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DNA Extraction From Fingerprints
Myriad writes "A Canadian scientist has developed a new way of gathering DNA evidence for analysis using fingerprints. The new test can extract DNA in 15 minutes - even from a print stored for many years and in varying conditions. The patented extraction technique consistently produces ~10 nanograms of DNA. Analysis generally requires 5-10 nanograms, although it is possible with as little as 0.1 nanogram."
partially correct. sweat molecules do not contain DNA...DNA is a seperate molecule. what they're getting the DNA from is the nucleus of any skin cells left behind
sure DNA can be "smudged". at room temperature and with no protecting buffer around it, it will degrade quite rapidly. that's why this technique can (so far) only be used for id, not for medical applications where you will need long stretches of undegraded functional DNA.
You don't need a court order to collect and analyze DNA at all.
You do need a warrant to forcibly extract DNA. However, if law enforcement officials find DNA at the crime scene, or anywhere else (without conducting an illegal search), they are permitted to analyze it and use it.
Yes, surely we're moving in that direction. All of our military personnel already has its DNA on file. And this information has already been used successfully to find and convict the *relative* of a retired veteran. So the question is, do you have a relative in the military? And if you do, you can bet the US government already has some of your DNA in its database. DNA profiling is what they call it. The problem is so bad, conspiracy theorists have already given up and started to handle pennies again.
Uh, "hair cells"???? Hair is *not* made of cells, it contains no DNA. The root does, but to get that, the perp had to be plucking out his hair and get a root out...
If you are working with such small samples with nothing exta to verify against, how do you know you got a good sample? You don't. And the older the sample, or more public the collection location, the more like that there will be contamination. Reasonable doubt. Defendant Aquitted. Case Closed.
Fingerprints may be unique, but identification techniques aren't. That is unless, when you leave fingerprints do you so at a nice constant pressure, on a reasonably oil free surface. But as someone who routinely extracts nucleic acids as a living, I have a hard time beleiving the claims of extraction long after the fingerprint has been deposited. DNA isn't exactly heat stable, not to mention the legal disaster if you.. ahem.. had someone elses DNA on your fingers...