DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[gunnabeoneday]

here's a little dialogue from the University at Buffalo....where dnap gets a mention.


http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0408&L=anthro-l&F=&S=&P=94133


Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:27:08 -0500
Reply-To: John Rohan <[e-mail]>
Sender: Anthro-L <[e-mail]>
From: John Rohan <[e-mail]>
Subject: DNA analysis today (was Re: [ANTHRO-L] Alternative Race FAQ?)
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
"Anne Gilbert" <[e-mail]> wrote:
> > Then why can forensics identify the race of an individual by DNA, even if he/she is reduced to a shard of bone or a single hair? You can't call it "silly" because the technique has had a tremendous pracitcal value in solving criminal cases, far more practical than trying to convince us that everyone is the "same". This also goes to show that if you do produce an alternate race FAQ, there should be input by at least one
forensic anthropologist for the sake of completeness.

Forensics can identify "races" only up to a point. Or at least that's my understanding. And I don't think DNA has much to do with identifying "the race of an individual". About all DNA testing will do is show *possible* traits that *may* identify with certain population clusters

"population clusters" sounds a lot like "race" to me...

(but if you'r thinking of things like sickle cell anemia or Rh factor, you can find these characteristics and others besides, to some degree, in all parts of the world.

What you are describing above is technology circa 10-15 years ago. You should know that the science has come a long way from looking for things like sickle cell or Tay-Sachs disease. I remember only seven years ago reading in a law enforcement journal about how a woman's badly decomposed torso was found, and police had no idea who she was until DNA analysis
identified her as half east asian/half caucasian, which narrowed the field of missing women considerably and allowed them to solve the case. (Do you think that woman's family would rather you convinced them that race doesn't exist?) This was astounding back then. Today, it's nothing special. DNA analysis has progressed at an absolute breakneck speed, in some ways the
dust hasn't even finished settling yet. DNAprint Genomics
(http://www.dnaprint.com) is one company that does contract work for law enforcement. I speak from experience; they are expensive, but worth it, because they are incredibly accurate. Here is a public quote from their science page link:


'ADMIX Platform and Genomaps. Since the disclosure of the human genome, DNAPrintTM has researched and perfected a method for performing a pan-genome screen in a natural out-bred population. The method, titled Mapping by Admixture Linkage Disequilibrium ("MALD") allows us to identify genes that underlie human traits or conditions. Until the genome was sequenced, and until DNAPrintTM mined this sequence and perfected this method, such testing was prohibitively expensive. The process relies on, among other things, the accurate measure of Bio-Geographical Ancestry Admixture, which is the blending of continental population affiliations within individuals. In human
populations, there are individuals of relatively pure Bio-Geographical Ancestry ("BGA"), such as Sub-Saharan Africans from Nigeria, Indo Europeans from Northern Europe, East Asians from Northern China and Native Americans from isolated regions of Southern Mexico. In other places, such as the US, there are recently (in evolutionary time) admixed peoples such as African
Americans (a blend of Sub-Saharan African and Indo European BGA) and Hispanics (a blend of Native American and Indo European BGA). In recently admixed peoples, the DNA is made of a relatively small number of very large blocks. The MALD method is applied to these populations, using maps of AIMs throughout the genome, allowing pan-genome coverage with as few as 2,000
markers.'