Innovation and process improvements

For our customers who are waiting to hear if their DNA samples are suitable for Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), those samples are under review. We anticipating contacting you within the next two weeks.

Our hair trial has gone well, and we are reviewing matching in GEDmatch to validate the performance of samples.

We are also tackling two major challenges we see with our service. The first is to enable the identification of the existence of usable DNA in any sample at the lowest possible cost, to save further processing and expense if there is not enough DNA to achieve a successful outcome. We are trialling a method to achieve this in early August on our next batch of samples. 

The second is the problem that if usable DNA is found, a customer may wish to pursue WGS, which is expensive. The customer runs the risk that the DNA does not belong to the person they hope (the "the postmaster licked the envelope" scenario). At this point in time, we are only able to tell the customer if the DNA is male, or no male DNA found. What we want is to be able to tell the customer if there is a biological relationship between the customer and the DNA prior to progressing to WGS. If we can crack this, we'll save the customer time, money, and potential disappointment.

And that will be a good thing!