In the category of weirdest product pitches, you can now include the email I got from Intigene. The company’s rep suggested that Father’s Day would be a good time to remind people that they could buy Identigene’s home DNA paternity tests. At first I thought it was a joke because their website looked so much like something out of one of my fantasies about crappy quack DNA tests online. Their number is even 1-800-DNA-TYPE, which just reeks of used-car sales techniques. But no, it was all too real.
https://gizmodo.com/the-pseudo-sciences-youre-most-likely-to-see-in-the-nex-383293
Apparently, Identigene lays claim to being the first home DNA testing kit, which might in fact be true. It’s only recently that companies like 23andme.com have started offering more extensive home DNA testing, offering to chart your ancestry or identify whether you’ve got a genetic predilection for depression. The thing that makes me think “scifi” when I see the Indentigene site, which you really must check out, is the way it feels like a cheesy ad from 2040. Just because they treat what still seems like cutting-edge technology as if it were as cheap and simple as a home pregnancy test. Which it is.
This is the consumer biotech, future kids: It begins not with a bang but with a cheesy website and late-night TV infomercials. Also, I love how the Identigene test comes in a box that looks like it’s for condoms.
Identigene [actually real website for actual service you can buy]
