2008 Woodie Awards
Northeastern grad starts dating service
Controversial service pairs people based on DNA
Kate Augusto
Issue date: 1/10/08 Section: News
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"This is the first dating service anywhere that matches people according to their DNA to achieve chemistry between the matches. So it's the only service where you can actually find someone you share chemistry with," said Holzle, who graduated from Northeastern in 1989 and got his MBA from Babson. The site was launched last December.
Holzle said the service also uses a personality test and personal preferences to match people.
For the chemical component, participants are given an at-home DNA collection kit. The service uses the kit to figure out the person's major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, which are genes that play a prominent role in the regulation of immune function. Clients with different genes are then paired together.
The reason, Holzle said, is because people with different MHC genes are naturally more attracted to each other. This is because, Holzle said, there are evolutionary benefits since parents with two different sets of MHC genes will produce children with more robust immune systems.
Holzle said the process also has to do with the controversial pheromones, which are chemicals said to have a direct effect on a person's sexual habits. Though not conclusively proven to exist in the human world, Holzle said a lot of work has been done on mice that recognize MHC genes in other mice due to a certain odor they produce.
The service is based on more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles, Holzle said, but some still remain skeptical of the service.
Phyllis Strauss, a biology professor, said none of these studies have been done on humans, nor could they be done ethically. She also said a person's smell is determined by several factors, including what that person eats, and that pheromones are not necessarily what a person smells like.
"Pheromones are a very specific class of molecules that are given off," Strauss said. "I don't know if they're controlled by MHC or not. It's all very complicated."
One of the limitations of the service is that clients cannot be on birth control, another factor Strauss finds questionable. Holzle said the reason is that evolutionarily, a pregnant woman changes her preference of MHC genes to ones that are similar to hers. Strauss, however, said birth control does not affect gene expression of MHC and only affects a woman's ovaries.
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elizabeth
posted 1/23/08 @ 11:43 AM EST
My question on the above article is.. Is it possible for a human female to be attracted to a human male mate while on Birth Control and when no longer taking the Birth Control no longer feel the attraction? I have done quite a bit of research on this matter and no one seems to have a definitive answer on the subject. (Continued…)
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