Friday, December 13, 2019

When a DNA Test Says You’re a Younger Man, Who Lives 5,000 Miles Away
A patient by the name of Chris Long received a bone marrow transplant four years ago and has discovered that his DNA has been replaced by his donor’s DNA. Even the DNA in his semen had been replaced by the DNA of his donor’s. Now Chris long is referred to as chimera, a person with two sets of DNA. This is very rare and sparks an interest for crime investigators. If Chris Long were a victim or perpetrator investigators would have the DNA of his donor’s instead of his, throwing off the whole case. Even though Chris now has the DNA of his donor’s his brain and personality should remain the same. Where his DNA is going is unimportant to his doctors but not to forensic scientists. A person who is Chimera can commit a crime and mislead crime investigators. 

Links:


1 comment:

  1. I remember reading once of a case where marks left by teeth were determined to be the wrong persons due to striking similarities between the mark and the wrongfully accused suspect. While teeth marks aren't DNA, I wonder if there has ever been a case like this that's actually flown under the radar and obstructed justice in regards to the kind of thing mentioned in the article. I found it intriguing that the aspect focused on was identifying criminals and how this could hinder it, when I would assume that if Chris Long committed a crime that had led them to his donor all the way in Germany it'd be fairly easy to dispute. Then again, I guess it would be relatively hard to say "No, that's the other guy with my DNA."

    ReplyDelete