Man’s DNA Replaced by That of Donor Following Bone Marrow Transplant

Just three months after undergoing a bone marrow transplant to treat his acute myeloid leukemia, a Nevada man was shocked to learn that his DNA had been replaced by that of his donor.

For years ago, Chris Long, who happens to be working at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Department in Nevada, was suffering from acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes and needed a bone marrow transplant. He was lucky enough to find a donor, a German man that he had never met and with whom he only exchanged a few messages before the surgery, but he had no idea that in a few months time he would turn into his donor, sort of. As soon as Chris’ work colleagues heard that he was undergoing a bone marrow transplant, they decided to “swab the heck out of him” to see how his DNA changed. And it’s a good thing they did, because the changes were fascinating.

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High-School Student Injects Himself with DNA Pattern Made from Bible and Koran Verses

Adrien Locatelli, a young bio-hacker from the French city of Grenoble, has been called an “idiot” for undergoing a bizarre DIY experiment in which he injected himself with a DNA pattern made from translated passages from the Bible and the Koran.

Locatelli, who is believed to still be in high-school, started off by selecting passages from the Christian and Muslim holy books that he wanted stored in his body in the form of DNA. He then assigned one of the four letters corresponding to the chemicals that DNA is made of (ACGT) to every character in the passages, in the order GACT. Using a free online tool, the daring experimenter translated the nucleotide information into protein sequences that he ended up injecting into his thighs. Why? Simply because he was curious to know if it could be done.

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Man Comes Home Two Months After DNA Test Showed That He Was Dead

Aigali Supugaliev, a 63-year-old man from Kazakhstan, almost gave his relatives a heart attack when he returned home two months after they had buried his body. And while stories of people showing up after being presumed dead by their families have made news headlines before, Aigali’s one is particularly bizarre because his death had been confirmed by a DNA test.

It all started on July 9, when Aigali Supugaliev’s relatives reported him missing from his village of Tomarly, in Kazakhstan. They had no idea that the unmarried man had been offered a four-month job on a distant farm, as he had not bothered to inform them about it, so when a decomposed body was discovered near his house, everyone feared the worse. The corpse was reportedly in such a bad state that Aigali’s family couldn’t identify it by physical traits, so a DNA test was commissioned. Believe it or not, the test showed that there was a 99.29% probability (the highest this kind of test can give) that the discovered body was that of Supugaliev, so an official death certificate was issued, and the man’s brother organized a funeral.

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Would You Pay $30,000 to Have a Beer Tailored to Your DNA?

A London-based brewery has recently launched a unique service that uses cutting edge genetic profiling to create “the world’s most personalised beer”, based on the client’s DNA profile. And it “only” costs £25,000 ($30,550).

Ciaran Giblin, the brewmaster of Meantime Brewery, was the world’s first brewer to have a beer tailored to his own DNA, and was so satisfied with the result that he teamed up with a personal genetics company called 23andMe to offer this bespoke service to other beer enthusiasts with money to spare.

“Having been aware of the potential of at-home genetic mapping, I sent a simple saliva sample to 23andMe; the results gave me the tools I needed to develop a recipe based on the elements my senses are most attuned to enjoy,” Giblin said. “I’m delighted with the result and opportunity it has given us to really push the boundaries of innovative, personalised brewing.”

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