Timeline DNA
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2Bil BC About this time a
bacterium became symbiotic with the cell from which animals and
plants developed. Chromosomes from this bacterium’s mitochondria
later carried 37 genes in the human body. The bacterium came from a
group called the Alphaproteobacteria. The ancestral eukaryote was
later believed to be a Lokiarchaeote.
(Econ, 10/27/12, p.79)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.74)
140 Million BP Older [DNA] samples have been
extracted from amber--which dates back 140 million years.
(WSUAN, Fall/95, p.5)
7.6Mil BC In July, 2002, scientists led by Michael
Brunet reported a hominid species, dating to about this time, found
in the Djurab desert, Sahel region of northern Chad. They named the
group Sahelanthropus tchadensis (with the nickname Toumai, "hope of
life" in the Goran language). Other scientists later denied it was a
human ancestor. DNA analysis in 2006 suggested that Toumai, with its
human and chimp features, preceded the human-chimp split. The
analysis also suggested that human lineage stemmed from a
human-chimp hybrid.
(SFC, 7/11/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/11/02, p.B1)(SFC,
10/10/02, p.A2)(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A3)(SFC, 2/8/13, p.D5)
100000BC In 2008 DNA evidence indicated that much
of the human population had descended from a small band of migrants
that left Africa for the Middle East about this time.
(SFC, 2/22/08, p.A4)
50000BC-20000BC Researches in 2012 reported that
DNA evidence has indicated the presence of foreign DNA indicating
interbreeding during this period between humans and an unknown
sister species called “a Neanderthal sibling species in Africa.”
Humans apparently shared the planet with this cousin species for
over150,000 years.
(SFC, 7/27/12, p.A12)
48000BC-30000BC In 2010 scientists reported that
genetic material, pulled from a pinky finger bone found in a
Siberian cave dating to this period, showed a new and unknown type
of pre-human living about this time alongside modern humans and
Neanderthals.
(Reuters, 3/24/10)(SFC, 3/25/10, p.A4)(Econ,
3/27/10, p.87)
400000BC - 48000BC A human group, later called the Denisovans, lived
in Asia during this period. They then interbred with humans
expanding from Africa along the coast of South Asia. In 2010 fossil
evidence from a Siberian cave in 2008 revealed that their DNA was
related to the DNA of people from New Guinea, which contained 4.8%
Denisovan DNA. 3-5% of the DNA from native people of Papua New
Guinea, Australia, the Philippines and other nearby islands came
from Denisovans, who left Africa as far back as 800,000 BC. In 2014
scientists reported that a genetic between extinct Denisovans and
some modern-day Tibetans and Sherpas.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A4)(SSFC, 9/16/12, p.C11)(SFC,
7/3/14, p.D1)
30000BC In 2010 scientists reported that genetic
material pulled from a pinky finger bone found in a Siberian cave
shows a new and unknown type of pre-human lived about this time
alongside modern humans and Neanderthals.
(Reuters, 3/24/10)
2800BC In 2015 scientists reported DNA evidence of
the plague dating to about this time. It was however a different
strain than the one that caused later pandemics.
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.A6)
2500BC A study in 2015 said a wave of migrants
from the eastern fringes of Europe about this time left their trace
in the DNA — and possibly the languages — of modern Europeans. They
found that DNA associated with the Yamnaya people appeared strongly
in what is now northern Germany. The Yamnaya were herders who lived
in the steppe north of the Black and Aral Seas.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2217BC In 2013 scientists reported DNA evidence
that people from India arrived in Australia about this time and
mixed with the local aboriginals.
(Econ, 1/19/12, p.77)
c1000 AD In Yemen in the Hadramawt region a dam
burst about this time near the village of Senna and the people of
the valley fled. In 1997 researchers using DNA studies found that
the Lemba, a Bantu speaking people of southern Africa carry markers
distinctive of the cohanim, Jewish priests believed to be descended
from Aaron. Lemba oral tradition held that they came to Africa from
Senna. Dr. Tudor Parfitt authored "Journey to the Vanished City," a
description of his work on the Lemba.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, p.A24)
c1200-1500 In 2005 researchers using
mitochondrial DNA estimated that 3-6 individuals founded the Mlabri
hunter gatherers of Northern Thailand about this time.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.71)
1802 James Callender, an
English-born journalist, published a report in the Richmond, Va.,
Recorder about Thomas Jefferson and his relationship with the slave
Sally Hemmings [Hemings]. Annette Gordon-Reed later published:
"Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, an American Controversy." DNA
tests of descendants was planned in 1998 to test for family
relationships. The tests indicated that Jefferson fathered at least
one child with Hemmings, her youngest son Eston Hemmings in 1808.
Dr. Eugene Foster, author of the DNA report, later said the DNA
tests showed that any one of 8 Jefferson males could have fathered
Eston.
(WSJ, 9/23/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A6)(SFEC,
11/1/98, p.A1,7)(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.B11)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.W15)(SFC,
1/27/00, p.A3)
1808 May 21, Eston Hemmings was
born to slave Sally Hemmings, who was owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Genetic tests in 1998 showed that DNA from Jefferson's descendants
was consistent with DNA from descendants of Hemmings. Some argued
that Randolph Jefferson, brother of Thomas, was Eston's father.
(USAT, 1/7/99, p.3A)
1880 Nov 11, In Australia Ned
Kelly (b.1855), outlaw, was hanged. The day before he died Kelly
wrote to the governor of the jail asking "permission for my friends
to have my body that they might bury it in consecrated ground."
Kelly was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol but documents show his
remains and those of 32 other executed prisoners were exhumed and
reburied at Pentridge Prison in 1929. In 2011 his headless remains
were identified using a DNA sample taken from Melbourne teacher
Leigh Olver, Kelly's sister Ellen's great-grandson. In 2011
Victorian state attorney general Robert Clark decided to return his
bullet-ridden bones to his descendants so they could meet his last
request.
(WSJ, 9/21/00, p.A8)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.6)(AP,
3/9/08)(AFP, 9/1/11)(AFP, 11/9/11)
1882 Apr 3, Outlaw Jesse James
(34) was shot in the back and killed at his home in St. Joseph, Mo.,
by Robert Ford, a cousin and member of his own gang for a $5,000
reward. Jesse and Frank James, the bank robbing James brothers, were
born as Woodson and Alexander. In 1995 the body of Jesse James was
exhumed for DNA testing. The test proved that it was James, who was
killed in 1882. In 2000 Desmond Barry authored the novel "The
Chivalry of Crime" based on the story of Jesse James. In 2000 the
body of a man, J. Frank Dalton (d.1951), who claimed to be Jesse
James was exhumed for DNA analysis.
(AP, 4/3/97)(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)(SFEC, 4/23/00,
BR p.5)(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A4)(HNQ, 6/21/00)(HN, 4/3/02)
1903 In southwest England
a 10,000-year-old skeleton was found in the underground caves at
Cheddar Gorge. In 2018 scientists from Britain's Natural History
Museum and University College London said DNA from the skeleton,
named "Cheddar Man," suggests the oldest-known Briton had dark skin
and blue eyes.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A8)(AP, 2/7/18)
1916 Jun 8, Francis Crick,
co-discoverer of the structure of DNA (Nobel 1962), was born.
(HN, 6/8/98)(MC, 6/8/02)
1926 Oct 30, Marvin A. Clark of
Tigard, Ore., went missing during a visit to Portland. In 1986
loggers discovered the remains of a man along with some personal
effects that included a revolver and an expended .32 caliber bullet.
Medical examiners ruled the man’s death a suicide and in 2014 DNA
evidence was checked to verify if the man was Clark.
(SFC, 5/1/14, p.A10)
1928 Apr 6, James Watson,
[co-]discovered structure of DNA, was born.
(HN, 4/6/98)
1940 In Florida George Owen
Smith (14), disappeared from the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.
In 2013 researchers found the remains of 55 people during a
four-month excavation last year. Official records indicated 31
burials at the school. In 2014 they said DNA and other tests
identified the remains of Smith, but they couldn't say how he had
died.
(AP, 8/7/14)
1950 In London Maurice Wilkins
and Rosalind Franklin (d.1958) produced pictures of X-ray
diffraction in aligned fibers of DNA. The lab for X-ray
crystallography was set up by physicist John Randall. Data from
these pictures led Watson and Crick to understand the structure of
DNA. In 1975 Anne Sayre (d.1998) published "Rosalind Franklin and
DNA."
(Wired, 2/98, p.135)(SFC, 3/19/98, p.C4)
1952 Sep 20, Scientists
confirmed that DNA holds hereditary data.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1953 Feb 28, Francis Crick
(d.2004) and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA-molecule.
Watson and Crick managed to describe the structure of DNA as a
double helix consisting of two long strings coiled around one
another. About 100,000 genes, short sections of DNA, tell the cells
how to build proteins, the building blocks of life. Rosalind
Franklin made the 1st x-ray image that revealed the double helix
structure of DNA. In 2002 Brenda Maddox authored "Rosalind Franklin:
The Dark Lady of DNA." In 2003 Watson co-authored "DNA: The Secret
of Life." [see Sep 20, Apr 25, 1953]
(V.D.-H.K.p.330)(TL, 1988, p.114)(Wired, 1/97,
p.161)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M2)(WSJ, 3/28/03, p.W8) (AP, 2/28/04)
1953 Apr 25, The magazine
Nature published an article by biologists Francis Crick and James
Watson, describing the "double helix" of DNA.
(HN, 4/25/01)
1954 Jul 4, Marilyn Sheppard
(31 and pregnant) was killed at her home near Cleveland and her
husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard (d.1970), was later accused, tried and
jailed for the murder. Sam was released from jail in 1964. His story
inspired the TV series "The Fugitive" and a film in 1993. DNA
evidence in 1997 indicated a third person was involved. Cleveland’s
chief prosecutor ruled in 1998 that the DNA samples were too old. A
civil trial in Cleveland in 2000 rejected the claim of Sam Reese
Sheppard that his father was innocent. [see Dec 21]
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A6)(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A3)(SFC,
3/6/98, p.A3)(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A2)
1955 Frederick Sanger sequenced
the 1st protein, human insulin. He later developed methods for
sequencing DNA.
(WSJ, 4/5/01, p.B1)
1958 Apr 16, Rosalind Franklin
(b.1920), English chemist and one of the four scientists who
discovered the structure of DNA, died in London of ovarian cancer.
She made the 1st x-ray image that revealed the double helix
structure of DNA (1953). In 2002 Brenda Maddox authored "Rosalind
Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin)(SSFC, 11/10/02,
p.M2)
1962 Oct 18, Dr. James D.
Watson of the United States and Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice
Wilkins of Britain, were named winners of the Nobel Prize for
Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the
double-helix molecular structure of DNA.
(AP, 10/18/02)(SFC, 3/19/98, p.C4)
1966 Researchers showed how
proteins are made from DNA instructions.
(WSJ, 4/5/01, p.B1)
1967 Jan 18, Albert DeSalvo,
who claimed to be the "Boston Strangler," was convicted in
Cambridge, Mass., of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses.
Sentenced to life, DeSalvo was killed by a fellow inmate in 1973.
DeSalvo had confessed to being the Boston Strangler and killing 13
women. He was never convicted of murder. A portrait of him with
police interviews was made in 1996 for TV show Biography. In 1999
DNA evidence was sought to confirm DeSalvo's claims.
(SFC, 6/6/96, E9)(AP, 1/18/98)(SFC, 7/10/99,
p.A4)
1967 Dec 14, DNA was created in
a test tube.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1968 James Watson (b.1928),
American molecular biologist and Nobel Prize winner, published "The
Double Helix."
(SFC, 3/19/98, p.C4)(SFEM, 7/30/00,
p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Watson)
1968 Dr. Allejandro Zaffaroni,
native of Montevideo, Uruguay, founded ALZA Corp. The company has
grown to be one of the largest medical device companies in the US
specializing in drug delivery technologies. He later helped to
launch Affymax, a drug discovery company, and Affymetrix, which did
DNA research on semiconductor chips.
(BJSJ, 10/30/95, p.8)
1968 Har Gobind Khorana
(1922-2011), India-born biochemist, shared a Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W.
Holley for helping unravel how genetic information in a cell is used
to make proteins vital for human life.
(SFC, 11/12/11,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Gobind_Khorana)
1968 Linda Harmon (14) was
raped, beaten and stabbed to death in SF. In 2003 DNA evidence
identified William Speer (61), a convicted sexual predator, as the
murderer.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A13)
1969 Sep, Susan Nason (8) of
Foster City, Ca., was bludgeoned to death. Her body was found 2
months later near Crystal Springs. In Dec 1989 Nason's neighbor and
schoolmate, Eileen Franklin-Lipsker, told police that she suddenly
remembered seeing her father batter her friend and hide the body. In
1990 George Franklin was convicted in the first case to use
recovered-memory testimony. Franklin was released after 6 1/2 years
when a federal judge ruled a mistrial. DNA evidence showed Franklin
was not responsible.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1969 Nov 20, Mary Scott (23)
was found dead at her apartment in San Diego. She had been strangled
and raped. The case went cold until 2020 when the San Diego Police
Department announced that with the help of forensic genealogy, a
suspect had been identified. On Oct. 24, John Jeffrey Sipos (75),
was arrested in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, in Scott's murder.
(NY Times, 10/30/20)
1969 Benjamin Volcani
(1915-1999), Palestine-born microbiologist, was the fist to show
that silicon is essential for DNA synthesis in diatoms. He was also
the first to find microorganisms in the Dead Sea in 1936.
(SFC, 2/12/99,
p.D4)(www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pages/volcani.html)
1971 Jul 6, US Army Maj. Donald
Carr, a Green Beret from San Antonio, Texas, crashed during a
reconnaissance flight in Vietnam's Kon Tum province. In 2018 his
remains were recovered and identified through DNA.
(SFC, 5/9/18, p.A4)
1971 Sep 11, The body of a
woman was found in the Delta-Mendota Canal near Westley, Ca. she had
been stabbed 65 times. In 2008 DNA evidence identified her as Mary
Alice Willey (23) of San Francisco.
(SFC, 10/7/08, p.B2)
1972 May 11, US pilot First Lt.
Michael Joseph Blassie was shot down by anti-aircraft fire after
having logged 137 combat missions. His remains were entombed on
Memorial Day, 1984, at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington. In
1998 his remains were exhumed and identified by DNA testing.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A2)(SFC, 6/30/98, p.A1)
1973 Feb 13, In the SF Bay Area
Leslie Perlov (21) was last seen at her Palo Alto workplace. Three
days later deputies found her body under an oak tree in the
foothills west of Stanford. In 2018 DNA evidence led to the arrest
of Hayward resident John Arthur Getreu (74). In 1963 Getreu (18),
the son of an American sergeant major, was arrested in Germany for
sexually assaulting and strangling the daughter (16) of a US Army
chaplain.
(SFC, 11/23/18, p.C1)
1973 Nov 25, Albert DeSalvo,
Boston strangler, was stabbed to death in prison. DeSalvo, the
self-admitted Boston strangler, had been tried and convicted on
unrelated assaults. 13 women were killed in Boston between
1962-1964. DNA evidence was sought in 1999. Susan Kelly wrote a book
in 1995 on the Boston Strangler.
(SFC, 7/10/99,
p.A3)(www.us.imdb.com/name/nm1108915/)
1973 Stanley Cohen, Stanford
geneticist, and Herbert Boyer of UCSF co-discovered the basic
process of gene-splicing. They spliced the DNA of one bacteria into
another and cultivated a new organism. The discovery was patented by
Stanford and UCSF and resulted in 25 year earnings of more than $200
million. Recombinant DNA technology soon led to Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMOs) in food products.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/24/04, p.W6)
1974 Aug 9, In Oakland, Ca.,
Julie McElhiney (13) was killed and sexually assaulted during a
robbery at her home on Pleitner Ave. In 2012 DNA evidence led to the
arrest of Curtis Tucker (63). His profile was in a nationwide
database due to a 1978 rape arrest in Spokane, Wa.
(SFC, 3/14/12, p.C3)
1974 Oct 13, In the SF Bay Area
Arlis Perry (19) was found sexually assaulted and killed at the
Stanford Memorial Church. In 2018 DNA evidence led police to Stephen
Blake Crawford, who shot himself on June 28 as police surrounded his
home in San Jose.
(SFC, 6/29/18, p.A1)
1974 Oct 28, Missionaries Mark
Fischer (19) of Milwaukee, Wis., and Gary Darley (20) of Simi
Valley, Calif., disappeared in Austin, Texas. Their bodies were
never found. Robert Elmer Kleasen, taxidermist, was convicted for
their murder and sentenced to death in 1975, but was released after
2 years due to a faulty search warrant. He moved to Britain and in
2001 was convicted again based on DNA evidence, but died in 2003
while awaiting possible extradition.
(AP, 4/21/03)
1976 Jan, In SF Robert Swanson
(28), a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, first met with Herb
Boyer, a molecular biologist and co-discoverer of recombinant DNA.
The 10 minute appointment extended to a few hours and the 2 men
proceeded to found Genentech.
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.B1)(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(WSJ,
12/14/99, p.A22)
1976 May 18, In San Francisco
Jenny Read (29), an artist and sculptor, was raped and killed at her
Potrero Hill home. She was stabbed 13 times. In 2013 DNA evidence
led to the conviction of James Mayfield (67) for her murder.
(SFC, 10/11/13, p.D8)
1976 Jul, In Wisconsin Ellen
Matheys (24) and David Schuldes (25) were fatally shot in McClintock
Park in Silver Cliff. In 2020 a judge ruled that Raymand
Vannieuwenhoven (83), a man charged with the killing, is not
mentally competent to stand trial. DNA from evidence from the
assault was eventually used to tie him to the crime scene.
(https://tinyurl.com/weq98zj)(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A3)
1976 Oct 1, In San Francisco
the body of a girl, buried for two to four weeks, was found near
Lake Merced. In 2019 investigators using DNA evidence identified her
as Judy Gifford (14).
{SF, USA, Murder}
(SFC, 12/14/19, p.C2)
1976 "The Selfish Gene" by
Richard Dawkins was published. Here he launched the archetypal
"meme," defined as a unit of cultural transmission. It described how
ideas mimic the behavior of genes and propagate by leaping from
brain to brain. In 2009 Fern Elsdon-Baker authored “The Selfish
Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin’s Legacy.”
(NH, 5/96, p.13)(Wired, 2/98, p.118)(Econ,
7/25/09, p.81)
1977 Aug 1, In Uruguay teacher
Julio Castro disappeared. His remains were identified in 2011 using
DNA tests.
(AP, 12/1/11)
1977 Dr. Frederick Sangar and
his lab mapped the entire 5,000 letter genome of a virus called
phiX174. Sangar had developed one of the first methods of DNA
sequencing. This work led to his 2nd Nobel Prize in 1980.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.78)
1977-1993 In Missouri a serial killer committed at
least 12 murders during this period. In 2004 Kansas City police used
DNA technology to charge Lorenzo Gilyard with 12 murders.
(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A1)
1978 Jan 7, In Alaska the body
of Shelley Connolly (16) was found next to the train tracks just
south of McHugh Creek at milepost 109 of the Seward Highway; she had
been sexually assaulted and murdered. The last time she was seen
alive was earlier that evening inside Chilkoot Charlies talking to
four men. In 2019 police in Oregon arrested Donald F. McQuade
following a DNA match from cigarette butts discarded in public.
{Alaska, USA, DNA, Murder, Rape}
(http://tinyurl.com/yxza6u32)(SFC, 9/5/19, p.A5)
1978 Nov 11, In southern
California Rhonda Wicht (24), a waitress and cosmetology student,
was beaten raped and strangled. An intruder also smothered to death
her son (4). Craig Coley, her ex-husband, was convicted in a 2nd
trial in 1980 and served 38 years in prison before he was freed on
the basis of DNA evidence. The California Victim Compensation Board
awarded Coley $1.9 million, the highest ever paid to an exonerated
California prisoner.
(SFC, 5/1/18, p.A10)
1978 Dec 31, Peter Seeburg, one
of 3 Univ. of California scientists who had identified the DNA for
human growth hormone earlier in the year, returned to UCSF in a
"midnight raid" and remove genetic material. Seeburg had left the
university in late 1978 to join Genentech giving up rights to his
materials, for which UCSF had filed a patent. In 1990 UCSF filed a
patent infringement suit against Genentech.
(SFC, 5/21/99,
p.B2)(www.mindfully.org/GE/Biotech-Born-Thief-1978.htm)
1979 Mar 9, In Oregon Janie
Landers (18) disappeared outside the Fairview Training Center for
the developmentally disabled, where she lived in Salem. Five days
later her body was found in a remote field with deep stab wounds in
her neck and her head bashed. In 2017 investigators using DNA
evidence linked her murder to Gerald Dunlap, a man who had worked at
Fairview’s laundry in 1979. Dunlap had died behind bars in 2002
while serving a prison sentence for first-degree sex abuse of a
family member.
(SFC, 11/4/17, p.C4)
1979 Jul 28, Rachel Moncrief
(50) was stabbed to death at Camino Camper in Santa Clara, Ca. In
2011 DNA evidence on a marijuana cigarette linked David Dixon (61)
of Richmond, Ca., to the murder.
(SFC, 8/19/11, p.C1)
1979 Dec 5, Teresa De Simone
(22) was found strangled in her car outside the pub where she worked
in Southampton, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of London. Sean
Hodgson initially confessed to the killing, but he later recanted
and pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued he was a pathological
liar and any confession he made was false. In 2009 Hodgson was
released from prison based on DNA evidence.
(AP, 3/18/09)(http://tinyurl.com/c5jz3y)
1980 Jan 16, In Colorado Helene
Pruszynski (21), a senior at Massachusetts's Wheaton College, was
returning to her aunt’s home from an internship at a Denver radio
station when she was stabbed to death. In 2019 the Douglas County
sheriff announced the arrest of Florida truck driver, James Curtis
Clanton, in the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Pruszynski.
Analysis of DNA information shared on genealogy websites helped
break the cold case.
(NY Times, 12/17/19)(SFC, 12/17/19, p.A5)
1980 Jun 22, In Antioch, Ca.,
Suzanne Bombardier (14) disappeared as she babysat her nieces. Her
nude body was found on June 27 floating in the San Joaquin River.
She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the heart. On Dec.
11, 2017, police arrested Mitchell Lynn Bacom (63) of Antioch after
DNA evidence linked him to the murder.
(SFC, 6/23/15, p.A1)(SFC, 12/12/17, p.A1)
1980 Jul, UCLA physician Martin
J. Cline inserted recombinant DNA into two patients with the blood
disease thalassemia, one in Israel and one in Italy. In doing so, he
violated the US recombinant DNA guidelines and human subjects
regulations.
{Biotech, California, USA}
(http://tinyurl.com/2svhm5)
1980-1989 Molecular regulators known as Hox genes,
short for homeobox, were discovered. The small DNA segment of about
180 chemical letters if virtually identical in all animals from
worms to primates and determines the shape and size of an organism.
(CW, Fall ‘03, p.46)
1981 Jun 23, The body of
Catherine Schilling (21), a Georgetown law student, was found raped
and murdered in Rock Creek Park. She was shot in the head five times
after taking a shortcut home through the park after working late at
her job as a paralegal at a DC law firm. In September 1982, a D.C.
jury convicted Donald Eugene Gates of killing and raping Schilling.
In 2009 Gates (58) was released from prison based on DNA evidence.
(http://tinyurl.com/y8smuur)(SFC, 12/15/09, p.A9)
1981 Jul 2, In southern
California Jeffrey Vargo (6) was last seen alive bicycling to a
fireworks stand in Pomona. On March 27, 2015, Kenneth Rasmuson (53)
of Idaho was arrested after DNA evidence linked him to the murder.
(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A5)
1981 Sep 4, In Florida Linda
Patterson Slaten (31) was found strangled to death in her Lakeland
apartment. In 2019 genetic genealogy led police to arrest Joseph
Mills (58), her son's former football coach for the crime.
(ABC News, 12/19/19)
1981 Oct 31, In Georgia (US) a
Jane Doe murder victim remained nameless after her body was
discovered in a cornfield in Dixie on Halloween. George Newsome was
arrested shortly after the murder and police found the rope that had
been used to strangle the girl in a motor home he owned. Newsome
died in 1988, but never revealed the identity of his victim. In 2020
she was identified through DNA testing as Shirlene Cheryl Hammack.
(ABC News, 1/10/20)
1982 Bernard Webster (19) was
identified as a rapist in Towson, Md. He denied the charges and was
freed after 20 years in jail following DNA tests that proved him
innocent.
(SFC, 11/7/02, p.A7)
1983 Jun 4, In Chino Hills,
Ca., Douglas and Peggy Ryen and their 10-year old daughter, Jessica,
were killed in the master bedroom of their home. Christopher Hughes
(11), a neighbor, was also killed. Joshua Ryen (8) survived despite
serious wounds. Kevin Cooper, who escaped from Chino prison on June
2, was arrested 47 days later and was convicted for the murders in
1985 and faced execution. Cooper claimed he was innocent and called
for DNA testing of the evidence in 2000. In 2003 an execution date
of Feb 10, 2004, was set for Cooper. Cooper won a last minute
reprieve on Feb 9 pending a re-examination of the case.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B3)(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A21)(SFC,
2/11/04, p.A4)
1983 Aug 31, In Fairfield, Ca.,
Kyle Stracner (15) returned home after visiting with friends and
found his mother, Priscilla Strole (40), naked and beaten to death
on the floor. In 2014 investigators used DNA evidence to identify
Robert Hathaway (48), a childhood friend of Kyle, as the murderer.
Hathaway hanged himself on Feb 15, 2014.
(SFC, 3/6/14, p.D2)
1983 Sep 24, In North Carolina
Sabrina Buie (11) went missing. Days later her body was found.
Forensic tests showed she had been raped and suffocated. Henry
McCollum (19) and his half-brother Leon Brown (15) were arrested and
convicted following confessions that were coerced. In 2014 McCollum
and Brown were freed after DNA evidence pointed to another man who
lived near where Buie’s body was found. On June 4, 2015, McCollum
and Brown were pardoned by Gov. Pat McCrory. On Sep 2, 2015, the two
brothers were awarded $750,000 each for their wrongful conviction.
(http://tinyurl.com/nqn7hoz)(SFC, 9/4/14,
p.A8)(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A7)(SFC, 9/3/15, p.A6)
1983 Oct 30, In California the
body of Sharon Ray (19) was found half-buried in the sand at
Pescadero Beach in San Mateo County. In 2015 John Joseph Scott (67)
was arrested after DNA evidence linked him to the victim.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.D4)
1983 Nov 18, In Ohio Jenean
Brown (19) went missing. Her body was found 36 hours later
outside Toledo. She had been beaten and nearly decapitated. In 2013
DNA tests linked Andrew Gustafson (56) to her murder. In 2014
Gustafson pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and rape and
was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/23/14, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/lrsnwx3)
1983 Nov 26, Angela Bugay of
Antioch, Ca., 5-years-old, was found in a shallow grave in Concord,
Ca. She had been kidnapped a week earlier. Larry Graham, who dated
Angela’s mother, was later arrested as a suspect and prosecutors in
1995 received a court order to draw his blood for DNA evidence. In
1996 police matched the DNA of Graham, with samples recovered from
the girl’s body and arrested him on charges of murder. Use of the
DNA evidence was cleared in 1998. Graham was convicted Aug 20, 2002,
and sentenced to death Oct 22. Graham (58) was found dead in his
cell on June 16, 2009, of apparent suicide.
(SFC, 4/26/96, p.A-19)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A19)(SFC,
3/18/99, p.A19)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/02, p.A15)(SFC,
10/23/02, p.A16)(SFC, 6/17/09, p.B6)
1983 Dennis Maher was convicted
in Boston of raping 3 women and spent the next 19 years in prison.
In 2003 DNA evidence proved his innocence.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A3)
1983 The polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) was developed by Kary Mullis. It is a technique in
molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of
DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to
millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction)(Econ,
5/12/12, IL p.13)
1983-1992 DNA Plant Technology Corp. later
admitted to having worked on a secret research project over this
period, at the behest of an unnamed US tobacco company, to increase
the nicotine content of tobacco plants.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A1)
1984 Jan 10, In Colorado
Patricia Louise Smith (50) was killed by a hammer blow in Lakewood.
About a week later another hammer was used to kill Bruce and Debra
Bennet and their daughter (7) in Aurora. In 2018 DNA evidence
identified Alexander Christopher, a Nevada inmate, as the killer.
(SFC, 8/11/18, p.A6)
1984 Apr 6, In SF Joan Baldwin
(43) was killed and mutilated at an Earl Scheib paint shop at 555
Bryant St. In 2006 police arrested parolee Dwight Culton (57) based
on DNA evidence. On May 4, 2011, Culton was convicted of the murder.
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.B4)(SFC, 5/5/11, p.C3)
1984 May 28, President Reagan
led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of
the Unknowns for an unidentified American soldier killed in the
Vietnam War. The remains were unearthed in 1998 for DNA testing and
possible identification. They were later identified as those of Air
Force First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, and were sent to St.
Louis for hometown burial.
(AP, 5/28/97)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.A1)(AP, 5/28/01)
1984 Jun 4, DNA was
successfully cloned from a quagga, an animal extinct since 1883.
(www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2003/jun4.htm)
1984 Jun 5, In North Carolina
the body of Reesa Trexler (15) was found nude in a bedroom at her
grandparents' house. She had been stabbed multiple times, and her
spinal cord was severed. In 2019 DNA evidence identified an unnamed
suspect who had died in 2007.
(ABC News, 12/4/19)
1984 Sep 10, British scientist
Alec Jeffreys and colleagues discovered that x-ray images of bits of
DNA showed patterns unique to individuals.
Jeffries, a geneticist at Leicester Univ., and his research team
found that DNA sequences, specific to individuals, could be
identified as visible bands. He dubbed his findings DNA
fingerprinting. This led to the use of DNA to solve thousands of
crimes.
(Econ, 3/13/04, TQ p.34)(SSFC, 9/13/09, p.A17,20)
1985 Jan 1, In Florida the body
of Tonya McKinley (23) was found in Pensacola. She had been
strangled and sexually assaulted. In 2020 police arrested Daniel
Wells (57) after using family tree DNA evidence.
(SFC, 3/20/20, p.A4)
1985 Dr. Alec Jeffries,
geneticist at Leicester Univ., used DNA fingerprinting for the 1st
time to prove a maternity and paternity case.
(Econ, 3/13/04, TQ p.33)
1985 Wayne Dumond, while
waiting trial for rape, was castrated with fishing line by 2 men in
stocking masks. He had been sentenced to a prison term for the rape
and kidnap of a 17-year old girl. While in prison St. Francis County
Sheriff, Coolidge Conlee, removed Dumond's testicles from his home
and preserved them in formaldehyde and displayed them on his desk.
Later DNA evidence showed that Dumond’s semen did not match that
found on the victim’s pants and Governor Huckabee of Arkansas said
he should be freed.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A4)
1985 A Dallas-area woman was
raped and her apartment was burglarized. Thomas Clifford McGowan
(26) was convicted of both crimes in separate trials in 1985 and
1986 and sentenced to life each time. In 2008 McGowan won his
freedom after a DNA testing proved him innocent.
(AP, 4/16/08)
1986 Jan 22, The body of Yvonne
Coleman (15) was found in a park in Inglewood, California. In 2008
DNA evidence linked Michael Hughes (51), already in jail for 4 other
murders, to her murder and 3 others.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.B6)
1986 Aug 13, In Texas Christine
Morton was found beaten and killed in her Williamson County home.
Her husband Michael Morton was convicted and spent 25 years in
prison before being freed in 2011 after DNA evidence showed another
man was responsible.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A7)
1986 Dec 6, Annette Thur (17)
of Santa Cruz County was kidnapped, raped and killed following a
party in Boulder Creek. A tourist found her body off Skyline Drive
in San Mateo County. In 2012 DNA evidence linked registered sex
offender John William Kelley (49) of Placerville to her murder and
he was arrested.
(SFC, 8/17/12, p.C5)
1987 Aug, In central France the
body of a girl (4), bearing the signs of horrific abuse including
burns from an iron and human bite marks, was found in a ditch
alongside the A10 motorway. It remained a cold case until the 2016
arrest of her brother in an assault probe that allowed police to
identify her through DNA, leading in 2018 to the arrest of their
parents.
(AFP, 6/14/18)
1987 Oct 29, Virginia Lowery
(56) was killed in her SF home at 966 Brussels in the Excelsior. In
1998 DNA evidence led police to Robert Nawi, a local laborer with an
extensive criminal record. Nawi (58) was convicted in 2001. Nawi had
been hired by husband and son Bill and David Lowery.
(SFC, 9/22/98, p.A15)(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A12)
1987 Dec 5, In Berkeley, Ca.,
the body of Deanna Butterfield (21) was found in Tilden Park. In
2006 DNA evidence linked William Huff to the murder, but there was
insufficient evidence to charge him. In 2015 Huff was charged for
this murder and the 1993 sexual assault and slaying of Mueylin
Saechao in San Pablo. On September 4, 2018, Huff was sentenced to
life in prison without parole.
(SFC, 4/8/15, p.D1)(SFC, 9/6/18, p.D3)
1987 Cetus Corp. patented
polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a process that turns small amounts
of DNA into large amounts of DNA. The enzyme Taq, which helped to
automate the process, was patented in 1989. In 1991 Roche purchased
the Cetus patents for PCR and Taq.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.B1)
1988 Jan 6, Christine Cole (10)
disappeared in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Her lifeless body washed up
on a beach some 15 miles away in the city of Warwick, 54 days later.
On July 18, 2019, the Pawtucket Police Department, having used DNA
evidence announced the arrest of a suspect in her murder, Joao
Monteiro (59) of Central Falls, Rhode Island.
(ABC News, 7/19/19)
1988 Feb 26, Gretchen Burford
(49) was abducted and killed by an attacker who tried to make her
withdraw money from an ATM machine in Mountain View, Ca. In 2005 DNA
evidence identified Texas inmate Tyrone Hamel (39) as the killer.
(SFC, 6/24/05, p.B4)
1988 May 13, In northern
California the body of Wynetta Davis (26) of Vallejo was found in a
trough on Pepper Rd. in Petaluma. She was last seen two days earlier
and an autopsy revealed that she had been strangled. In 2013 DNA
testing led to the arrest of two men in connection to her slaying.
(SFC, 9/25/13, p.D3)
1989 Apr 19, A female jogger
(28) was raped and beaten in Central Park and 6 teen-agers were
later charged in the near-fatal attack; 5 black and Latino youths
(14-16) were convicted in a case that attracted worldwide headlines.
In 2002 DNA evidence identified Matias Reyes (31) as the rapist.
3,254 other rapes were reported in the park in 1989.
(NG, 5/93, p.16)(AP, 4/19/99)(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A3)
1989 Nov 24, In Washington
state college student Mandy Stavik (18) disappeared after going out
for a jog in Acme. Her body was found three days later in the
Nooksack River. In 2017 police arrested Tim Bass (50) based on DNA
evidence.
(https://tinyurl.com/y27c36rn)(CBS News, 7/18/20)
1990 Feb 8, In California
Christy Pina (14) was found dead in an artichoke field just off
Highway 1 in Castroville. She had been strangled, raped and stabbed
repeatedly. In 1996 advanced DNA technology identified Arsenio
Pacheco Leyva as the killer, but he had gone into hiding. Leyva was
later arrested in Mexico and spent over three years in jail before
he was extradited to the US to face charges. On May 3, 2018, Leyva
(56) was booked at the Monterey County Jail.
(SFC, 5/8/18, p.C4)
1990 Dec 17, In the SF Bay Area
authorities discovered Jack Upton (30) dead in his apartment at
38780 Tyson Lane in Fremont. In 2019 police arrested Russell Anthony
Guerrero of Tempe, Arizona, following a DNA match in the killing.
(SFC, 1/25/19, p.C1)
1990 The Human Genome Project
began and planned to sequence all human DNA by 2005. The database
did not just store sequences, but linked them with citations to
enable new discoveries. James Watson served as its 1st head. His
opposition to gene patents helped force him from the position in
1992.
(Wired, 8/96, p.198)(SFEM, 7/30/00, p.10)
1991 Feb 27, In San Francisco
Karen Wong (39) was found raped and killed in her flat in the 400
block of 47th Ave. In 2008 DNA evidence identified Otis Hughes (56),
a paroled burglar, as the murderer. In 2013 Hughes faced a jury
trial.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.B2)(SFC, 12/13/13, p.C2)(SFC,
12/13/13, p.C2)
1991 Nov 9, Singer-actor Yves
Montand died near Paris at age 70. His body was exhumed in 1998 for
DNA tests in a paternity suit filed by Aurore Drossard (22).
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A17)(AP, 11/9/01)
1991 Dec 14, Sarah Yarborough
(16) was beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled to death after she
arrived at her high school in Federal Way, just outside of Tacoma,
to meet her drill team. In 2019 DNA evidence led to the arrest
Patrick Nicholas (55).
(AP, 10/5/19)
1991 Postal worker Ray Krone
was arrested for the murder of bartender Kim Ancona. Krone was
convicted in 1992 and again in 1996. In 2002 DNA evidence proved his
innocence.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A2)
1991 In Japan Toshikazu Sugaya,
a kindergarten bus driver, was arrested in the murder of a
4-year-old girl in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, a year earlier. A local
court sentenced him to life imprisonment in 1993, and Japan's top
court rejected his appeal in 2000. In 2010 a court officially
declared him innocent in the murder and offered a rare apology for a
forced confession and wrongful conviction that kept him behind bars
for more than 17 years. Sugaya (63), was serving a life sentence
when new DNA tests last year showed his innocence.
(AP, 3/26/10)
1992 Oct 27, In Oil City,
Pennsylvania, Shauna Howe (11) was kidnapped while walking home from
a pre-Halloween party. Her battered body was found 3 days later. For
every year afterward, the City Council voted to allow
trick-or-treating in the afternoon only. In 2004 a witness came
forward and police turned to DNA evidence. Two brothers were
arrested and convicted of murder and sexual assault. A third man
pleaded guilty to murder. In 2008 the city council voted to allow
Halloween back to night hours.
(AP, 10/30/08)
1993 Apr 26, In Britain a woman
named Nora was raped in the town of Bridgewater. In 2006 kinship DNA
evidence led to the arrest of Geoffrey Godfrey, who was sentenced to
6 years.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.A1)
1993 Jun 28, Kirk Noble
Bloodsworth (b.1960), a former Marine discus champion, was
exonerated by DNA evidence of the rape and murder of Dawn Hamilton
(9). He was the first US prisoner freed from death row based on DNA.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.34)(http://tinyurl.com/a7zma7h)
1993 Jul 7, Mia Zapata (27), a
rising punk-rock star, was last seen alive in Seattle. In 2003 Jesus
C. Mezquia was arrested in Florida on DNA evidence.
(SSFC, 1/12/03, p.A6)
1993 The Nobel Prize in
Chemistry was awarded to Kary B. Mullis for developing the
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for identifying fragments of DNA.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A8)
1994 Aug 22, DNA testing linked
OJ Simpson to the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1995 Apr 4, It was reported
that Nuclear Matrix Proteins that act as a type of scaffolding for
DNA were being used as markers for cancer. They were also thought to
help turn genes off and on.
(WSJ, 4/4/95, B-1)
1995 May, Larry Lee Hillblom,
co-founder and majority shareholder of DHL Corp., disappeared into
the Pacific Ocean in his World War II vintage seaplane. He was
conservatively valued at 500 million and willed most of his estate
to a charitable trust for medical research. $240 million was set
aside for medical research at UCSF. He named the Bank of Saipan as
executor but left behind a number of illegitimate children in the
Philippines and the Mariana Islands who are laying claim to his
estate. In 1998 4 children won $90 million settlements each. Later
it was learned that many of his personal effects in Saipan were
buried to avoid DNA tests for paternity confirmation.
(WSJ, 5/15/96, p.A1,8)(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A1)(SFEC,
8/16/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)
1995 Jun 26, In southern
Virginia Jason Callahan (19) of Myrtle Beach, SC, was killed in a
car crash that left his body unidentifiable. In 2015 DNA evidence
confirmed his identity.
(www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/crime/article16706255.html)
1996 Jan, Scientists reported
in Nature that analysis of protein sequences of rabbit DNA indicate
that the order Lagomorpha (rabbits, hares and allies) are more
closely related to primates than other groups of mammals.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.46)
1996 Spring, Affymetrix Inc.
planned to ship its first product, GeneChip. Building blocks of DNA
proteins would be placed on a glass chip. Initial applications will
be to test the effectiveness of various drugs in research settings.
(SJBJ, Jan. '96, p.41)
1996 Jul 5, A cloned lamb,
named Dolly (d.2003) after Dolly Pardon, was born in Edinburgh
Scotland. The event was not announced until Feb 23, 1997 when it was
made public that researchers under Dr. Ian Wilmut at Edinburgh,
Scotland, created a clone lamb from adult sheep DNA. In 2001 it was
reported that Dolly suffered from arthritis, a sign of premature
aging.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.C1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A2)(SFC,
2/15/03, p.A2)
1996 Jul, In France Caroline
Dickinson, a 13-year-old British girl, was raped and strangled at a
youth hostel in the town of Pleine-Fougeres. In 1997 a DNA test was
planned to be performed on volunteers of the 170 young men in the
town who fit an age profile of the murderer.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A8)
1996 Oct 29, In Alameda, Ca.,
Manuel Garcia (59) was found dead of trauma and stab wounds. 12 days
later Diane Ely (54) was found beaten and stabbed to death in
Alameda. In 2011 police with DNA evidence charged Eugene Albert
Protsman (56), a convicted killer already serving a life sentence,
with the murders.
(SFC, 9/28/11, p.C2)
1996 Vincent Groves (42),
serial killer, died in prison of natural causes while serving time
for the murders of three women. In 2012 investigators in Denver said
DNA evidence could link him to as many as 20 more killings.
(SFC, 3/8/12, p.A7)(http://tinyurl.com/7j7l9xj)
1996 The Int’l. Commission for
Missing Persons (ICMP) was created by the G-7 nations to help
identify victims of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. The success of its
DNA testing led to work around the world.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)(Econ, 10/5/13, p.64)
1997 Jan, Kelly Perry (31) was
last seen alive leaving his Hayward, Ca., apartment. Three months
later a dismembered body was found in Livermore. In 2019 new DNA
forensic evidence matched Perry and the unknown remains.
(SSFC, 3/7/20, p.A1)
1997 Feb 23, It was announced
that researchers under Dr. Ian Wilmut at Edinburgh, Scotland,
created a clone lamb from adult sheep DNA. The lamb was born in Jul,
1996, and named Dolly after Dolly Pardon. Dolly was put down Feb.
14, 2003, after a short life marred by premature aging and disease.
(SFEC, 2/23/97, p.C1)(AP, 2/23/98)
1997 Apr 28, In South Africa a
newborn girl was kidnapped from a Cape Town hospital. On Feb 26,
2015, she was re-united with her parents for the first time after
DNA tests confirmed she was the child kidnapped from the Groote
Schuur Hospital.
{South Africa, DNA}
(AP, 2/27/15)
1997 Jul 8, Michelle
Moore-Bosko (18) of Pittsburgh, who had recently moved to Norfolk,
Va., and secretly married her longtime boyfriend, William Bosko, was
found raped and killed. 4 sailors, who became known as the Norfolk
Four, were later convicted for her rape and murder. In 2009 Danial
Williams (37), Derek Tice (39) and Joseph Dick (33) were pardoned,
culminating a four-year campaign for clemency based on the sailors'
claims that they were coerced into falsely admitting their
involvement, that the details they provided were wrong and that
there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime. A fourth
sailor, Eric Wilson (33), served more than eight years in prison and
has been released. A fifth man, Omar Ballard, was also convicted in
the crime, and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, 59 of which
were suspended. He is the only man whose DNA matched that found at
the scene. His confession stated that he committed the crime by
himself. In 2017 Virginia’s governor pardoned the four former
sailors.
(SFC, 8/7/09,
p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Norfolk_Four)(SFC, 3/23/17,
p.A8)
1997 Jul 10, The DNA from the
arm bone of Neanderthal man found in 1856 was found to represent a
separate human species. Scientists in London said DNA from a
Neanderthal skeleton supported a theory that all humanity descended
from an "African Eve" 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/10/98)
1997 Aug 15, Scientists at
Geron corp. reported that an "immortality gene" had been cloned. The
key gene carries the code for a key section of the enzyme
telomerase, that rebuilds the telomere of DNA. It could lead to new
cancer-prevention drugs and even be used to slow the process of
aging.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A1,17)(SFC, 8/16/97, p.D1)
1997 Sep 17, Dr. Sam Sheppard's
body (subject of the TV show "The Fugitive") was exhumed for DNA
test.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1998 Mar 21, Christina Nytsch
(11) was found raped and murdered in woods 8 miles from her home in
Struecklingen. In April Police began collecting saliva from 18,000
local men to test for a DNA match. Police found a match and arrested
a suspect in Elisabethfehn in May, 1998. The man, a father of 3
children, confessed to another rape of an 11-year-old girl in Jan,
1996.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A18)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A24)
1998 Jun 10, It was reported
that scientists had decoded the DNA sequence for Mycobacterium
tuberculosis.
(SFC, 6/11/98, p.A2)
1998 Jul 17, Scientists
reported in the journal Science that the syphilis genome, 1.1
million base pairs of DNA, had been mapped.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.A7)
1998 Jul 27, In Chicago two
boys, aged 7 and 8, reportedly killed an 11-year-old girl, Ryan
Harris, with a thrown rock that caused the girl to fall and hit her
head. The boys dragged her to a wooded area and began to play with
her body and later lied to police. The boys faced the juvenile
equivalent of first degree murder. Later evidence of semen caused
prosecutors to drop murder charges against the boys. In Sep police
arrested another suspect whose DNA matched that found on Ryan. The
charges on the 2 boys were dropped Sept 4 and Floyd Durr was
indicted for the murder of Ryan Harris in 1999.
(SFC, 8/11/98, p.A3)(SFC, 9/5/98, p.A3)(SFC,
9/23/98, p.A6)(USAT, 3/24/99, p.6A)
1998 Aug 11, In the Netherlands
the body of Nicky Verstappen (11) was found, a day after he
disappeared from a youth camp in southern Limburg province. He had
been sexually abused before he was killed. In 2018 Dutch detectives
said they have matched DNA traces and identified Jos Brech (55) as a
suspect in the brutal murder. A European-wide warrant for Brech's
arrest was issued on June 12, 2018.
(AFP, 8/22/18)
1998 Sep 10, In Utah Anna
Palmer (10) was stabbed to death in Salt Lake City. In 2010 DNA
evidence linked Matthew John Breck to her murder. Breck, serving
time in Idaho for a 2001 conviction of sodomy with a minor, was
extradited to Utah.
(SSFC, 7/11/10,
p.A6)(http://missing87975.yuku.com/sreply/11770)
1999 May 5, SF Superior Court
Judge Robert Dondero ruled that a key DNA test, Short Tandem
Repeats, was unproven and inadmissible in 5 cases before him.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A1)
1999 May 6, Scientists reported
that the salmonella bacteria becomes disabled when stripped of a
gene that produces the DNA adenine methylase (Dam). The research was
seen as a potent new source for vaccines.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A1,17)
1999 May 27, It was reported
that Dolly, the 3-year-old sheep, cloned from a 6-year-old ewe, has
cells that that are 9 years old. Her DNA showed signs of wear more
typical of an older animal.
(SFC, 5/27/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 9, In SF Mark Barton
was ambushed and shot to death as he left for work from his Potrero
Ave. home. His girlfriend (21) was raped, thrown in a closet and
shot. In 2003 police arrested Ivory Morton based on DNA evidence.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A6)
1999 Aug 1, In Alabama Tracie
Hawlett (17) and J.B. Beasley (17) disappeared after setting off for
a party. In 2019 authorities accused Coley McCraney (45), a
truck-driving preacher, with killing the two girls. Law enforcement
ran crime scene DNA through a genealogy database to identify
McCraney.
(http://tinyurl.com/y55tpqnw)(SFC, 3/20/19, p.A5)
1999 Dec 2, Tim Cole (b.1960),
an army veteran convicted of a 1985 rape, died in a Texas prison
from complications of asthma. In 2008 Cole was cleared by DNA
evidence. In 2010 Texas Gov. Rick Perry pardoned Cole in the state’s
first posthumous pardon.
(SFC, 3/2/10,
p.A4)(www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100249923)
2000 Apr 6, A private company
mapping the human genetic blueprint announced it had decoded all of
the DNA pieces that make up the genetic pattern of a single human
being.
(AP, 4/6/01)
2000 Mar 15, The unknown East
Side rapist was indicted under DNA evidence in a John Doe indictment
for 7 rapes between 1994-1998 to prevent the 5 year stature of
limitations from expiring 3 of the cases.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 1, With about half an
hour to spare, Texas Governor George W. Bush blocked the scheduled
execution of convicted killer Ricky McGinn so that possibly
exculpatory DNA evidence could be reviewed. The DNA tests failed to
establish McGinn’s innocence, and he was put to death by injection
the following September.
(AP, 6/1/01)
2000 Jun 26, Public and private
gene researchers, Celera Genomics and the National Human Genome
Research Institute, announced at the White House that they had
roughly mapped the human genome. Craig Venter, head of Celera,
acquired private funding in 1998 and began decoding in September
1999. In 2007 Venter authored “A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life.”
A truly complete sequence was not published until 2003. In 2010
Victor McElheny authored “Drawing the map of Life: Inside the Human
Genome Project.”
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/26/01)(WSJ, 10/27/07,
p.W6)(Econ, 6/19/10, SR p.3)(Econ, 7/31/10, p.69)
2000 Dec 7, In Texas Claude
Howard Jones was executed for the Nov 14, 1989, slaying of Allen
Hilzendager in Point Blank. Jones was the 40th execution this year
and the 239th since 1982. Jones was executed based on a single hair
as evidence from the liquor store killing. DNA analysis later found
the strand of hair did not belong to Jones.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D4)(SFC, 11/12/10,
p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/33p23qm)
2001 Feb 11, It was reported
that scientists had found the human genome to consist of 30,000
genes and that only some 300 were unique to humans as when compared
to mice.
(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 28, In Australia a
leech dropped off Peter Cannon as he and an accomplice tied a woman
(71) to a chair in her remote home in the Tasmanian woods and stole
several hundred dollars in cash. Australian officials extracted
blood from the leech. In 2009 DNA evidence led the police to Cannon,
who admitted to robbing the elderly woman.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2001 Nov 22, Stanford and UCSF
researchers reported a long list of genes responsible for multiple
schlerosis (MS).
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 4, Edwin Huffine, US
forensic scientist, launched a new DNA ID software program developed
with a team of Bosnian experts at the Sarajevo-based Int’l.
Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP). The program used kinship
analysis.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 4, In South Africa
Marike de Klerk (64), former wife of former Pres. F.W. de Klerk, was
found stabbed and strangled in her luxury apartment near Cape Town.
Police arrested Luyanda Mboniswa (21), a security guard, on Dec 5.
The guard confessed Dec 7. In 2003 DNA evidence linked him to the
murder.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A6)(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A6)(SFC,
12/8/01, p.A7)(AP, 4/8/03)
2001 The US National Institutes
of Health began its Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) project to
isolate each of the estimated 30,000 human genes along with a full
set of mouse genes.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.B1)
2001 Dwayne Jackson was
arrested on kidnapping and robbery charges in Nevada. He spent 4
years in prison until his release in 2006. In November, 2010, an
error regarding DNA evidence indicated that the wrong man had been
sent to prison.
(SFC, 7/8/11, p.A6)
2002 Jan 6, Christa Worthington
(46), fashion writer, was found dead at her home in Truro on Cape
Cod, Mass. Her 2-year-old daughter was next to her, covered in blood
but unharmed. In 2005 DNA evidence identified Christopher Mccowen, a
local trash collector, as the murderer.
(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A5)
2002 Dec 19, After a prosecutor
cited new DNA evidence, a judge in New York threw out the
convictions of five young men in a 1989 attack on a Central Park
jogger who had been raped and left for dead.
(AP, 12/19/03)
2003 Aug 13, Chinese
researchers reported that they had created hybrid embryos of human
and rabbit DNA as a source for stem cells.
(SFC, 8/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 6, Gene scientists
published a map in Nature that shows how DNA controls protein
interactions in the fruit fly.
(WSJ, 11/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 13, The US Energy Dept
reported that Dr. Craig Venter and colleagues had assembled a
bacteriophage containing 5,386 DNA base pairs.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.A7)
2003 A humanoid skeleton was
first discovered in the remote Atacama desert region of Chile. In
2012 Stanford reasearchers traveled to Chile to obtain detailed X
Rays, CAT scans and take genetic samples for testing at Stanford
University. Results showed that it was human and not an
extraterrestrial. Findings also show it may have been a 6-inch
Chilean human that survived for 6 to 8 years.
(www.openminds.tv/scientist-says-atacama-humanoid-is-human-but-still-a-mystery-988/)
2004 May 16, It was reported
that a Scottish bus firm had begun issuing DNA “spit kits” help
drivers verify assault charges on passengers spitting at drivers.
(SSFC, 5/16/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 17, The body of
University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin (22) was found in a
ravine northwest of Crookston, Minn. She was last seen Nov 22 at the
Grand Forks, ND, mall, where she worked. Alfonso Rodriquez was
arrested in Dec. and investigators matched DNA in blood in his car
to Sjodin.
(AP, 4/18/04)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A13)
2004 Jul 28, Francis Crick
(88), British Nobel laureate who with American James Watson
discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, died of colon cancer
in San Diego, Ca.
(AP, 7/29/04)
2004 Aug 11, Britain granted
its 1st license for human embryonic cloning research.
(WSJ, 8/12/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 17, Dilcia Mejia (16)
was found with her throat slit inside the bedroom of her North
Miami-Dade trailer home. In 2020 police detectives arrested her
stepfather on a murder charge based on DNA evidence. Raul Mata (48)
was arrested Watsonville, Calif. On Sep. 28 Mata stabbed himself in
the groin inside a jail in Watsonville while awaiting extradition to
Florida. The Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office confirmed his death via
press release on Oct. 20.
(AP, 9/24/20)(Miami Herald, 10/20/20)
2004 Sep, Scientists announced
that they had deciphered the genome of the black cottonwood tree,
the 1st arboreal genome to be unraveled.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.70)
2004 Oct 20, Scientists of the
Human Genome Project reported a new estimate of human genes at 20k
to 25k.
(SFC, 10/21/04, p.A12)
2004 Dec 23, The FDA said it
approved the Ampli-Chip Cytochrome P450 Genotyping test made by
Roche. The test was cleared for use with the Affymetrix GeneChip
Microarray.
(WSJ, 12/24/04, p.A9)
2004 California voters approved
a ballot measure that requires police to take DNA samples from
convicted felons. The law became effective in 2009. In 2012 the
Ninth US Court of Appeals upheld the legislation.
(SFC, 2/24/12, p.C1)
2005 Jan 12, It was reported
that researchers had synthesized a DNA molecule of 14,500 chemical
units with 21 genes used by a harmless laboratory bacterium.
(SFC, 1/12/05, p.A2)
2005 Feb 17, Gene scientists
published the 1st map of a common DNA variations.
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar, Scientists reported
that they have finished sequencing the X chromosome. Scientists also
reported the replication of a new artificial base pair,
3-fluoro-benzene (3FB).
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.84)
2005 Apr 13, National
Geographic and IBM Corp. announced a project to collect DNA samples
from people around the globe to trace the routes of human migration.
(SFC, 4/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 26, Clarence Williams
(58), suspected of raping at least 25 women in 3 states, was
arrested in NYC following DNA tests that linked him to a 1973 rape
case.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A3)
2005 May 19, South Korea
scientists announced the creation of 11 different stem cell lines
matching the DNA of human patients with a variety of diseases.
(SSFC, 5/29/05, p.A17)
2005 Jul 22, The Italian
government approved a package of anti-terrorism measures that allow
authorities to take DNA samples from suspects and jail those who
provide explosives training.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Aug 11, A team of
scientists from 10 countries reported that they had deciphered the
genetic code of rice. This was the first cereal crop to be
sequenced.
(SFC, 8/11/05, p.A6)(Econ, 5/10/14, p.14)
2006 Nov 15, Researchers, who
sequenced DNA from the leg bone of a Neanderthal man who died 38,000
years ago, said it shows the Neanderthals are truly distant
relatives of modern humans who interbred rarely, if at all, with our
own immediate ancestors. They concluded that Neanderthals and humans
are likely to be 99.5% identical, genetically speaking.
(Reuters, 11/15/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.84)
2007 Mar 13, Entrepreneur Marc
Hodosh (34) was named senior director of the Archon Genomics X
Prize. His job was to offer $10 million to the first team of
researchers that can accurately map the genetic codes of 100 people
in 10 days for a cost of $10,000 or less per genome. The competition
was launched in 2006 year by the nonprofit X Prize Foundation of
Santa Monica, Calif., which also has sponsored races to build
commercial spacecraft and fuel-efficient cars.
(http://tinyurl.com/2vfp9b)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.94)
2007 Nov 2, In Italy Meredith
Kercher (21), a British university student, was found dead with her
throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the central city of
Perugia. A week later 3 suspects in the murder were remanded in
custody by an Italian investigating magistrate. On Nov 19 police in
Perugia identified a 4th suspect as Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory
Coast native. Guede was arrested in Germany the next day and DNA
evidence confirmed that he had sex with Kercher the night she was
stabbed. In 2009 roommate Amanda Knox, of Seattle, Wa., was
convicted and sentenced to 26 years in prison. The court also
convicted Knox's co-defendant and former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele
Sollecito, and gave him a 25-year jail term for the murder. Rudy
Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen, had already been convicted in
the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP,
11/22/07)(AP, 12/5/09)
2007 Nov 30, Scientists at Duke
Univ. reported the creation of the first map of genes that are
inherited as “silenced genes.” The Duke map verified 40 and
identified another 156. Humans were first shown to have silenced
genes in 1991. They help explain why some people get sick and others
do not.
(SFC, 11/30/07, p.A7)
2007 23andMe, based in Mountain
View, Ca., began offering customers aspects of their genome from
spit samples analyzed by the company. Their personal genome test kit
was named Invention of the Year by Time magazine in 2008.
(Econ, 11/30/13,
p.64)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe)
2007 Alberto Nava, a
California cave diver, and two Mexican dive budies discovered a
human skeleton in a deep underwater cave in Mexico’s Yucatan jungle.
In 2014 scientists said the skeleton was that of a young girl who
probably fell into the cave about this time. DNA evidence linked her
to modern native Americans.
(SFC, 5/16/14, p.D8)
2008 Jan 30, Using DNA, the
blueprint of life, US researchers said they have made a
three-dimensional structure from particles of gold in a development
that could lead to a host of custom-designed materials.
(Reuters, 1/30/08)
2008 Feb 5, British scientists
said they have created human embryos containing DNA from two women
and a man in a procedure that researchers hope might be used one day
to produce embryos free of inherited diseases.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Apr 29, James Woodward
(55) walked out of a Dallas court after DNA testing overturned his
conviction over 27 years ago for the murder and rape of his
girlfriend.
(Reuters, 4/30/08)
2008 May 21, Pres. Bush signed
legislation to protect people from losing their jobs or health
insurance when genetic testing reveals they are susceptible to
costly diseases. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was
designed to prohibit the improper use of genetic information in
health insurance and employment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimination_Act)(WSJ,
5/22/08, p.D6)
2008 May 26, Dutch scientists
claimed they have completed the first sequencing of an individual
woman's DNA.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 Dec 4, Europe's top human
rights court ruled that storing DNA from people with no criminal
record is in breach of their rights, a landmark decision that could
force Britain to destroy the samples of nearly 1 million people on
its database.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2009 Feb 12, Researchers in
Germany said they have completed the first draft of the Neanderthal
genome, 3 billion genetic building blocks that will shed new light
on the ancient hominid as well as the origins of humans, its closest
relation. Lead scientist Svante Paabo established in 1997 that
Neanderthals were cousins rather than ancestors of modern humans.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 15, French specialists
unveiled a new weapon against cancer, a molecular "decoy" that
mimics DNA damage and prompts cancerous cells to kill themselves.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb, Scientists published
a study showing that genetically modified material did contaminate
native corn in the crop's birthplace in southern Mexico. Elena
Alvarez Buylla, author of the article published in the February
edition of Molecular Ecology, said the difficult atmosphere
surrounding the original debate persists.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Apr 2, In Connecticut a
judge, citing DNA evidence, dropped murder charges against Miguel
Roman, who served 20 years of a 60-year sentence after being
convicted of the 1988 slaying of Carmen Lopez (17), his pregnant
girlfriend. The same DNA tests that exonerated Roman implicated led
police in December to charge another man, Pedro Miranda of New
Britain. He is accused in the killings of Lopez, 16-year-old Rosa
Valentin in 1986 and 13-year-old Mayra Cruz in 1987. Miranda (51)
faced the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
(SFC, 4/3/09, p.A6)
2009 May 7, Britain promised it
would remove the DNA records of hundreds of thousands from its vast
national registry of genetic information, but said it will still
keep the details of some innocent people for up to 12 years.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 Jun 18, The US Supreme
Court ruled 5-4 that William Osborne, a prisoner convicted in Alaska
in 1994, has no constitutional right to DNA testing to prove his
innocence. In April 2008, a three-judge panel of US Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit had held that Osborne should be allowed to
obtain new DNA tests. The court said that it is up to the
states and Congress to decide such rights.
(SFC, 6/19/09, p.A7)(Econ, 8/1/09,
p.25)(http://tinyurl.com/mkmte2)
2009 Sep 5, Milwaukee police
arrested Walter Ellis (49) after DNA evidence linked him to the
slaying of 9 women, including 8 suspected prostitutes, dating back
to 1986.
(SFC, 9/7/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 20, Australian
officials said a leech found at a crime scene in 2001 led police to
a man who admitted robbing an elderly woman. The leech dropped off
Peter Cannon as he and an accomplice tied a 71-year-old woman to a
chair in her remote home in the Tasmanian woods on Sept. 28, 2001.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 23, In Canada a judge
in Winnipeg acquitted Kyle Unger (38) of the 1990 murder of Brigitte
Grenier (16). DNA tests in 2005 showed that hair on the victim came
from somebody else. Unger had spent 13 years in jail before he was
granted bail in 2005.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 11, The British Home
Office said DNA of innocent people arrested then cleared without
charge will be held by the government for no more than six years.
(AFP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 16, Thai police
arrested Samart Chokechoyma (36) and Kanokwan Wongsaroj (38) on
charges of smuggling African ivory into the country to supply shops
that sell jewelry and trinkets, including to customers in the US.
DNA tests showed that it was of African origin.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 18, Argentina's
Congress, valuing truth over the right to privacy, authorized the
forced extraction of DNA from people who may have been born to
political prisoners slain a quarter-century ago, even when they
don't want to know their birth parents.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Dec 15, Donald Eugene
Gates (58), in prison for 28 years, was freed after DNA evidence
cleared him of charges of rape and murder. His conviction had been
based on the testimony of FBI forensic analyst Michael P. Malone,
whose work came under fire in 1997, and a hair analysis technique
that has been discredited. Gates was given $75 and a bus ticket to
Ohio. Gates had been convicted in 1982 of the 1981 rape and murder
of Catherine Schilling (21), a Georgetown University student, in
Washington's Rock Creek Park. He was sentenced to 20 years to life
in prison.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/y8smuur)
2009 Dec 16, In Paraguay
President Fernando Lugo’s lawyer said Lugo has agreed to take a DNA
test following a judicial request presented by Hortensia Damiana
Moran (40), the third woman to claim he fathered her child.
(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Microsoft donated
PhotoDNA, a technology that creates a digital signature for
photographs, to the National Center for Missing and Exploited
children.
(Econ, 6/25/16, p.71)
2010 Jan 1, It was reported
that Australian researchers have cracked the genetic origin of the
deadly cancer that is threatening to wipe out Tasmanian devils,
raising hopes that the animal's future is safe.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 14, An int’l. team of
scientists reported the sequencing of the genes of 3 species of the
Nasonia wasp. 157 research groups in 6 nations spent over 4 years on
the project, which was expected to help reduce the use of farm
pesticides and help in the development of new drugs against human
disease.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C2)
2010 May 5, Raymond Towler (52)
was freed from prison in Ohio after DNA evidence showed that he did
not rape an 11-year-old girl in 1981. Towler had spent almost 30
years in prison.
(SFC, 5/6/10, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/2usdrhr)
2010 May 7, Int’l. scientists
reported that Eurasians today carry 1-4% of Neanderthal DNA.
Analysis of the Neanderthal genome indicated that it was 99.5%
identical to modern humans.
(SFC, 5/7/10, p.A1)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.79)
2010 May 19, Nick Clegg,
Britain's new deputy leader, says he'll scrap an unpopular national
identity card program, limit the retention of DNA samples and
tightly regulate the use of closed circuit TV cameras in a sweeping
civil liberties drive.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 20, US researchers
announced that they have produced a living cell powered by manmade
DNA. They said the world's first synthetic cell, JCV1-syn1.0, is
more a re-creation of existing life, changing one simple type of
bacterium into another, than a built-from-scratch kind.
Genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter said his team's project paves
the way for designing organisms that work differently from the way
nature intended for a wide range of uses.
(AP, 5/21/10)(Econ, 6/19/10, SR p.11)
2010 May 24, Guatemalan
authorities said they will require DNA tests for all babies offered
for adoption following allegations of child theft that led the
government to impose a two-year freeze on international adoptions.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 Aug 6, Australian
scientists reported a study revealing that sea sponges share almost
70 percent of human genes.
(AFP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 27, British
researchers said they have decoded the genetic sequence of wheat.
(SFC, 8/28/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 16, Australian
scientists said they had made a breakthrough in the fight to save
the cancer-hit Tasmanian devil by mapping the species' genome for
the first time.
(AFP, 9/16/10)
2010 Oct 7, Researchers at
London’s Kew Gardens said they have discovered that the Paris
japonica has a genetic code 50 times longer than that of a human
being. To date this was the longest genome discovered.
(SFC, 10/8/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 2, NASA researcher
Felisa Wolfe-Simon (33) reported that a strange bacterium,
Halomonadaceae, found in California's Mono Lake, thrives on arsenic
and redefines life as we know it. She said the bacterium does not
merely eat arsenic, but incorporates the toxic element directly into
its DNA. Her finding stirred much controversy. In 2012 scientists
reported that the bacteria is just resistant to arsenic and actually
dependent for life on phosphorous.
(Reuters, 12/2/10)(SFC, 5/28/11, p.C1)(SFC,
7/10/12, p.C3)
2011 Jan 4, Cornelius Dupree
Jr., a Texas man, was declared innocent after 30 years in prison. He
had at least two chances to make parole and be set free, if only he
would admit he was a sex offender. Dupree refused to do so, doggedly
maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery. In the process
he serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other
Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Feb 22, Mexico’s
government announced that it plans to include voice and DNA samples
in a database of the nation's 620,000 police and public safety
employees as a control measure. Police in Acapulco, where the
Mexican Open tennis tournament is being held, found the bodies of
seven men, some mutilated. In Mazatlan two men were shot to death in
the parking lot of a hotel frequented by foreign tourists. Neither
of the victims were tourists. Authorities in Acapulco found the
bodies of two men and a woman in a stolen taxi.
(AP, 2/22/11)(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 May 12, In Texas a judge
freed a Dallas man who spent 27 years in prison for aggravated
sexual assault before DNA evidence cleared him. Johnny Pinchback
became the 22nd person to be exonerated through DNA testing in
Dallas County since 2001. He was found to have been wrongly
convicted of raping two teenage girls in a Dallas field in 1984.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 Jul 29, A US federal court
said that human genes can be patented, reversing a 2010 decision
against patents held by Myriad Genetics. Patents on genes have been
awarded for almost 30 years.
(SFC, 7/30/11, p.D2)
2011 Oct 12, A Texas appeals
court formally exonerated Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years
in prison for his wife's 1986 fatal beating, reaffirming a judge's
decision to set him free last week after DNA tests linked the
killing to another man.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 26, The X Prize
Foundation offered a $10 million prize to the first team to
sequence the genomes of 100 centenarians. The contest will
begin in January 2013 and last for 30 days.
(Econ, 10/29/11, p.95)
2011 A new British law allowed
police to collect DNA from offenders who had been convicted of
serious offenses before the DNA database was created in 1995.
Europe's top human rights court in 2008 struck down a British law
that allowed the government to store DNA and fingerprints from
people with no criminal record.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2012 Mar 16, In California
Sierra LaMar (15) was last seen at her home in Morgan Hill getting
ready for school. On May 21 police arrested Antolin Garcia-Torres
(21) in connection to the missing teen. His DNA was found on
clothing in LaMar's bag recovered shortly after her
disappearance. In Feb, 2014, Garcia-Torres was charged with
murder. On May 9, 2017, a Santa Clara County jury convicted
Garcia-Torres of murder. On June 5 a jury voted for a sentence of
life in prison without parole. On Dec 12 a judge sentenced him to
life in prison without the possibility of parole.
(SFC, 5/22/12, p.C2)(SSFC, 7/13/14, p.C8)(SFC,
5/10/17, p.D1)(SFC, 6/6/17, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/17, p.D3)
2012 Apr 30, Robert "Rider"
Dewey, a Colorado man, was exonerated on the basis of new DNA
evidence and set free after spending more than 16 years behind bars.
He was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the
June, 1994, rape and murder of Jacie Taylor (19), who found
strangled with a dog leash. New analysis showed DNA samples matched
the DNA of Douglas Thames, who is serving a life sentence without
parole for the 1989 rape and strangulation of Susan Doll (39) of
Fort Collins.
(Reuters, 4/30/12)
2012 Apr 30, In Texas two men
who spent nearly 30 years in prison for a brutal sexual assault and
attempted murder were declared innocent after DNA evidence pointed
to other men. James Curtis Williams (54) and Raymond Jackson (67)
had been sentenced to 99 years in prison for the November 1983
assault of a Canadian woman who identified them in a lineup as her
attackers. Two other men who were connected to the crime through DNA
testing have been charged with attempted capital murder.
(Reuters, 4/30/12)
2012 Apr, A new DNA study in
the Journal of Genetic Genealogy found that genetic evidence shows
that Tennessee families historically called Melungeons are the
offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or
central European origin. Beginning in the early 1800s, or possibly
before, the term Melungeon (meh-LUN'-jun) was applied as a slur to a
group of about 40 families along the Tennessee-Virginia border.
(AP, 5/24/12)
2012 May 3, The journal Science
reported that a single gene mutation is responsible for the unique
pairing of very dark skin and very blond hair in the Solomon
Islands. The findings debunked theories Solomon Islanders got their
blond hair from intermarrying with European explorers.
(http://home.topnewstoday.org/Crime/article/2169304/)
2012 May 30, A consortium of
geneticists reported that they have decoded the genome of the tomato
and that is has 31,760 genes, about 7,000 times more than human
beings. They sequenced both the Heinz 1706 variety, used for
ketchup, and its closest wild relative, Solanum pimpinellifolium,
from the highlands of Peru.
(SFC, 5/31/12, p.A10)
2012 Jun 7, In Japan Govinda
Prasad Mainali (45) was released from jail after DNA tests confirmed
he could not have committed the killing of a 39-year-old Japanese
woman in 1997. The Nepalese migrant worker had served 15 years in a
Japanese jail. Mainali was acquitted in April 2000 but remained in
prison pending an appeal by prosecutors, who maintained he had
robbed and murdered the victim because he was short of cash.
(AFP, 6/16/12)
2012 Sep 5, It was reported
that the government of Kashmir has rejected wide-scale DNA testing
of bodies in thousands of unmarked graves despite pleas by the
families of those who disappeared during two decades of fighting in
the restive region.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 17, In North Carolina
new DNA evidence was presented in the case against convicted Dr.
Jerry MacDonald (68) regarding the Feb 17, 1970 murders of his wife
and 2 daughters. The evidence pointed to other suspects.
(SFC, 9/18/12, p.A7)
2012 Sep 19, An int’l. team of
researchers published the full genome of the Pacific oyster,
Crassostrea gigas, making it the first mollusk fully sequenced.
(SFC, 9/20/12, p.A7)
2012 Sep 28, Damon Thibodeaux
(38) of Louisiana was released from death row after serving 15 years
for a slaying that DNA evidence showed he did not commit. He was the
18th death row prisoner freed based on such evidence.
(SFC, 9/29/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 6, French police
carried out raids across the country after DNA on a grenade that
exploded last Sep 19 at a kosher grocery store led them to a
suspected jihadist cell of young Frenchmen recently converted to
Islam. A man named by police as Jeremy Sydney, was killed by police
after he opened fire on them, slightly wounding three officers in
the eastern city of Strasbourg. Eleven other suspects were arrested
across the country.
(AP, 10/6/12)
2012 Nov 1, Michela Wooldridge
(24), a homeless woman, was stabbed to death in Santa Rosa, Ca. On
Aug 19, 2014, police arrested Jessy Zetino (22) after DNA evidence
tied him to the murder.
(SFC, 8/21/14, p.D2)
2012 Dec 10, PM Cameron said
Britain will be the first country to introduce a database of genetic
sequences into a mainstream health service, giving doctors a more
advanced understanding of a patient's illness and what drugs and
other treatments they need.
(Reuters, 12/10/12)
2012 CRISPR (clustered
regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) was first shown to
work as a genome engineering/editing tool in human cell culture by
this time. Clustered repeats were first described in 1987 for the
bacterium Escherichia coli by Yoshizumi Ishino, but at that time
their function was not known.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR)(Econ,
8/22/15, p.19)
2013 Jan 3, The first report of
genome editing was reported in separate papers by Feng Zhang, who
began applying CRISPR-Cas9 in human cells in early 2011, and George
Church.
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.22)
2013 Feb 15, The EU agreed to
begin random DNA checks on meat products in a bid to put a lid on a
spreading scandal over horsemeat.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 20, The Czech
Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority said DNA tests showed two
batches of frozen Nowaco Lasagne Bolognese in a branch of the Tesco
supermarket chain in the western city of Pilsen contained horsemeat.
Luxembourg was listed as the country of origin.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 22, Frozen food maker
Birds Eye said it would withdraw some products in Britain and
Ireland after it found traces of horse DNA in one of its ready meals
sold in Belgium.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Mar 1, Britain’s Food
Standards Agency said traces of horse meat has been found in ground
beef sold by Taco Bell, which has only three British outlets. Horse
DNA also was found in Birds Eye spaghetti Bolognese and beef lasagna
and spicy minced beef skewers from catering supplier Brakes.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 5, Frozen food maker
Birds Eye said horse meat DNA found in two of its products came from
an Irish meat processor that is part of one of Ireland's largest
agricultural businesses. The company said investigations had found
its Belgian supplier Frigilunch NV had unknowingly sourced meat with
horse DNA from Irish meat processor QK Meats.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 27, A team of int’l.
scientists reported the discovery of dozens of signposts in DNA that
can help reveal a person’s risk for breast, ovarian or prostate
cancer.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A10)
2013 Apr 17, Scientists
reported the decoding of the coelacanth genome, whose eggs hatch
inside the mother’s body. Its 2.8 billion DNA units are about the
same as the human genome.
(SFC, 4/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Jun 3, The US Supreme
Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that police may take a DNA swab from
people arrested for crimes without first getting a warrant to do so.
(AP, 6/3/13)
2013 Jun 13, The US Supreme
Court ruled that companies cannot patent parts of
naturally-occurring human genes, a decision with the potential to
profoundly affect the emerging and lucrative medical and
biotechnology industries. The court gave Myriad Genetics a partial
victory, ruling that while naturally-occurring DNA was not
patentable, synthetically-created DNA could be patented.
(AP, 6/13/13)
2013 Oct 25, Greek authorities
said DNA tests have confirmed that Sasha Ruseva, a Bulgarian Roma
woman (35), is the mother of a mysterious girl in Greece known as
Maria.
(AP, 10/25/13)(SFC, 10/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 4, Scientists reported
mitochondrial DNA results from a human thighbone found in Spain
estimated to be 400,000 years old. The DNA showed a closer relation
to Denisovans who lived in Siberia than to Neanderthals.
(SFC, 12/5/13, p.A9)
2014 Jan 1, Lebanon’s defense
minister said Lebanese troops have arrested Said citizen Majid
al-Majid, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an
al-Qaeda-linked group that claimed a double suicide bombing at the
Iranian embassy in Beirut in November. DNA testing confirmed the
identity of al-Majid.
(AFP, 1/1/14)(AP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 27, South Africa’s
Pres. Zuma signed a “DNA Act” to match more sexual offenders,
including many who break the law more than once, with their crimes,
exonerate the wrongly accused and crack cold cases.
(AP, 2/21/14)
2014 Mar 19, IBM said it is
teaming up with the New York Genome Center to help fight brain
cancer. IBM said its Watson cloud computing system will be used in
partnership with the genetic research center to help sequence DNA
for the treatment of glioblastoma, the most common type of brain
cancer in US adults.
(SFC, 3/20/14, p.C2)
2014 Apr 14, French police
demanded that male students and staff at a high school in western
France — 527 people in total — give DNA samples as they searched for
the assailant who raped a teenage girl in La Rochelle. Investigators
had exhausted all other leads in the Sept. 30 rape of the girl in a
dark bathroom at the school.
(AP, 4/14/14)
2014 Jul 25, A Texas judge
recommended that Michael Phillips (57) of Dallas be exonerated based
on recent DNA evidence that absolved him of a 1990 rape for which he
served 12 years in prison.
(SFC, 7/26/14, p.A7)
2014 Oct 30, Researchers in
Sweden said they have identified genetic variations at two key sites
the human genome that may distinguish extremely violent individuals
following a study of some 794 convicts in Finland.
(SFC, 10/31/14, p.A7)(Econ, 11/1/14, p.75)
2015 Feb 3, British lawmakers
in the House of Commons voted to allow scientists to create babies
from the DNA of three people, a move that could prevent some
children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their
mothers.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 May 14, In Washington DC
businessman Savvas Savopoulos, president and CEO of American Iron
Works, a building materials company in Maryland, his wife Amy, their
10-year-old son Philip and the family's housekeeper Veralicia
Figueroa -- were found bound and bludgeoned after a fire gutted the
millionaire's mansion. On May 21 Daron Dylon Wint (34) was arrested
along with three other men and two women following a DNA lead
gleaned from a pizza crust.
(AFP, 5/22/15)
2015 Aug 4, Kuwait reported
that the Interior Ministry will soon prepare a DNA database of all
persons living or visiting the country.
(SSFC, 8/9/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 7, Sweden's Tomas
Lindahl, Paul Modrich of the United States and Aziz Sancar, a
Turkish-American, won the 2015 Nobel Chemistry Prize for work on how
cells repair damaged DNA.
(AFP, 10/7/15)
2015 Oct 19, Turkey’s PM Ahmet
Davutoglu confirmed that one of the suicide bombers in the Oct 10
attack in Ankara had been officially identified through DNA testing.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Dec 28, In France DNA
traces helped police identify and arrest a Frenchman (40) suspected
of 33 rapes or attempted rapes in a suburban Paris forest from 1995
to 2001.
(AP, 12/30/15)
2015 Matthew Cobb authored
“Life’s Greatest Secret: The Story of the Race to Crack the Genetic
Code.”
(Econ, 8/8/15, p.71)
2016 Jan 4, Editas Medicine
filed for an IPO. The company offered new technology, called CRISPR
Cas9, allowing DNA to be cut and edited.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.54)
2016 Aug 2, In NYC Karina
Vetrano (30) was strangled to death while jogging. Her body was
found five hours later in a marshy park in her Queens neighborhood.
Officials hoped to use familial DNA to find her killer. On Feb 4,
2017, Chanel Lewis (20) was taken into custody after DNA evidence
linked him to the murder. Lewis' trial on Nov. 20, 2018, ended in a
hung jury. On April 1, 2019, Lewis was convicted of murder and
sexual abuse.
(http://tinyurl.com/jogkppa)(SFC, 12/10/16,
p.A11)(SSFC, 2/5/17, p.A4)(SFC, 11/22/18, p.A8)(SFC, 4/3/19, p.A7)
2016 Dec 5, German police in
the western city of Bochum arrested an Iraqi asylum-seeker (31) on
suspicion of sexually assaulting two Chinese students. DNA evidence
linked the man to an attack and attempted rape of a Chinese woman
(21) in August, and of raping a Chinese woman (27) in November.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 15, Britain’s
fertility regulator approved controversial techniques allowing
doctors to create babies using DNA from three people. The techniques
were developed to help prevent some children from inheriting
potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A6)
2017 Mar 16, Scientists at
Britain's Newcastle University received a license to create babies
using DNA from three people to prevent women from passing on
potentially fatal genetic diseases to their children — the first
time such approval has been granted.
(AP, 3/16/17)
2017 Apr 2, In Germany a
Ghanaian man (31) reportedly raped a camper at knife-point in front
of her boyfriend days after being denied asylum, while the couple
was camping near Bonn. He was arrested five days later after DNA
evidence linked him to the crime.
(AP, 9/25/17)
2017 Jun 9, In Germany Felix R.
(21) was arrested over the killing of two foreign women in
Nuremberg. A woman (22) with Romanian and Hungarian citizenship was
killed in Nuremberg on May 24. The second victim, a Chinese woman
(44), was killed in the city June 5. DNA from the crime scene also
corresponded to that of the suspect.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Aug 11, Denmark arrested
Peter Madsen on preliminary manslaughter charges after his 40-ton,
nearly 18-meter-long (60-foot-long) submarine sank off the country’s
eastern coast. He has denied responsibility for the fate of Kim Wall
(30), saying she had disembarked before his vessel went down. Madsen
later said Wall died in an accident on board the vessel, and that he
dumped her body in the sea on August 10. On August 21 a headless
torso of a woman was found on the south coast of the isle of Amager,
near Copenhagen. On Aug 23 police confirmed that DNA tests of the
torso matched Wall. Madsen later told a pre-trial custody hearing
that she died after she was accidentally hit by a heavy hatch in the
submarine's tower.
(AP, 8/12/17)(AFP, 8/21/17)(AP, 8/22/17)(AP,
8/23/17)(AP, 9/5/17)
2017 Aug 22, Missouri Gov. Eric
Greitens halted the scheduled execution of Marcellus Williams after
DNA testing raised questions about whether he actually killed Lisha
Gayle during a robbery in 1998. Williams maintained his innocence
and said the case against him is based entirely on the word of a
former girlfriend and a former cellmate who he insists were only
looking for a piece of the $10,000 reward offered in the case.
(SFC, 8/23/17, p.A7)
2017 Aug 27, In southeastern
France a girl (9) disappeared from a wedding party in
Pont-de-Beauvoisin, 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Lyon. Police dogs
found the girl's trace but lost it in the village hall's car park,
suggesting she may have got into a car. On Sep 3 a local man (34),
who was among the guests, was remanded in custody on charges of
"kidnapping, illegal confinement or arbitrary detention" after her
DNA was found in his car.
(AP, 8/31/17)(AP, 9/4/17)
2017 Nov 13, Scientists for the
first time tried editing a gene inside a patient’s body in an
attempt to permanently change their DNA to cure a disease. In
Oakland, Ca., Brian Madeux (44) received billions of copies of
a corrective gene a nd a genetic tool to cut his DNA in a precise
spot to treat a metabolic disease called Hunter syndrome.
(SFC, 11/16/17, p.C1)
2017 Nov 22, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown pardoned inmate Craig Richard Coley (70) after DNA tests
showed he was wrongfully convicted nearly four decades ago of
killing his ex-girlfriend and her son (4) in 1978.
(SFC, 11/22/17, p.A7)
2017 Dec 13, Human Right Watch
said Chinese authorities have collected DNA and other biometric data
from the whole population of the volatile western region of
Xinjiang, denouncing the campaign as a gross violation of
international norms.
(Reuters, 12/13/17)
2018 Jan 9, In Pakistan the
body of Zainab Ansari (8) was found in a garbage bin in Kasur city,
Punjab province. Police said she had been abducted last week, raped
and murdered. DNA testing later linked the killing to at least five
other cases of child abuse and murder in Kasur. eight suspects were
soon detained.
(AP, 1/10/18)(SSFC, 1/14/18, p.A4)
2018 Apr 25, California police
booked Joseph James DeAngelo (72), a one time cop, into the
Sacramento Cpounty Jail on suspicion of two counts of murder. He was
accused of shooting a young couple to death near their Rancho
Cordoba home in 1978. Authorities using DNA linked him to the serial
killer know as the "East Area Rapist" responsible for at least 12
slayings anf 45 rapes in communties across the state from 1976 to
1986.
(SFC, 4/26/18, p.A1)
2018 Jul 25, The European Court
of Justice (ECJ) said mutagenesis-based gene-editing methods such as
CRISPR/Cas9, which can rearrange targeted bits of DNA, fall under
rules that now apply to genetic modification via strands of DNA from
a different species.
(Reuters, 7/27/18)
2018 Sep 20, In the SF Bay Area
Roy Charles Waller (58) of Benicia was taken into custody in
Berkeley after being linked to DNA evidence from crimes by his
family lineage. Waller was suspected of being the NorCal Rapist, a
serial predator accused of sexually assaulting women over a span of
15 years beginning in 1991. On Jan. 7, 2019, Waller was charged with
28 new crimes.
(SFC, 9/22/18, p.A1)(SFC, 1/8/19, p.C4)
2018 Oct 19, In northern
California William Deen Brown (39) was arrested in Santa Rosa after
DNA evidence linked him to the rape of a girl (14) near a Rohnert
Park creek.
(SSFC, 10/21/18, p.C3)
2018 Nov 26, Chinese researcher
He Jiankui of Shenzhen claimed that he helped make the world's first
genetically edited babies, twin girls born this month, whose DNA he
said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the
very blueprint of life. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent
an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people
naturally have — an ability to resist possible future infection with
HIV, the AIDS virus.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 29, China's government
ordered a halt to work by a medical team that claimed to have helped
make the world's first gene-edited babies, as a group of leading
scientists declared that it's still too soon to try to make
permanent changes to DNA that can be inherited by future
generations.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Dec 29, In Arizona an
incapacitated woman (29) with significant intellectual disabilities
at the Hacienda Health-Care facility gave birth following a sexual
assault. Nathan Sutherland, a nurse whose DNA police said matches a
sample from the baby, later pleaded not guilty to charges of rape.
(SFC, 1/14/19, p.A4)(SFC, 1/21/19, p.A4)(SSFC,
2/10/19, p.A8)
2019 Jan 16, In Nevada Wilber
Ernesto Martinez-Guzman (20), an illegal immigrant from El Salvador,
fatally shot a Reno couple with it at their home with a gun stolen
from the couple two weeks earlier. The couple had employed him as a
landscaper. His DNA was found on the revolver also used to kill
Connie Koontz and Sophia Renken in their homes in Gardnerville.
Koontz was found dead Jan. 10. Renken's body was found Jan. 13.
Martinez-Guzman was arrested Jan. 19 in Carson City.
(SFC, 1/29/19, p.A5)(AP, 2/8/19)
2019 Jan 22, Thailand police
said DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of
the Mekong River in the northeast are the corpses of anti-government
activists. The two, known by the pseudonyms Puchana and Kasalong,
were among three exiled activists who disappeared in December from
homes in Laos, where they took shelter after fleeing Thailand.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Apr 3, South Carolina
police arrested Brook Graham (53) after DNA evidence submitted to
family genealogy sites led them to find and arrest her for the death
of a baby abandoned 29 years ago. She was charged with homicide by
neglect.
(SFC, 4/5/19, p.A4)
2019 Apr 10, Kentucky law
enforcement officials said they are helping to pioneer new crime
fighting technology, the ANDA Rapid DNA system, that will them to
more quickly identify sexual assault offenders and clear those
falsely accused.
(SFC, 4/12/19)
2019 Apr 11, A team of Greek
and Spanish doctors announced the birth of a baby using DNA from
three people after a controversial fertility treatment that has
provoked intense ethical debate. A similar DNA-switching technique
was used in Mexico in 2016 to avoid transmission of a mother's
hereditary illness to her child.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Jun 3, It was reported
that people with a DNA mutation that reduces their chance of HIV
infection may die sooner, according to a study that suggests
tinkering with a gene to try to fix one problem may cause others.
(AP, 6/3/19)
2019 Aug 7, Kary Banks Mullis
(b.1944), Nobel Prize winner (1993), died at his home in Newport
Beach, Ca. He was awarded the prize in chemistry for developing
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which allowed molecular
biologists to create millions of copies of a single strand of DNA in
a few hours.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis)(SFC,
8/13/19, p.C3)
2019 Aug 16, Coral Springs
police said Timothy Norris (60) has been charged in the knifepoint
rape of a Florida woman at her home in 1983. DNA evidence led
authorities to Norris serving time for bank robbery at a West
Virginia federal prison.
(AP, 8/18/19)
2019 Sep 19, It was reported
that scientists have deciphered features of the skull and some other
details of a mysterious, extinct cousin of Neanderthals by analyzing
its DNA. The genetic material came from the finger bone of a female
member of the Denisovans, a population known mostly from small bone
fragments and teeth recovered in Siberia's Denisova Cave.
(AP, 9/19/19)
2019 Sep 27, US federal agents
conducted a search of Clio Laboratories in Lawrenceville, Georgia,
as part of a nationwide crackdown into genetic-testing fraud against
federal health insurance programs. Operation "Double Helix" targeted
telemarketing companies, doctors and labs that enticed seniors to
get their cheeks swabbed for unneeded DNA tests.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)(SSFC, 9/29/19, p.A7)
2019 Oct 22, Mexico's foreign
ministry said it is worried by a US proposed rule to collect genetic
samples from migrants, adding to concerns by immigration advocates
about the storage of DNA samples for minors and asylum seekers.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2020 Jan 6, The US government
launched a pilot program to collect DNA from people in immigration
custody and submit it to the FBI, with plans to expand nationwide.
(AP, 1/6/20)
2020 Feb 13, Ricky Davis was
ordered released from custody in Placerville, near Sacramento, 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 in the killing of his housemate. Davis
had spent about 15 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted
in the case.
(The Guardian, 2/14/20)
2020 Sep 30, European
scientists reported that genes that some people have inherited from
their Neanderthal ancestors may increase their likelihood of
suffering severe forms of COVID-19.
(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Oct 7, Emmanuelle
Charpentier of France and Jennifer A. Doudna of the USA were awarded
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They developed the Crispr tool, which
can alter the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with high
precision.
(NY Times, 10/7/20)
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End of file