DNA dating site predicts chemical romance
The first dating service to use lab-based genetic profiling launched online last week. Scientific Match promises to pair up people who will be physically attracted to each other because their DNA is different.
Well-matched couples will like each others' natural scents, have more fun in bed, and bear healthier children than those who are genetically similar, the company claims.
The service, available only in the Boston area, charges $1,995 for a year-long subscription.
"I strongly believe this will dominate the future of dating services," said founder Eric Holzle, a mechanical engineer.
Members swab their cheeks and send in saliva samples. A lab spends two weeks analyzing the immune system genes, and then the company matches individuals with genetic profiles that are unalike.
"We look at six specific genetic reference points on DNA, and none of those six can match to make a match," Holzle explained.
He was inspired by a well-known "sweaty T-shirt" study of a dozen years ago, in which biologists found that women liked the smell of dirty shirts worn by men who were immunologically dissimilar to themselves.
As with other online dating sites, Scientific Match's users can fill out written profiles and upload photographs. Genetic details are not displayed, except to indicate a match. The service runs criminal background checks to exclude anyone who has committed crimes involving violence or identity theft.
Scientific Match is open to straight and gay people. However, women taking the birth control pill are turned away because some studies show they are more attracted to men with similar immune system genes.
The success or failure of the service can't be measured, however, with only a handful of customers so far. Although Holzle doesn't guarantee finding one's true love, he insists that people paired by Scientific Match will at least smell appealing to each other.
The romantic role played by scent is well-documented in poetry and science. Perfumers even add synthetic versions of pheromones, suspected aphrodisiacs found naturally in the body, to fragrances that include Paris Hilton's eponymous perfume.
But the ability to bottle attraction or to predict it through genetic profiling remains unproven by science.
Scientific Match sounds more like pseudoscience to Dean Hamer, the molecular biologist and author credited with discovering "gay genes."
"That sounds like a complete and utter rip-off that preys on people's lack of knowledge of causation and correlation," he said, adding that people could wrongly write off a potentially great mate due to genetic discrimination. "Why don't they just smell their underarms?"
Nevertheless, entrepreneurs are sure to try to capitalize on advances in genomics and biotechnology to reshape the landscape of high-tech matchmaking. The field is wide open. For instance, nobody has tried to set up couples based upon genes that have been linked to promiscuity or libido strength.
And Googling a date's full genetic code could be on the distant horizon. The cost of sequencing someone's DNA has dropped to the low six figures.
The latest online services to incorporate genetic testing include startup 23andMe, Ancestry.com, and the Genographic Project, which sell swab-and-send testing kits for uncovering the deep roots of a family tree.
another pond whether we're genetically related or not. It's why
kibbutz kids who are unrelated but grow up together in special
dorms as children never marry within the kibbutz community.
Faulty science, faulty premise, if noble purpose.
Oddly enough, though, a simple taste test could make this site a
success. It's for sale if you want it.
with a 'matched' someone which allow you to have more fun in bed.
Where do I sign?
If he disagrees with our technology, I respectfully ask what he disagrees with, specifically. We cite over 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers to support our matching process. Does he disagree with any of the articles cited? Did we exaggerate any of their findings? Did we cite obscure sources that contradict the prevailing body of knowledge? We've worked earnestly over the years to ensure that our matching process is based on solid scientific evidence.
Even more disheartening was his suggestion that we "rip-off" our customers. We have nothing but reverence and a profound sense of commitment to the people who use our service.
In the United States, off-line matchmaking services rarely charge less then $3,000 per year. ScientificMatch is significantly less, and yet we offer something that no one else can: chemistry. That seems far from a rip-off.
When Dean Hamer suggests that the more appropriate alternative is to go around smelling people's underarms, it undermines his ability to appraise matchmaking services.
Eric Holzle
Founder & President
ScientificMatch.com
- by great9122 January 20, 2009 1:48 AM PST
- In the early days there was no need for this kind of an institution
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(4 Comments)like a dating bureau or a marriage bureau as this was done and over
with when the persons were young and marriages were made in heaven
and there was no time to feel lonely or find the need to be searching
for a partner. Divorce was also not a frequently happening thing as
society looked down up on it and once you were married it was for
keeps.
john
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