SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 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 of Sarasota, Fla., 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 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."
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(R) 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 http://www.dnaconsultants.com or call toll free 1-877-473-5155.
CONTACT: DNA Testing Systems, +1-480-292-9820
Web site: http://www.dnaconsultants.com/
