“Yes, we have,” he said. “And we are proud of our record in that regard. I don’t know how much you know about ancestral DNA and how matches are found, but it is in this arena where our company excels. DNA matches are found by algorithms, and it is our belief that our algorithms are probably the best in the business. Did you know that the algorithms are proprietary in that each of the commercial DNA companies have their own?”
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Aria said.
“We not only get the most matches with a customer’s kit, but we get the least false-positive matches. We may be the new kids on the block, but we believe we have the best software, which is the reason we’ve been willing to challenge the established companies and have been able to find financing to do so.”
“How long has GenealogyDNA been in business?” she asked.
“Next month will be our first anniversary,” Vijay said. “If you are interested in investing, this might be the perfect time.”
“I’m more interested in solving this current problem,” Aria said. “But there is one other issue that I’d like to ask you about.”
“Please,” Vijay said. “This sounds like a situation that can be mutually beneficial.”
Such a comment was music to Aria’s ears. She needed GenealogyDNA to be selfishly interested on top of the Good Samaritan aspect, and it seemed that they were.
“To be entirely up front,” she said, “we already approached several of the more established ancestral DNA companies. I have to say that with none of them did I have the pleasure of talking with someone of your stature.”
“Thank you. You are too kind,” Vijay said.
“The other problem I encountered was an unacceptable delay in producing results,” Aria said. “With all of the companies it was weeks just to analyze the DNA samples whereas in our situation we are looking at days if we want to save the toddler’s life.”
“I’m not surprised,” Vijay said. “Processing time is another issue where GenealogyDNA has made a point to be competitive. Many of the established ancestral DNA companies outsource their analyses. We here at GenealogyDNA do not. We have our own lab to provide vertical integration, and we rent our high-density SNP microarrays so they can be upgraded as soon as newer arrays or chips are available. We intend to stay ahead of the curve.”
“You have a lab here in the city?” Aria asked. This was sounding better and better.
“No, not in the city,” he said. “Our lab is on Long Island, about an hour drive away.”
“So, you could get results faster than the weeks it takes in the other companies?”
“Absolutely,” Vijay said proudly. “If the DNA amplification goes smoothly, we could do it overnight in this type of emergency circumstance.”
“That’s fantastic,” she said, and meant it. “Now, there is one other issue. With the mother recently deceased, we obviously cannot use saliva as the other companies use. Would blood suffice?”
“Of course,” Vijay said. “Saliva has been used purely because of its ease for the customer, even though it creates an added problem of having to deal with the DNA of aural bacteria and fungi. It creates an extra step of isolating the human DNA. Using blood is far superior and will make the amplification process profoundly simpler.”
“This all sounds very encouraging,” Aria said. “Let me tell you a bit more of the circumstance that we are in. The child has an aggressive form of myelogenous leukemia, which has been resistant to any ofthe newer forms of treatment. A bone marrow transplant is the only hope and the father would be the best possible source. It is a crisis situation and only a matter of days or a week or two at most. Do you think you could help?”
“Most definitely,” he said. “There is no guarantee, of course, since it depends on at least some of the relatives of the father having contributed their DNA to the ancestral DNA pool and created family trees. But from purely an organizational standpoint, we can certainly produce the kits for the mother and the child on a timely basis. On top of that, for such a cause, I could have our in-house software people, including me, do the matching and try to construct a family tree for the ailing toddler. As an aside, do you have reason to believe the unknown father is from the NYC metropolitan area?”
“Yes,” Aria said. “I’m quite sure that he is.”
“That could possibly help,” Vijay said. “Sometimes talking people into sharing their genealogical information can be difficult and a face-to-face meeting can make the difference.”
“That’s good news,” she said. “When can we start?”
“When can you get us the blood samples?” Vijay said.
“How about this afternoon?” Aria said. “I can bring them to your office.”
“Fine,” he said. “I will be here all afternoon. When you come in, just ask the receptionist for me.”
“I’ll be there shortly,” Aria said, and disconnected. Before she pocketed her phone, she noticed she’d gotten three texts as well as two voice messages from Dr. Chet McGovern. She ignored them all.
CHAPTER 22
May 9th
2:05P.M.
