Perfect (Bio)Chemistry

No luck on Match.com? Angry that eHarmony excludes gays? Too gentile for jDate? Your prayers have been answered:

A new dating service that launched this week for Boston-area singles claims that it can get the chemistry right when fixing up potential mates—literally. ScientificMatch.com uses DNA samples from customers to match them with others who have different alleles for major histocompatibility complex genes.

MHC proteins sit on the surface of cells and detect pathogens, but they also appear to play a role in sexual attraction. In sniff tests of dirty t-shirts, people tend to be most attracted to the scent of the shirt whose owner has different MHC alleles from the sniffer. One explanation is that this phenomenon evolved to promote genetic diversity between mates.

For $1,995 and a cheek swab sent off for DNA analysis, customers can find the love of their lives, or so says Eric Holzle, a Massachusetts engineer and long-time dater. Kerry Grens spoke to him on December 11, the day the site went live. At the time, he was driving, and didn't know if anyone had signed up.

Read an interview with the founder here.

NB: For the record, reason's resident biotech early adopter Ron Bailey is already married, ladies. So don't go getting any ideas.