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Court standard expert witness reporting
Could Your DNA Affect Your Prospects in Life?
We sat down with expert geneticist, Dr. Steve Cummings, to discuss the film Gattaca. How real is it?
Dr. Cummings
“Okay, this film is Gattaca, and it’s all about how your DNA can affect your outcomes in life — how only people with "perfect" DNA for certain tasks are allowed to, essentially, exist. It’s quite an interesting film.”
Gattaca Dialogue
“After screening, we are left, as you see, with two healthy boys and two very healthy girls — naturally, no critical predispositions to any major inheritable diseases. All that remains is to select…”
Dr. Cummings
“Yeah. I mean, genetics can only tell you so much. There are certain conditions you can test for — things like some forms of breast cancer, which can be greatly influenced by your genetic makeup. But I’m not entirely sure you can just look at someone’s DNA and get a perfect answer about what they’ll be like.”
Interviewer
“What about hair and eye colour, for example?”
Dr. Cummings
Hair and eye colour are a lot more predictable — they’re under the control of a relatively small number of genes. So, you could look at someone’s DNA and get a fairly good impression of what their hair and eye colour will be.
Gattaca Dialogue
“Congratulations. You passed.”
“What about the interview?”
“That was it.”
Dr. Cummings
“Firstly, yes — you can get DNA from urine. It’s not a great source, but it’s possible. We’ve actually done it a few times. We were once asked to get a DNA profile from someone who was… urinating in the company kettle. Not our company’s kettle, but another company’s. And we did manage to get a fairly clean DNA profile — enough to identify the individual involved.”
Interviewer
“Did everyone in the company have to give a DNA sample?”
Dr. Cummings
“Most people were happy to give a sample to prove it wasn’t them. One person, however, refused — and they ended up leaving the company. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that.”
Interviewer
“Why is it tricky to get DNA from urine?”
Dr. Cummings
Urine isn’t the best source of DNA. It contains a lot of other substances that can interfere with DNA extraction. Biologically speaking, it’s not ideal. But there are worse sources.
Interviewer
What are the best sources?
Dr. Cummings
Buccal swabs — those are swabs from the inside of your cheek — are absolutely fantastic. Any kind of tissue with intact cells is good. Hair roots are brilliant too. We’ve managed to get DNA profiles from almost every type of tissue you can think of.
As for Gattaca — I’d say it’s actually quite thought-provoking and, in some ways, quite authentic. The point isn’t necessarily scientific accuracy. It’s more about the questions it raises.
Conclusions for AttoLife
First off, DNA can be used for many things—but not everything. And it’s not simply one machine that does all DNA analysis. Different machines are used for different DNA-related tasks.
Take relationship DNA testing, such as a legal DNA test for paternity. We can usually collect plenty of DNA from a simple mouth swab. But when it comes to proving more distant biological relationships—like those between aunts, uncles, nieces, or nephews—we need to go beyond the standard 24 or 56 markers and scale up to something closer to 600 genetic markers.
Moving to the analysis of 600 markers is less about the DNA itself and more about the lab process and the technology behind it. To analyse this many markers, we use Illumina microarray technology, which use chip arrays designed for broader, more granular analysis looking at single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
As we explored in our Jurassic Park blog, a cheek swab only works when the person is alive—because the DNA in these cells breaks down quickly after death. While these are often referred to as "saliva swabs," what we’re really collecting are cells from the inside of the cheek (buccal cells), which are much harder to retrieve post-mortem. If DNA testing is needed for someone who has passed away, we usually turn to more stable sources like hair roots or nail clippings.
In Gattaca, we see a scene where DNA is collected from a urine sample. While this is technically possible, it’s not the go-to method for relationship testing. Urine is far more commonly used to detect drugs and alcohol—something we specialise in over at AttoSure, particularly for workplace or healthcare settings. It's worth noting that DNA in urine is usually in small quantities and of lower quality, making it a less reliable source for identity or relationship testing.
Lastly, not all DNA tests are created equal. At AttoLife, we use a Genetic Analyzer to look at Short Tandem Repeats of DNA (STRs) for standard relationship testing. For AttoDiagnostics, we use Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 12K Flex with OpenArray Cards for pharmacogenomic testing—helping to personalise medication choices based on how your body processes drugs—and Illumina iScan System for broader genotyping and lifestyle-related panels.
It’s important to note: If someone takes one of the DNA tests mentioned—it’s a paternity DNA test, a DNA test for medication response, or lifestyle insights—they absolutely cannot be cloned. Not only are we not in the business of cloning (if there was such a trade), but cloning a person would require vastly more genetic material, far more comprehensive analysis, and an entirely different (and ethically fraught) process than what any of these tests involve.
Furthermore, we fully dissociate personal identifiers from the samples we test, and we destroy the remaining DNA after 6 months. So rest assured—if you’ve done an at-home DNA test, there is zero risk of being cloned.