The Missing Link

While the topic of DNA testing for ancestry is a popular conversation piece these days, the more pertinent subject is DNA health tests – such as those done by the hard-working team at DNAlysis – to find out what really makes your body unique and how to apply this invaluable information to your daily lifestyle habits.

- Andrea Pafitis-Hill

A visit to the Thrupps Centre in Joburg’s upscale suburb of Illovo is usually one I make to find specialist ingredients at Thrupps grocers. Today, however, I’m here for a taste of something entirely different: to complete a set of exams for which I can’t study, but the results of which will provide me with “blueprints” of my physical make-up. I’m ambivalent about this – the responsible adult in me wants to know the facts, while the epicurean side of me is terrified of being told I can no longer indulge in (admittedly, rather a lot of) what I fancy!

Sitting across the table from me is Dr Daniel (Danny) Meyersfeld, founder and CEO of DNAlysis Biotechnology, a company I knew little more about before this visit than the mission statement on its website: “We provide the tools to accurately transition genetic results into realistic health solutions.”

Having completed a PhD in Genetics at Wits in 2005, Danny carried out postdoctorate work in molecular research for two years. Towards the end of this time, Danny says, “I knew I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life in academia. I wanted to stay in SA and work in the field of molecular biology. I started looking at what was happening globally with the information advances coming out of the sequencing of the Human Genome Project [HGP].” Completed in the USA in 2003, the HGP was groundbreaking exploratory work done by a team of global researchers to sequence and map all the genes – collectively called a genome – that make up the human species.