Developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, IdPrism and its award-winning algorithms provide rapid analysis for complex forensic DNA samples.
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Posted in New ID Technologies
In 1856, some curious remains turned up at a limestone quarry in the Neander Valley in Germany. While the skull fragment and bones vaguely resembled those of modern humans, the brow was too robust, and the bones were too hefty. It took eight years for scientists to recognize the fossils as the first evidence of a whole other species of ancient human, Homo neanderthalensis.
Further discoveries have since revealed much more about the Neanderthals, including where they lived, how they cared for their young, and perhaps even their artwork. Now, using ancient DNA extracted from a pair of European Neanderthals, scientists are getting a more detailed picture of the species’ journey across our prehistoric planet.
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Posted in Ancient DNA
Genetic testing companies are forming a new coalition on best practices for handling DNA information and to promote the industry in Washington as lawmakers put more scrutiny on their privacy practices.
Three companies — Ancestry, 23andMe and Helix, which provide DNA testing and analysis — formed the Coalition for Genetic Data Protection, first reported by The Hill.
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Posted in Ancestry, DNA Legislation
A Trenton man was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. After nearly 78 years, his remains are finally coming home.
A new forensic technique could help identify perpetrators of sexual assault using a kind of evidence typically deemed unreliable by the scientific community: hair.
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Posted in New ID Technologies
Geneticists exploring the dark heart of the human genome have discovered big chunks of Neanderthal and other ancient DNA. The results open new ways to study both how chromosomes behave during cell division and how they have changed during human evolution.
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Posted in Ancestry, Ancient DNA
Margarita Salas defied tradition views of a woman’s role in Franco Spain to do amazing things.
An 80-year-old Spanish scientist whose work has shaped the study of DNA testing has just won a life time achievement award and we at The Local think everyone should know her name.
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Posted in Forensic Industry News
Ten years ago, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published a groundbreaking study on the use of forensics in criminal trials. The study found that, in the “pattern matching” fields of forensics in particular, expert witnesses had been vastly overstating the significance and certainty of their analyses. For some fields, such as bite-mark analysis, the study found no scientific research at all to support the central claims of practitioners.
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Posted in Editorial, Forensic Industry News
ON A LARGE screen inside a packed Snohomish County courtroom, in Washington state, a young Canadian couple smiled out at the dimmed room from the relaxed, faded scene of a party. It was the last known picture taken of Tanya Van Cuylenberg and Jay Cook together before they disappeared in November 1987. Their bodies were discovered days after they went missing, more than 60 miles apart.
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Posted in Ancestry, Familial, Forensic Industry News
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When DNA made the break in the 45-year-old Golden State Killer case, it set off a national phenomenon to identify suspects in some of the country’s worst unsolved crimes. Now, the case is getting global recognition for the breakthrough and influence it had in the forensic field.
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Posted in Familial, Forensic Industry News
The Indigenous people of Canada’s Western Arctic are descendants of some of the first humans to live in North America, new genetic research suggests.
A paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature has found the Dene, who live across much of the northern part of the continent and into the southern United States, have roots thousands of years older than previously thought.
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Posted in Ancestry, Ancient DNA
Intermountain Healthcare and ‘Decode Genetics’ have launched the largest DNA mapping effort to date in the United States to help make connections between genetics and human disease.
The initiative is called ‘Heredigene Population Study’.
It’s going to take DNA from 500,000 people to hopefully make a global impact on healthcare.
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Posted in Database
Law enforcement agencies in the UK and across the EU will be able to search for matching samples on each other’s DNA databases, boosting their capacity to tackle cross-border crime and protect citizens.
The UK’s implementation of Prüm will facilitate better co-operation between police forces and law enforcement agencies. Unknown DNA samples taken from crime scenes can now be compared automatically with profiles held by other EU member states.
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Posted in Database
The world was captivated by the Italian trial that convicted Seattle college student Amanda Knox in the sensational 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
Knox’s appeal is now under way, and critical evidence used to convict her actually shows she’s innocent, says Boise State professor Greg Hampikian, a forensic DNA expert who volunteered to help the Knox defense.
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Posted in Cold Cases
Predicting what someone’s face looks like based on a DNA sample remains a hard nut to crack for science. It is, however, getting easier to use such a sample to filter the right face from a face database, as an international team led by KU Leuven has shown. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.
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Posted in Ancestry
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