At seeDNA, we own a lab in Japan and use it as our base for conducting general DNA relationship testing and prenatal paternity testing.
Many companies handle prenatal paternity testing, but seeDNA is the only one in Japan that performs the testing in-house.
There are also reliable testing organizations overseas, one each in the United States and Australia, which can achieve a 99.9% paternity probability. However, seeDNA is the only organization that can perform testing from as early as the 7th week of pregnancy while guaranteeing a paternity probability of 99.99% or higher.
From a global perspective as well, we are also a testing organization capable of achieving a 99.99% paternity probability using samples other than swabs from the alleged father—such as toothbrushes and hair—in addition to buccal cells.
Since our founding, seeDNA has remained committed to being able to perform testing entirely in-house.
So what is the major difference between performing testing in-house and outsourcing it to an overseas testing organization?
"Outsourcing testing overseas" simply means sending the customer's sample to another company's lab and then relaying the results sent back from that location to the customer, so it isn't particularly complex from a company's standpoint.
However, this approach has drawbacks: it is unclear exactly how the testing is being conducted, the sample can degrade over time during transport overseas, and there is no ability to reference past data.
By contrast, "performing testing in-house" requires many things—securing and training testers with specialized knowledge and skills, purchasing and maintaining testing equipment, and building a data analysis system, among others.
By clearing all of these requirements, we are able to perform testing at our own lab in Japan, which prevents sample degradation from transport and allows us to respond smoothly if retesting should ever become necessary.
In other words, by making it possible to perform testing in-house, we are able to provide testing that better meets our customers' needs.
Prenatal paternity testing itself involves many steps and allows no room for error, making it a highly demanding and nerve-wracking process.
Even so, because we perform the testing with our own hands, we are able to stay very close to our customers, and receiving responses and feedback in the form of "voices from our customers" is, more than anything, our greatest source of encouragement.
Going forward, seeDNA will continue to stand by our customers and work to consistently provide accurate and reliable testing results.