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Would You Sequence Your Baby’s Genome?

NY Press — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 04:57:06 +0000

With DNA science becoming more advanced and accessible, parents may have to decide how much genetic info they really want.

By Whitney C. Harris

Would you sequence your baby’s genome? It sounds like a question from some futuristic sci-fi thriller, but it’s slowly becoming a reality for present day parents according to this recent NPR feature by Rob Stein.

Whole genome sequencing–the process of uncovering the entire DNA makeup of a living creature as early as in utero–just might become the next major decision that expectant parents need to make on the journey through pregnancy, as the procedure is becoming more common and less costly.

To read the full article, please visit newyorkfamily.com.

Nabe Chatter: Box Cutter Rapist Convicted, Ex-EV Officer Sentenced, World AIDS Day

NYPress — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:36:11 +0000

Box Cutter Rapist Convicted on All Counts
Thanks to DNA evidence, Andres Suarez, 30, of the Bronx, was recently convicted on all charges for raping and assaulting a woman in her Soho apartment in 2008. During the trial in the New York Supreme Court, the jury found Suarez guilty on all the counts, including predatory sexual assault, rape in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, attempted rape in the first degree and sexual abuse in the first degree.

As proven at trial, in the early morning of May 28, 2008, Suarez followed a 19-year-old woman from the 14th Street subway station to the Spring Street station. Upon exiting the train, Suarez followed the victim, and as she entered her building, he rushed in and followed her to her apartment. Suarez forced her into the courtyard and raped her at knifepoint.

DNA evidence was collected at the scene and was entered into the New York State DNA Database. There were no matches at the time, and the crime went unsolved until Suarez’s information was entered into the system in 2011 after he was convicted for an unrelated crime.

“Using DNA evidence, the skilled prosecutors in our office’s Sex Crimes Unit were able to ensure that this defendant was held responsible for this terrible crime,” District Attorney Vance said.
Suarez is expected to be sentenced Dec. 12.

Former East Village Officer Sentenced to Over 15 Years
Earlier this year, former New York City Police Officer Nicholas Mina, who served in the East Village’s 9th Precinct, pleaded guilty to numerous charges of stealing police-issued firearms and selling them on the underground market. Last week, the Queens resident, 32, was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison for his crimes.

He was convicted of charges including the criminal sale of firearms, sale of a controlled substance, conspiracy and grand larceny.

After serving on the police force for more than three years, Mina confessed to stealing and selling police-issued guns on the black market for over six months to fund his addiction to prescription drugs.

“The defendant took an oath to protect New Yorkers from criminals. Instead, he worked alongside a gun trafficker in order to feed his drug addiction,” District Attorney Vance said in a statement.
Vance applauded the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the Firearms Investigation Unit for its work with the case investigating missing firearms from the 9th Precinct station house and monitoring Mina’s illegal sales of the stolen guns.

AIDS Activists Climb Flagpoles At City Hall Park

Two members of Housing Works, a New York-based advocacy group that supports health-care issues and HIV/AIDS patients, climbed two 40-foot flagpoles at the southern end of City Hall Park in lower Manhattan on Wednesday, Nov. 28, around 10:45 a.m. The activists, wearing helmets and climbing gear, unfurled a 30-foot banner that read “Housing Is Healthcare: House People Living With HIV/AIDS” after quickly climbing to the top of the flagpoles without being noticed by several police officers in the vicinity.

Police arrived soon after, blocking the sidewalk and the area immediately under the flagpoles and calling in a cherry picker to bring down the activists. Other Housing Works activists held signs and cheered on Tony Ray and the other unidentified flagpole climber from the ground.

“I am up here today because of the lack of attention to housing for people with AIDS,” Ray said through a megaphone high above the crowd. “If people with AIDS have a safe place to live and a place for them to refrigerate their meds, they are going to stay healthy.”

The two activists stayed on the flagpoles for around 25 minutes before they were removed peaceably by the NYPD and arrested without incident.

The civil disobedience came shortly before World AIDS Day, a global day to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is observed each year on Dec. 1.

Compiled by Aaron Adler and John Friia

Downtown Dance Center to Disappear?

Our Town Downtown — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:04:24 +0000

Dancers Warm Up Photo by Amy Eley

Lower Manhattan’s Dance New Amsterdam in danger of closing

By Amy Eley

On the second floor of Dance New Amsterdam’s downtown studio, a dancer balances his weight on his palms while extending his legs into the air. An arm’s reach away, a woman practices her pirouettes. This studio, often referred to as DNA, is an epicenter of the city’s dance community.

“There is nowhere else in New York City for dancers to have space and time to develop their craft,” said Martha Chapman, chairman of the board. “DNA is an integral linchpin in the community.”

But this linchpin, which has been part of the Manhattan dance scene since 1984, is at risk of becoming loosened from Lower Manhattan’s culture scene within the coming weeks.

The nonprofit organization, at 280 Broadway, lost a major sub-leaser of studio space in the summer months, leaving the organization with a $150,000 rent deficit. The studio has been able to gather $50,000 to pay part of the past due rent, through earned revenue, fundraisers, silent auctions and donations.

Still, Catherine Peila, executive and artistic director of DNA, says the group is in crisis mode to produce the $100,000 difference.

“It’s a working beehive, and everyone is buzzing,” said Peila. “There isn’t a lazy bone in the house.”

Peila is not exaggerating; the studio swarms with activity. It houses six dance studios, a 150-seat theater and approximately 140 classes each week. On a recent evening, a teacher pounded a drum in studio one, providing eight dancers with a tempo as they dipped their torsos to the floor with their hips centered to stretch. The neighboring room teaches Gaga (no relation to the pop star), an Israeli-based choreography. And at the end of the hallway, the sound of handclaps and feet pattering on wood floors fills the air during a flamenco class.

Even local politicians are providing support for the studio, including Julie Menin, former chair of Community Board 1 and a candidate for Manhattan borough president.

“It brings a real support of arts to the area,” said Menin. “People from all over the city come to attend.”

State Sen. Daniel Squadron says the studio is a driving force in downtown’s efforts to recover from 9/11. In June, Squadron helped DNA reach a new lease agreement before the sub-leaser abandoned the nonprofit.

“DNA has been an integral part of Lower Manhattan’s recovery, and critical to our neighborhood’s emergence as one of New York’s burgeoning cultural centers,” said Squadron.

Phone calls to the studio’s landlord were not returned.

The studio’s disappearance will be a loss to the city’s dance culture, eliminating what many in the industry say is an essential stepping-stone for performers on the road to professional dancing, says Peila, the executive director.

For aspiring dancers, the loss of the studio will cut deep. Fresh out of college in 2008, Anna Adams Stark, now 26, began taking dance classes while also getting involved with DNA’s production apprenticeship program that teaches participants the ins and outs of producing a show. As a result, Stark says she has learned skills both on and off the dance floor that have led to paying jobs. After meeting modern dancer Alexandra Beller at DNA, Stark became her rehearsal stage manager.

“Most of my jobs I’ve gotten are through people I’ve met in class or in the hallway at DNA,” said Stark. “It really is a community. People really want to be here. People really want to learn. These are my people.”

Link Between OWS Protest and Unsolved 2004 Murder is Result of Lab Mistake (Updated)

NYPress — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:13:50 +0000

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

UPDATE: It turns out that the only connection between the DNA sample lifted from a subway gate at a recent Occupy Wall Street protest and DNA collected in the unsolved 2004 murder of Juilliard student Sarah Fox was an NYPD lab worker who processed both, the Daily News reported Wednesday.

The matching DNA was found to be the NYPD employee’s, which means that the samples were contaminated. According to the Daily News’s sources, the employee, whose identity has not been released, will likely face departmental charges for failing to prevent tainting.

- – -

It could be straight out of a pulpy crime drama, but this time it’s for real. A DNA sample collected at a recent Occupy Wall Street protest eerily matches DNA collected in the unsolved 2004 murder of 21-year-old Juilliard student Sarah Fox. Does this point to a connection or mere coincidence? Was the DNA lifted at the protest in fact that of a protester, and, further, what would have prompted the NYPD to lift DNA from the scene in the first place?

(by Alissa Fleck)

The sample collected in connection with OWS was found on a chain used to “prop open the gates at an East Flatbush subway station…designed to let straphangers ride for free,” reports am NY. Realistically, the sample could have come from anywhere.

The DNA is a match to that taken from Fox’s CD player, which she brought with her on a jog in May of 2004, immediately prior to her disappearance and murder.

The shared DNA did not hit on any known criminal in the database, reports am NY. Officials are quick not to jump to conclusions, saying it’s possible evidence was simply handled by a common officer in both cases. The sample on Fox’s CD player was never shown to match her case’s primary suspect or any friends or family.

So is it simply coincidence, or is there a more sinister element at play—could this discovery provide renewed hope for the 8-year-old unsolved murder?

Dr. Lawrence Koblinsky, a forensics expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told NBC New York, “the likelihood is high the person who left that DNA on the CD player is the killer of Sarah Fox.”

The link is odd and serendipitous enough as is, but additionally strange seems the decision to collect DNA evidence in the case of an OWS protest. The collection of DNA in an isolated incident like this one begs the question of when it is protocol for the NYPD to collect a DNA sample. What sort of cost does it incur and how useful is it, in most cases?

The NYPD’s press office did not immediately respond to requests for such information, but the New York State Legislature reached an agreement on a bill in March of this year which would allow for the collection of DNA from those convicted even of misdemeanors. WNYC reported this would make NYS the first “all crimes DNA” state in the country, according to Governor Cuomo.

“DNA collection is one of the most reliable and cost-effective tools that we have in law enforcement,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement.

While this may not directly apply to this particular case, it shows New York’s heightened emphasis on the importance of DNA collection, even in cases where it might seem largely unnecessary. Still, many questions remain unanswered in this stranger-than-fiction discovery.

A Guide to Educational Summer Day Camps

NYPress — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:32:19 +0000

By Meghan Gearino, Kat Harrison and Elizabeth Raymond

We doubt that anyone thinks of New York City as a summer camp mecca—but by most standards, it really is. Consider all the children’s activity centers and enrichment programs that the city is blessed with—some go on hiatus and some slow down in the summertime, offering the same programming but less of it, but many others take what they do best and build wonderful day camps around their core offerings.

Academic

Keep your kiddo’s mind fresh this August with the academic day camp offered by Drake Bennett Summer Schools. Divided into two sessions and housed at The Epiphany School, 1st-6th graders can brush up with lessons in literacy, math and science, while chess and drama pepper the afternoon hours. Or join Mathnasium for their Summer Re-Boot Camp. Specifically for 2nd-8th graders, this half-day camp is filled with math-centric games and activities.

Language

Set your kid on the fast track to becoming bilingual. Collina Italiana is offering Italian Summer in the City Camp, which includes Italian-infused music, theater, movies, cartoons and museum outings. Children as young as 3 can start learning “bonjour” and “merci” at the French Institute Alliance Française, where culture and language will be taught through stories and workshops.

The Language Workshop for Children is a great tool to get your child speaking like a native. Offering summer camps in Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese, immersion activities include costume days, arts and crafts, baking and birthday celebrations.

Media

Future video game creators will love the options in Summer Media Camp through the Museum of the Moving Image, where campers get to flex their software muscles learning animation, live action video and more. Or send your wannabe MTV VJ to New York Film Academy’s one-week Music Video Camp, designed for kids with little or no knowledge (but a passion) for the industry. And let’s not forget about summer camp at Take Two Film Academy, which will show your budding director the ins and outs of production, acting and editing. Each student gets to keep an online and DVD copy of their final product to show off to friends and family!

Nature

Wonder about wildlife? Kids ages 8-12 can get friendly with hyenas and lions at the Bronx Zoo’s Animal Kingdom Camp, where they will observe creatures up close and learn how to best protect an animal’s habitat. Taking full advantage of Prospect Park, the Park Explorers’ Camp Explorers program is ideal for the elementary school set. Be prepared to get a little dirty as this camp takes a hands-on approach to Mother Nature—think sprinklers, hill rolling and a host of field trips. And regardless of where you live, an awesome camp adventure awaits with NYC Parks Experience Summer Camp. With locations in every borough, this über-affordable camp provides structured hiking, swimming and sports.

Science

Inquisitive young minds will love the American Museum of Natural History’s Fossils and DNA Camp, where they can explore the evolutionary timeline. If your elementary school-aged child is more into constructing and electronic, the range of camp choices at Launch Math will give him or her the chance to build rockets and robots or design video games.

Budding scientists can use the city as their laboratory with the SciTech Kids Summer Camp. In Central Park, campers build solar ovens, learn about gravity thanks to the thrills of Victorian Gardens and make a few insect friends.

Visit newyorkfamily.com for even more day camp options.