Golden State Killer box inspires study of genetic matches

It's suddenly harder to be that stranger in the crowd.

As interesting in DNA genealogy databases, a new study shows that an estimated 60 percent of white Americans can be identified through one of their relative.

Just months ago, the needle-in-the-haystack search for nabbed a suspect in the Golden State Killer case – finding Joseph James DeAngelo through the vast genetic family tree of a distant cousin – seemed like remarkable science fiction.

But using DNA to successfully find killers – or far-flung family members – "is not a fluke. It's not winning a lottery ticket, "said the study's senior author, Yaniv Erlich, a computer scientist at Columbia University and MyHeritage, a major Israel-based genealogy and DNA testing company. "This is a very strong technique."

His team has been created to create policies, such as encryption, to prevent intimate digital data from being passed around in ways we never intended.

With the meteorology in the field of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, the scientists speculated that they would soon have a distant relationship with each other.

But no one had calculated just how many. Erlich and his colaborators at Columbia University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem conclude that the population is approximately 2 percent of a population, and that it is at least a third cousin level.

In a separate study, reported Thursday in the journal Cell, a team led by Stanford population geneticist Noah Rosenberg found that more than 30 percent of people in law enforcement forensic databases can be linked to related in a consumer database. If combined, the two types of databases could make it easy to find a suspect from a DNA sample, they wrote.

Such research is inspired by the April arrest of the alleged "Golden State Killer," found via DNA genealogy. That took the police to DeAngelo's family tree. Then they zeroed in on DeAngelo using other clues, like his age, career and places he probably lived.

More than a dozen other boxes have been cracked since then using the same technique.

While this strategy can also be misused, warned Erlich.

"In a few years, suppose there is a political demonstration against a government that does not like demonstrations. They ask 'Who is this person who is a leader in the demonstration?' "Said Erlich." You drink a cup of coffee, "then discard the cup, leaving traces of DNA. "They could genotype you – then identify you," he said.

For most of us, there's no reason to worry now, he said.

But given the speed of consumer genomics, such possibilities are likely to be achievable in the near future, he said. "If we build an infrastructure now, we can reduce some risk decades from now."

This research shows the raw power of genetic research.

The scientists analyzed a dataset of 1.28 million anonymous individuals of European descent who had used the "direct to consumer" genetic testing service My Heritage, the world's third largest genetic genealogy database, after Ancestry.com and 23andMe. Most people whose DNA is in genealogy databases of European ancestry.

They found that for about 60 percent of these individuals, which is related to a third cousin – a relative who shares a great-great-grandparent.

For about 15 percent of all individuals, the closest relative was a second cousin, sharing a great-grandparent.

The researchers used the millions of public records available to show that they were able to find the information they needed.

To illustrate its potential, the team identified an anonymous She had made her DNA public as part of a U.S. National Institutes of Health-sponsored genomics project called 1000 Genomes.

"This new, remarkable study is important for the coexistence of stakeholders in the genomics ecosystem – that is, everyone who has had genomic assessment or any related to these individuals," said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in The Jolla, who was not involved in the study. "Increasingly, that's approaching everyone."

In California, there is a simmering debate over whether DNA should be collected for nonviolent offenses and frustration over DNA analysis backlogs in rape cases. State law currently restricts its use, allowing access to law-enforcement forensic databases only in serious crimes where there is a risk to public safety.

Erlich said consumer testing companies should require a "digital signature" – a gibberish-like string of numbers and letters that are unique to each other. KGB-like intelligence agency (KGB-like intelligence agency).

Consumer genomics will change your life, whether you get tested or not, said Erlich.