Pioneer testing 'shop' for DNA

BRITAIN'S first walk-in DNA testing clinic is to open in Merseyside, the Daily Post can reveal.

The private clinic will be the first in the country to offer on-site paternity and maternity tests and face-to-face counselling.

Currently, around 20,000 paternity tests are carried out in the UK every year, but the majority of samples are taken using DIY-testing kits that are then posted by GPs or internet-based "middle men" to overseas clinics.

The new Liverpool clinic, expected to start trading at the JMU's Byrom Street campus next month, will allow clients to tour the lab where their tests are to be conducted.

Clients will also be offered emotional support and advice through an on-site results counselling service.

The project is the brainchild of two Liverpool John Moores University graduates, Nichola Lawton and Kellie McLoughlin, who are setting up under the trading name Sequence Biotechnologies Ltd.

They aim to charge competitive rates, from £120 for a mail order "peace of mind" test,, and £160 for the same test with a face-to-face results consultation.

They will also offer a legally accredited test, which can be submitted as evidence in court, for £295.

The pair secured funding to furnish a lab at JMU's city centre MerseyBio site with £100,000 of genetics testing equipment, through the university's student Enterprise project, which encourages new business start-ups.

Last night, Ms Lawton and Ms McLoughlin, who both graduated with degrees in biomolecular science in July, 2004, said they believed their clinic would guarantee clients greater peace of mind.

The pair, both also trained counsellors, hope to expand the clinic to include further genetic fingerprinting and DNA profiling services in the next 12 months. 

Ms McLoughlin told the Daily Post: "It is something we have been talking about since first year.

"We spotted a gap in the market years ago, and we thought by now someone else would have done it but they haven't. There is a real need for a support base with biological relationship tests.

"There are so many middle men out there who are charging for forwarding on a test to a clinic.

"What we will offer is a face-to-face service where people can sit down and discuss what the results mean, rather than reading about it in a letter or over the phone.

"We both have basic counselling training, but we would call in a full-time counsellor in particularly difficult cases."

The analysis is carried out either on forensic samples like hair and blood, or on samples taken from swabs from the inside of the mouth of both alleged parents, and the child in question.

The clinic will be based at JMU's MerseyBio centre, which supports the life sciences sector in Merseyside, by offering subsidised rents and exemption from business rates. Ms Lawton, from Walton, in Liverpool, said: "The banks really took us seriously because we were investing our own money.

"This wouldn't have been possible without JMU's support."

The JMU Student Enterprise project is the first of its kind in the country to offer mentoring and start-up advice and support, through the European Social Fund.

Other businesses being set up thanks to JMU's Student Enterprise project include a T-Shirt design company, Magowan Graphic, set up by fashion design graduate Hannah Magowan.

A spokeswoman for JMU said: "We are the only university in the country to run entrepreneurial master classes for undergraduate students in conjunction with Young Enterprise.

"This reflects JMU's mission to produce graduates with the right skills and experience for the workplace plus the confidence and motivation to establish their own successful business ventures.

"Other university initiatives tend to be pitched at postgraduate and continuing professional development students.

"JMU hopes that the initiative will encourage talented graduates to remain within the region, further boosting economic regeneration and growth."