Woman opens doors on first community DNA lab DNA testing service offers customer service and scientific testing BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer SCOTT PILLING staff Mary Sullivan (r), owner of DNA Service of America, takes a sample from volunteer Barbara Solmor on Friday. METUCHEN - Visitors downtown can now get more than a double half-caf mocha latté and a great panini. Peace of mind is being served in Metuchen. So says Mary Sullivan, the owner/operator of New Jersey's first community-based DNA testing service - that's right, DNA, as in the building blocks of life. Like its more clinical brethren, DNA Services of America (DNA SOA) offers reliable, confidential answers to sensitive questions about paternity and identification that only the burgeoning field of DNA testing can accurately provide. But unlike those clinics, Sullivan said, DNA SOA feels more like your doctor's office and less like the lab. "It's a sensitive issue," Sullivan said of the myriad of reasons why people would need DNA testing. "That's the difference between this and the lab - we're community, we're here. You're with me from start to finish. It's private, it's confidential, and you're not going into some cold laboratory." The lab uses the latest in DNA technology, Sullivan said, and all it takes are four swabs of the mouth with cotton swabs, and the results of whatever is being tested can often be finished within two business days. That turnaround time is almost unheard of in the larger labs, she said. DNA SOA began in New Orleans and Houston and has grown into a national franchise with franchisees on both coasts. Sullivan, who has a background in political science and criminology (despite years working for an international shipping company), said that all franchisees are given months of training and certification by the company and are often fully accredited by various local and national groups in the science, legal and medical communities. Sullivan decided to indulge her desire to run her own business and enter into the field of criminology one winter. "It started on a cold winter Sunday with my husband watching football," Sullivan said. "I really wanted to be on my own." She had always had an interest in the field, so she researched the company and applied for a franchise. The training process took the better part of six months, and Sullivan opened her doors July 2. She said regarding having her own business that she is passionate about: "You can't beat it." The most common test DNA SOA provides is paternity testing. Sullivan said she is working on accreditation with the court systems in Middlesex, Essex and Union counties to run their court-ordered paternity testing, but said that DNA testing goes well beyond the court-ordered variety. "In today's society we've got another market coming out that is grandpaternity," Sullivan said. The grandparents of children often want to know that a child is their grandchild before assuming their grandparental or in some cases parental roles, she said. "Many of them," she said, "before they bond with the children want to make sure that this is indeed their grandchild." Other services such as DNA safeguarding and DNA banking are also available, she said, and they can be utilized for many reasons. Safeguarding can replace the picture on a milk carton if a child is lost or abducted. Sullivan said that parents can have their children's DNA taken, tested and saved for up to five years. In the event that a child is abducted, the DNA can be handed over to police and used to help the case move more quickly and efficiently. Banking is a similar procedure where untested DNA is held for a longer period of time and, when the time comes, tested as needed. Sullivan recognizes the sensitivity of the business she runs. That is why she believes it better to conduct these tests in a calm atmosphere with the same person throughout the entire process and still with the same level of accuracy and accreditation one might find at a larger, less personal, lab setting. Sullivan said that DNA SOA, while not exactly inexpensive, is certainly better than the alternative. "It isn't going to cost as much as child support," Sullivan said.