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A Conviction

A suspect who was identified through genetic genealogy has been convicted, the Associated Press reports.

A jury in Washington State found William Earl Talbott II guilty of murder in the deaths of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg, a young Canadian couple that was killed while on vacation in 1987, Wired reports. Police homed in on Talbott after working with Parabon Nanolabs, which found a close match between a crime scene DNA sample and a second cousin of Talbott's and then drew up a family tree that led to Talbott. As Buzzfeed News reported last year, police collected DNA from Talbott that then confirmed the match to the crime scene sample.

The genetic genealogy approach used, though, was not a major focus of the trial, according to a previous report from Wired, as the attorneys in the case were treating the lead generated as any other tip police may receive.

Still, Wired says now that this outcome indicates that genetic genealogy may not just help generate leads, but also convictions. "And that has huge implications for both the future of crime-fighting and genetic privacy," it adds.

The Scan

Hormone-Based Gene Therapy to Sterilize Domestic Cat

A new paper in Nature Communication suggests that gene therapy could be a safer alternative to spaying domestic cats.

Active Lifestyle Linked to Type 2 Diabetes Prevention in People at High Genetic Risk

A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that an active lifestyle goes a long way in type 2 diabetes prevention.

Beneficial, Harmful Effects of Introgression Between Wild and Domesticated European Grapes

A paper in PNAS shows that European wild grapevines were an important resource for improving the flavor of cultivated wine grapes.

Genetic Ancestry of South America's Indigenous Mapuche Traced

Researchers in Current Biology analyzed genome-wide data from more than five dozen Mapuche individuals to better understand their genetic history.