The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has updated its database of chemical fingerprints, called mass spectra, that are used to identify unknown chemical compounds. The NIST Mass Spectral Library and its new version, called NIST20, is used in health care, drug discovery, foods and fragrances, oil and natural gas, environmental protection, forensic science and almost every other industry that manufactures or measures physical stuff.
Category Archives: Database
NIST Adds New ‘Fingerprints’ to Chemical Identification Database
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Posted in Database, Forensic Industry News
DNA testing is radically reshaping the definition of family
In the 1970s, Robert Jenkinson was newly married with a daughter, looking for a job and in need of extra cash. He settled on sperm donation as a way to allay the last of those concerns while helping other families have children. He never could have expected that, because of DNA testing, the day would come when he would be contacted by the children he helped create. Needless to say, neither could anyone else, including the sperm banks that historically promised anonymity to donors…
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New program in Houston is training future forensic scientists and digitizing DNA evidence
Houston-area’s first-privately held forensic sequencing laboratory has partnered with The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to create an academic program that will provide forensic training to genome scientists that will help them crack previously unsolved criminal cases.
I Donated My DNA to Help Stop the Coronavirus
Last night, I entered intimate personal health information into a database that can be accessed by anyone. This is not a decision that I made lightly. I shared my information with the Personal Genome Project (PGP) at Harvard Medical School. Founded in 2005 by Dr. George Church, the PGP represents an ideal, a vision of effecting ultimate progress in DNA science through the generosity of participants willing to expose personal data for a greater good. Before Covid-19, the PGP used this data for open-source research projects to further our understanding of human genetics, biology, and health. The PGP will now singularly focus on Covid-19, studying both those who have the disease and those who don’t.
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Scots forensics expert says defence lawyers should be able to see secret police DNA files
Scotland is the only country in the civilised world where lawyers are denied access to this key evidence.
FDLE, Leon County Sheriff’s Office unveil nation’s first automated rapid DNA collection
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement along with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday a new process being used at the Leon County Detention Facility.
Forensic genealogy group helps Cumberland County investigators crack 21-year-old cold case
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — A popular genealogy website helped crack a cold case murder of a baby from 21 years ago.
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Posted in Ancestry, Cold Cases, Database
More than 1,000 DNA profiles added to national database from backlogged tested sexual assault kits
MADISON, Wis. (WSAW) — More than a thousand tested sexual assault kits have produced DNA that’s been added to a national database of DNA profiles, Wisconsin’s attorney general Josh Kaul announced Thursday. The announcement follows the completion of 4,472 tested sexual assault kits completed in November, after a statewide project to address a backlog of kits dating back to the 1980s began in 2016.
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Posted in Database
DNA match leads to arrest in 2004 sexual assault
“After 16 years, you either think your suspect is deceased or they’re already serving a prison term where it wasn’t required to collect their DNA,” said Mountain View Police Capt. Jessica Nowaski in an interview Friday. “I’m just really excited that we were able to bring closure to our victim.”
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Posted in Cold Cases, Database, Forensic Industry News
Calif. man free after DNA site leads to new arrest in murder
PLACERVILLE, Calif. — California authorities used recently developed DNA techniques to free one man and implicate another for only the second time in the United States, officials said Thursday.
A man who spent about 15 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the slaying of his housemate has been exonerated after authorities used extended DNA links developed through publicly available genealogical websites to build a family tree that led to the arrest of a new suspect.
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Posted in Database, Familial, Forensic Industry News, Geneology Database, Innocence Project
DHS commences pilot project to collect DNA from certain travellers
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced a pilot project to collect DNA samples from certain travellers, which commenced on January 6, 2020.
This announcement has prompted questions from Canadians (and other foreign nationals), who are concerned that they may be required to provide a sample of their DNA when travelling to the United States. Although privacy advocates are concerned about this mandatory collection of DNA, the pilot project, as it presently stands, may not be a significant departure from current practices.
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Posted in Database, DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News
Senate bill would require DNA testing for all felony arrests
JEFFERSON CITY — Katie Sepich was raped, strangled and set on fire outside her New Mexico home in 2003. After DNA was found under her fingernails, her family hoped that police would be able to catch the murderer. The DNA, however, was not in the federal DNA database, so there was no evidence to tie someone to the crime.
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Posted in Database, DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News
Georgia Uses DNA Sample and Genealogy to Solve 1999 Rapes
MARIETTA, Ga. — Advanced genetic genealogy testing helped authorities solve three Georgia rape cases from 1999, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
The three rapes happened between June and October 1999 within a three-mile radius of each other, Cobb County District Attorney Joyette Holmes said in a press release. In each case, a woman awoke in the wee hours of the morning in her own bed to find an unknown man standing over her.
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Posted in Ancestry, Cold Cases, Database
Thanks to a new DNA analysis, a man is exonerated of rape and freed from prison after 17 years
(CNN) — A Georgia man who served 17 years of a 20-year sentence has been exonerated from his rape conviction and released from prison, after a judge agreed that new analysis of DNA evidence clears him.
Kerry Robinson, 44, walked out of prison in southern Georgia on Wednesday and into the arms of his sister, his son and other supporters, hours after a Colquitt County judge vacated his 2002 conviction and sentence.
Your DNA Could Catch A Criminal
Genetic databases are solving murders and rapes. Privacy scolds should pipe down.
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Posted in Ancestry, Cold Cases, Database, Familial