Police authorities in Alberta, Canada used mitochondrial DNA test to identify a man who had been missing since 17 years ago. Normal DNA testing methods are difficult to identify a person from his body remains. Here’s why:

“At the end of all that process, the DNA remaining inside the bone samples themselves is in very poor shape and it makes it very difficult to retrieve any DNA out of it,” she said.

Because mitochondrial DNA is passed down only through mothers, scientists can use samples from blood or cheek swabs from siblings or other close relatives to confirm identities…”

For more introductory information about mitochondrial DNA testing used in this case, here are the links:

• Advanced DNA testing helping police make new gains in solving cold cases:scientist
• DNA test helps identify remains of Alberta man missing 17 years

Based on Mathowie:

The best part was when one of the 20 amino acids were built, it would say the name. So you’d see A T T G C and so on… and then it would shout “Cysteine!”

Find out more about it here (Thanks, Mathowie!) - Dance Dance DNA Revolution

Both DNA structure and sudoku puzzle have indirect similarity:

Excerpts from Times Higher Education: From sudoku to DNA in six steps:

They are all bound together by the newish science of biocomputing in rather surprising ways

Reason:

the class of problems that DNA systems may be able to solve in the future could be much more interesting and wide ranging than the merely computational.

Besides that, there are something unusual written in this article - What’s Kevin Bacon number party game?

In explaining graph theory, for example, Amos entertainingly invokes the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon number party game - a film version of the Erd”+s number beloved of some mathematicians as a measure of prestige. The Kevin Bacon number for an actor is defined as the number of jumps via film collaboration that an actor must make in order to be connected to Bacon. Audrey Hepburn’s number, we are told, is two.

Recently, a 28-year-old Stanford bioengineering post-doc and a world’s sudoku champion named Thomas Snyder is hoping he can solve complex DNA puzzles to find a method to help diagnose, and perhaps prevent, gene-borne illnesses;in which sudoku has sharpened his mind for the task.

More info about the current sudoku world champion, read Newser: Sudoku Champ Eyes Tougher Puzzles

if you really want to play real free sudoku puzzles online right now - visit Sudokufans.com

Victor McKusick - a remarkable medical genetics pioneer on human diseases, died at home, of complications due to cancer.

He was a cardiologist back in the year 1948, and some of colleagues thought it was a career suicidal when he had a career switch as a medical geneticist - focusing on a relatively rare inherited disorder known as Marfan syndrome.

For more information about Victor McKusick, read the following posts:

• The Scientist: Victor McKusick dies
• Wall Street Journal: Health Blog Orbit: Victor McKusick, Father of Medical Genetics
• John Hopkins Medicine: VICTOR A. McKUSICK, M.D., “FATHER OF MEDICAL GENETICS,” 1921-2008

Here’s today short post about elephants in Borneo was suspected that they are remnants of a population believed to be extinct for more than 200 years.

“…mitochondrial DNA he’s collected from Borneo’s elephants supports the newest theory. For example, the population appears to contain only one mtDNA haplotype, suggesting that it came from a single female. “If they were there since the Pleistocene, we would expect more matrilineages.”

Read more about it via The Scientist: A Sultan’s Gift?

This is the simplest pictorial instructions of DNA extraction that I’d ever seen in which this experiment can be done at your home. For your information, it was drawn by one modern artist in France who has his own distinctive style of drawing.

Here are some materials that we need to have before we start:

• Two vodka or any other small glass
• Spoon
• Table salt (you probably need 3-5 pinches of salt)
• Dish soap
• Methylated spirit/alcohol

For complete instructions: http://vesolt.free.fr/dna.htm

If your dog is a mixed-breed or a mutt (a dog which has an unknown descent), then you should consider to get him a DNA test. It is important to know its genetic makeup in order to understand your dog’s inheritance in which you can:

• understand your dog’s health - some breeds are very susceptible to certain diseases. Knowing more about your dog’s breed able to help you to take extra precautions to avoid being infected by dog-associated diseases.
• understand you dog’s behavior - different breeds have their own distinctive behavior. For example, German Sheppards are normally very active and they need to have regular walk and exercise in regularly basis. Keeping him at home all the time may depressed him. Once you know you dog’s behavior patterns, you’ll be able to train him to be an obedient dog - this is what usually every dog owner wants

Dog DNA testing has improved ever since it was launched few years ago - in year 2007, DNA analysis was based on 38 breeds and now, it is based on 100 breeds - source: Dog DNA Breed Testing

If you are worried about taking blood samples from your dog, sampling of your dog’s DNA can be done via buccal swabbing (a.k.a. DNA CheekSwab™ Collection Brush) to collect your dog’s buccal cells (or cheek cells) and send it to the lab for further analysis.

Watch the video on how to perform buccal swabbing on your dog:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Du6jq9qK8

In the end of the process, your dog will be given a Certificate of DNA Analysis that elucidates the complete information about your dog’s breed.

If you want your dog to start a DNA test - start having Canine Heritage DNA Test.

Find out more about Dog DNA testing via Dog-DNA.com Breed Test.

This is a video I made in January 2008 to promote awareness of exoneration cases as DNA testing is able to produce constructive evidence to prove one’s innocence in court.

Watch this short clip:

Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=i3o-icAQ1mI

This is the current exoneration case in Dallas:

A man sent to prison more than 15 years ago has been freed after DNA testing concluded he was innocent. - The Associated Press.

Freeing wrongfully convicts is also known as exoneration and there had been more than 129 exoneration cases in United States from 1970-2008.

Thanks to InnocenceProject.org, it has saved many lives and give them new hope of starting life anew.

Thomas Jefferson, was the primary writer (also one of the 56 signatories and the third president of United States of America) of the United States Declaration of Independence in which was a statement adopted by the Continental Congres on July 4, 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain.

In order to find out whether you are related to Thomas Jefferson, it is wisely to undergo DNA testing to track down the paternal lineage of the former President through Y-choromosome DNA testing. This method is similarly used in tracking down the existence of ‘first male’ or “Adam” - a metaphor, consistent results of tracking the most recent common male ancestor reflect humanity’s origin and spread around the world are within biblical range of about 10,000 to 60,000 years ago.

In the year 1998, genealogy studies via DNA testing was done to investigate the claims whether Thomas Jefferson fathered the child of one of his slaves - Sally Hemings.

Exerpts from Monticello,
“In January 2000, the committee reported its finding that the weight of all known evidence - from the DNA study, original documents, written and oral historical accounts, and statistical data - indicated a high probability that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings…”

However, this controversial claim is still remain unsolved due to absence of historical evidence.

If you’re interested, find more about it via:

• Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account.
• Jefferson fathered slave’s last child (in pdf format).
• Y-Chromosome DNA - if you want to know which haplogroup that Thomas Jefferson is belonged.
• Ancestry of Thomas Jefferson (family tree is included).

Let the bygones be the bygones. Appreciate the freedom that you have and use it for good cause.

Happy Independence day to all US citizens!

I was disturbed when I discovered two dedicated circadian rhythm (a.k.a biological clock) researches named a gene based on a disturbing R-rated movie entitled A Clockwork Orange - 1971 film in which directed by Stanley Kubrick, an internationally acclaimed director and producer.

“Molecular work showed that a gene with a particularly promising rhythmic pattern inhibited the activity of one of the core pacemaker genes called clock. Because it had a conserved amino acid sequence known as an Orange domain, Keegan and Allada decided to call the gene clockwork orange, referring to the well-known Anthony Burgess novel and Stanley Kubrick film.”

Find out how Ravi Allada and Kevin Keegan getting into the rhythm of their analysis via Unlocking the Clock.