General

You look great in those genes

Montreal dating service offers match-making based on DNA analysis

Having trouble finding your soulmate? Why not submit a spit swab to Intermezzo Montreal, a matchmaking service which bases its work on genetic analysis. Well, maybe because it seems a bit sketchy at this stage. The company takes a bit of your saliva and sends it off to some lab in Switzerland, where they create a genetic profile. Then comes the “analysis”—the interesting part. Turns out Intermezzo is not looking for commonality between profiles so much as difference. Their operating theory, explains founder Tamara Brown, is rooted in ground-breaking research from the 1990s, which concluded that women are attracted to men who were most genetically different from them. Given that this research was based on women’s reactions to smelling men’s sweaty t-shirts, you may want to take it with a grain of salt. Still, genetic diversity is generally a good thing, as anyone from a remote fishing community will tell you.

Montreal Gazette

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