Conversation

Your DNA is everywhere. It floats in the air. And it's easy to sequence. With a $1,000 Nanopore machine, researchers recovered DNA strands up to 150,000 bases in length. They found an entire mitochondrial genome & unearthed a person's genetic disease.
After researchers scooped up water from a creek in Florida, they recovered millions of strands of DNA. "Someone whose [DNA] turned up in the sample had a mutation that could lead to a rare disease that causes progressive neurological impairment and is often fatal...."
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"The illness is hereditary and may not emerge until a patient’s 40s." "Does that person know? Does the person’s family? Does the person’s insurance company?" Scientists need permission to collect such samples. Law enforcement does not.
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Here is some data from the paper. They collect DNA from sand, water, and air. 🔻 (Moral: If you commit a crime, don't go near water? Or actually breathe at all? Or do anything?)
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Also published yesterday: You can "reconstruct personal information" -- including sex & ancestry -- from trace amounts of human DNA in poop. *Even after you filter for human reads.* AKA Human DNA is present in "anonymized" fecal microbiome data.
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