It’s long been thought that people inherit mitochondrial DNA — genetic material found inside cells’ mitochondria — exclusively from their mothers. But now, a provocative new study finds that, in rare cases, dads can pass on mitochondrial DNA, too.
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Posted in Forensic Industry News
A combination of factors—a lack of formal records or destruction during China’s wars and the Cultural Revolution—have meant there are few ways for Chinese to trace their genealogy in the ethnically diverse country.
But with a growing middle-class, an increasing number are now keen on tracing their roots, and DNA testing companies are cashing in.
China’s DNA sequencing market was worth about 7.2 billion yuan ($1.05 billion) last year and is forecast to grow to 18.3 billion yuan in 2022, according to estimates by Beijing-based CCID Consulting.
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Posted in Ancestry, Forensic Industry News
The north tower was already billowing smoke when Mark Desire, then a 33-year-old criminalist with the city Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, made it to Ground Zero to assess the dead.
Instead, he nearly joined them.
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Posted in Forensic Industry News
Gulu — A Shs500 million regional Forensic Laboratory has been commissioned in Gulu District, more than a decade since its construction started in 2007.
The project was funded by the government under the Internal Affairs Ministry with support from the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS).
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Posted in Forensic Industry News
During a holy Mass on the third Sunday of Advent, on Dec. 11, 1949, in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Číhošť southeast of Prague, a miracle was reported.
The half-meter iron crucifix on the main altar above the tabernacle was said to have moved on its own several times—and 19 parishioners said they saw it, reporting it to the parish priest, Josef Toufar. Toufar dutifully reported to the regime’s Communist State Security Service.
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Posted in Current Cases, Forensic Industry News
DNA analysis is a powerful tool for researchers, scientists and law enforcement. But in the everyday lives of people across the globe, affordable access to DNA testing has brought about a seismic shift. For the first time, donor conceived people can find their biological fathers, mothers or siblings. Donor conception has exploded in the last three and a half decades, but around the world it faces little regulation. Fertility clinics public and private have operated without limits on the numbers of children created from individual donors, without health checks, and largely with impunity.
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Posted in Forensic Industry News
The questions now are: Will these prisoners ever be identified, and are these century-old remains linked to the present day? Experts say the answer may lie in specialized DNA testing.
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Posted in Ancestry, Forensic Industry News, Missing Persons
Highlights
•Results from two interlaboratory studies, NIST MIX05 and MIX13, are described
•In the 2005 NIST MIX05 study, 69 laboratories interpreted data in the form of electropherograms of two-person DNA mixtures representing four different mock sexual assault cases with different contributor ratio
•In the 2013 NIST MIX13 study,108 laboratories interpreted electropherogram data for five different case scenarios involving two, three, or four contributors, with some of the contributors potentially related.
•This paper describes the design of these studies, the variations observed among laboratory results, and lessons learned.
The remains returned by North Korea are possibly those of Army troops who fell in the brutal 1950 battle at the Chosin Reservoir, Pentagon POW/MIA officials said Thursday.
The returned remains are associated with the fight at what was called the “Frozen Chosin” for the sub-zero temperatures in which Marine and Army units fought their way out of encirclement by Chinese forces and were evacuated by sea, said Dr. John Byrd, a forensic anthropologist.
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Posted in Ancestry, Database, Forensic Industry News, Missing in Action
Television writers portray DNA evidence as a slam dunk, sealing the fate of many a villain in a fast-paced game of cat and mouse. The reality, however, is that a single DNA sample requires days to analyze, and many samples never get processed at all. DNA profiling has come a long way since its debut in 1986, but in many ways, it’s still in its infancy. Here are four ways researchers are breaking new ground with forensic uses of genetic analysis.
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Posted in Forensic Industry News, New ID Technologies
Ancestry, 23andMe and other popular companies that offer genetic testing pledged on Tuesday to be upfront when they share users’ DNA data with researchers, hand it over to police or transfer it to other companies, a move aimed at addressing consumers’ mounting privacy concerns.
Under the new guidelines, the companies said they would obtain consumers’ “separate express consent” before turning over their individual genetic information to businesses and other third parties, including insurers. They also said they would disclose the number of law-enforcement requests they receive each year.
The backlog of sexual assault kit samples in crime laboratories across the nation is a topic that hit the spotlight when a group of journalists uncovered the issue in an open records search of crime lab records in 2015. Reasons for the backlog include lack of staff, lack of funding, and simply, lack of time or a decision not to prosecute the case. Processing samples can be a labor-intensive process.
An increasing number of these girls, mostly adopted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, are starting to explore their identity now. In a recent “family-seeking” activity held in Gutian county, Fujian Province early in July, many women gathered and registered their information and left blood samples for DNA tracking.
“If you’re working criminal cases, you need to be able to generate match statistics,” said Katherine Gettings, the NIST biologist who led the study. “The data we’ve published will make it possible for labs that use NGS to generate those statistics.”
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It was the mystery that captured the imagination of the world, as a Russian Imperial dynasty was ruthlessly executed before details of their disappearance obfuscated for decades.
Now the true story of how the Duke of Edinburgh helped piece together the murders of Tsar Nicholas II and his family is to be told by the Science Museum in a new exhibition detailing how his DNA provided the key.
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Posted in Ancestry, Forensic Industry News
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