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A Few Developments in March 2008
DNA Consulting Renamed
DNA Testing Systems
Inks Agreement with DNAPrint Genomics, Moves Offices to Scottsdale, Arizona
SCOTTSDALE,
Ariz. (March 11, 2008) DNA Testing Systems, previously of Santa Fe,
N.M., and formerly named DNA Consulting, has signed an agreement to
sell DNAPrint Genomics' line of biogeographical ancestry tests and has
moved its offices to Scottsdale, Ariz.
DNAPrint Genomics was
one of the first DNA testing companies to be formed in an industry now
estimated to be worth over $150 million in consumer sales. It was
launched in Sarasota, Florida, in 1997 to commercialize the
biogeographical, and proprietary, genetic markers developed from the
work of Mark Shriver, a biogenetics professor at Pennsylvania State
University.
DNA Testing was a spin-off from the research of
founder Donald N. Yates into the Jewish and American Indian genetics of
a rare Appalachian ethnic group called Melungeons, a family background
to which he belongs. "I had to start my own company to understand my
own unusual DNA test results," Yates said. "And then I was doing so
many consultations for Melungeon cousins that I decided to
commercialize my sideline and get paid for what I was doing."
Donald Yates of DNA Testing
Yates
moved his business from Savannah, Ga., where he was a professor, to
Santa Fe, N.M., in 2004 and has now settled in Scottsdale, where he
hopes one day to retire. The company uses genomics laboratories in Salt
Lake City, Utah; Richmond, Calif., and Sarasota, Fla.
DNA
Testing sells DNAPrint tests through a large web presence, marketing
them as Whole DNA, a test that estimates percentages of American Indian
and other admixture; EurasianDNA, which divides a customer's DNA into
four regions of Eurasia, and EuroDNA 2.0, the newest ancestry test from
DNAPrint. EuroDNA 2.0 uses discoveries in genetic markers and human
migration to determine an individual's proportion of ancestry in five
parts of Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula.
According to
Yates, "We are finding that many people who think they are exclusively
English, Irish and Scottish have a large element of Spanish and
Portuguese ancestry they did not suspect." One reason, he said, was
that the British Isles were settled chiefly by a people very much like
the Basques after the last Ice Age.
Of the handful of DNA
testing companies in the United States, DNA Testing is the only one
that specializes in customized and personalized reports. "We're rather
boutique-like in our approach," said Yates, "and probably want to keep
it that way." In addition to biogeographical DNA tests, the company
also sells traditional paternity, Y chromosome (male) and mitochondrial
(female-passed DNA) tests.
For more information, visit DNA Testing at www.dnaconsultants.com or call toll free 1-877-473-5155.