right, still having left a number of descendants," Dr. Skorecki said, tantalizingly. "But I think it's random."
Still, at Family Tree DNA's Web site, I paid $75 to get another test, a higher-resolution scan of my mitochondrial DNA.
Internet revolution has rediscovered the ties that bind
GERALD WARNER
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=107002006
THE announcement that the 27th International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences, a biennial event meeting at different venues around the world, is to be held this year at St Andrews, from August 21 to 26, will gratify the many aficionados of genealogy in Scotland. The congress last met in this country in 1962, in Edinburgh.
Scotland is an appropriate venue, both because the Court of the Lord Lyon is the world's senior heraldic jurisdiction and because this country has unrivalled historical sites to visit. Beyond that, the clan system is the ultimate monument to the genealogical structure of society. The theme of the congress this year is 'myth and propaganda' and there is no shortage of both in the world of genealogy. Nor, on the other hand, is there any paucity of scholarship, dedication and painstaking science.
Genealogy is a global interest, amounting to an obsession. Keying the term into an internet search engine will register 23.6 million hits; it has even ousted pornography as the biggest internet topic. As the BBC television series Who Do You Think You Are? - famous for featuring Jeremy Paxman blubbing over his Scottish granny - demonstrates, genealogy is no longer even immune from the celebrity culture.
Yet, within the memory of most adults, it was a Cinderella hobby. What has provoked its transformation? The coincidence of several different social developments, is the answer. Globalisation, whatever its material benefits, has left mankind feeling culturally insecure and rootless. Mass migration has intensified that sense of being deracinated. In the face of fast-dissolving identity, people ask themselves: who am I? Where do I come from? What are my roots? Tracing their ancestry is the obvious way to find answers.
At the same time, the internet has made genealogical research easier than it has ever been. Every day thousands of additional records are put on to websites that are accessible to millions. Scotland is now a world leader in this respect. Not only are our records superior to most, but the General Register Office's admirable website 'Scotlandspeople' has made them universally available at very modest fees. Births, baptisms and marriages from 1553 in old parish records, general registration of births, marriages and deaths from 1855 and census records represent a treasure house of information.
The latest innovation in ancestry research is DNA. Genealogists were at first rather slow to recognise the potential of DNA, but the penny has now dropped. In America, DNA-based genealogical research is big business. Yet it carries many caveats. In the first place, the science is still in its infancy. Secondly, it has certain limitations, many of which may not be resolved even in the long term.
Here, again, Scotland is an ideal pioneering venue because DNA is best suited to broad-brush research, what might perhaps be termed macro-genealogy, and the Scottish clan system is more suited to that than any nuclear family.
Some clans are already involved. Clan MacGregor - potentially the chief beneficiary of DNA research because of the historic banning of its name and consequent diaspora - has established a DNA project. Its spokesmen claim it has confirmed the traditional genealogies, supplied supportive evidence of the clan's Dalriadic origin, but has also proved the existence of unrelated families within the clan. That was to be expected. Clans built themselves up by absorbing landless men who wandered into their territory and attached themselves to the chief. There is a similar project in America, tracing Mackenzie males through the Y-chromosome.
On the other hand, DNA research in Ireland has created a confused picture in at least one clan. DNA can challenge traditional genealogies. The temptation then is to defer to modern science and dismiss ancient pedigrees as old wives' tales. Yet sometimes that means rejecting known alliances of people who lived in recorded history. In some cases the culprit may be covert infidelity by a wife 600 years ago.
DNA, therefore, carries many health warnings. Nor is it, as yet, a viable vehicle for browsing alternate maternal/paternal lines to confirm, say, one's great-great-grandfather's mother's grandfather. It is still a fascinating science and is likely, in a more refined form, to become a key element in genealogical research.
Interest in pedigree used to be dismissed as snobbish. Yet today the subject has been so dramatically democratised that there is even an inverted snobbery, eg a 'black sheep' website offering a shortcut to people who want to trace their descent from a highwayman, cattle stealer or convict. Conversely, one of Scotland's greatest genealogists, the late Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk, once traced the lineage of an Ayrshire coal-miner back to Charlemagne.
In tandem with the destruction of family life, a corrosive phenomenon of recent times has been the creation of apartheid between generations. No longer do young people absorb information about their forebears from grandparents. In old Scotland, children were obliged to recite their pedigree every Sunday, so they would know it by heart and transmit it to their own offspring.
There is nothing selfish about a preoccupation with ancestry. It is one of man's most natural instincts. It is not about superiority, but about personal identity. From that derive self-knowledge, confidence and an understanding of one's place in the mosaic of society. Individualism has great virtues, but it is best expressed in the context of a complementary social structure of family, community and heritage.