Not just Doc's but Cops can identify your health...

A British team has discovered that the standard DNA fingerprints used by police around the world contain a subtle signature which can be linked to a person's susceptibility to type 1 diabetes. The unexpected finding strikes at the heart of one of the sacred principles of DNA forensic testing -- that tests should identify people and link them to crimes but reveal nothing of significance about their genetic make-up, family history or health. That way fingerprints can be collected from suspects and stored on police computers without invading anyone's medical privacy.

The link between the DNA signature and diabetes was confirmed by a team led by John Stead of the University of Leicester last year, but buried in an academic paper on genetics that made no comment about the implications for forensic science.

Team member Alec Jeffreys, the scientist who invented DNA fingerprinting, says he has decided to go public with the finding now because of the British government's plans for a huge expansion of DNA fingerprinting. He believes further troubling links between DNA fingerprints and disease will emerge as scientists probe the completed draft of the human genome.

The fingerprints held by police are based on ten specific regions of a person's DNA known as markers. These markers are bits of "junk" DNA that vary in length from person to person in a way that can be easily measured to produce the DNA equivalent of a barcode. Crucially, they are not supposed to carry information about a person's genes.

Stephanie Oakes is a fitness correspondent for Discovery Health Channel, a contributing editor for USA Weekend Magazine and the LA Times, and appears on NBC's 'Today in New York'. She can be reached at soakes@beststuff.com.