Glossary
DNA jewellery, explained: the terms we use.
Every word on this site that sounds like a laboratory, defined in plain English, with what it means for the piece you would wear. Read it straight through or jump to the term you came for.
- 18 terms, plain English
- Identity markers only
- Written by the founder
Your DNA
The reading.
What is DNA?
Deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule in nearly every cell that carries the instructions a body is built from. It is written in four chemical letters, A, C, G and T. Nearly all of it is the same from one person to the next. DesigNA reads a small set of places where people differ, and nothing else. See the science.
What is a DNA profile?
A short list of numbers read from a fixed set of places in your DNA, the kind used in identity and paternity testing. DesigNA's laboratory reads 23 of these places, called markers. The profile says who you are and nothing about your health, ancestry or appearance. The pattern on your piece comes from this list.
What is an STR, or Short Tandem Repeat?
A spot in your DNA where a short run of letters repeats over and over, like a stutter. The number of repeats varies from person to person, which is why counting them at enough spots identifies someone. Each STR marker on a DesigNA piece becomes a stone.
What is a marker?
One of the 23 named spots in your DNA that the laboratory reads, such as TH01, vWA or Penta D. You carry two values at each marker, one inherited from each parent, so 23 markers give about 46 values, and each value becomes a stone on the strand.
What is an allele?
One of the two values you carry at a marker. One came from your mother and one from your father. The laboratory records both, and the certificate lists both, which is why there are roughly twice as many stones as markers.
What does autosomal mean?
On the chromosomes everyone carries two copies of, one from each parent, rather than on the sex chromosomes. DesigNA's 23 markers are autosomal, so a piece can be made for anyone and the reading is the same kind for everyone.
In the laboratory
How it is read.
What is a cheek swab?
A soft brush rubbed inside the cheek for about thirty seconds to collect cells. Every cell carries a full copy of your DNA, so the swab holds far more than the laboratory needs. No blood, no needle, no appointment. An adult always takes their own swab; a child's needs written consent from a parent or guardian. How DesigNA works.
What is capillary electrophoresis?
The method the laboratory uses to read the markers. The DNA fragments are pulled through a fine tube by an electric current. Smaller fragments move faster and arrive first, so the machine sorts them by size. The result is the list of values that becomes your profile.
What are the five dye colours?
The markers are tagged with five fluorescent dyes, blue, green, yellow, red and purple, so the machine can tell them apart as they arrive. DesigNA gives each dye a stone: lapis lazuli, amazonite, citrine, garnet and amethyst, with turquoise and carnelian taking blue and red on the fine 2mm bracelets. See the stones.
What is fragment size, and why does it set the order?
Each value the laboratory reads has a length, measured in base pairs. DesigNA places stones along the strand from the smallest fragment to the largest. So the order of the stones is not a design choice, it is the reading. The largest fragment, Penta D, is always the last stone, in amethyst.
What is a base pair?
The unit DNA length is measured in, one rung of the DNA ladder. A marker's value might be 180 base pairs long, another 320. The difference between them is the gap between two stones on your piece.
What is Penta D?
The marker with the largest fragments in the set the laboratory reads, which makes it the last stone on every DesigNA piece, always in amethyst, at the clasp end. The first stone is almost always D2S441, in citrine. Only the values in between change from person to person.
The piece
What you wear.
What is a DNA Profile piece?
A DesigNA necklace or bracelet whose design comes from a reading of the wearer's own profile: every value becomes a stone, placed by fragment size, with silver, gold or pearls holding the spaces between. Every DesigNA necklace and bracelet is a DNA Profile piece. See the collection.
What is the DNA Representation Pendant?
A fixed design with six zircon stones that borrow the dye colours of a profile. It carries no reading and needs no swab, which is why it is £80 and ships from stock in 2 to 3 days. It is the only DesigNA piece that is not one of one. See the pendant.
What is the certificate?
The signed A4 DNA Profile Certificate that sits on top of the box. It lists the 23 markers with the dye channel, the two values and the fragment sizes for each, draws the strand with every position numbered, and keys the stone colours. It is decorative and has no legal standing. It is genetic data on paper, so keep it in the box.
What are spheres, batons, spacers and markers?
DesigNA's names for the parts of a strand. Markers are the stones, one per value in your profile. Spheres are the polished metal rounds or pearls that hold the spaces between them. Batons are the straight silver or gold bars on the Silver and Gold DNA Profile Necklaces. Spacers are the small 925 silver or gold filled rounds either side of each stone.
What does 925, 9ct and gold filled mean?
925 is sterling silver, 92.5 percent silver, hallmarked. 9ct is gold at 375 parts per thousand, hallmarked, used for the batons and clasp of the Gold DNA Profile Necklace. Gold filled is a thick layer of gold bonded to a base metal core, far thicker than plating, used for the gold spheres, spacers and extenders on the pattern and gold accent pieces.
What does one of one mean?
That a piece exists once. Because no two people share a DNA profile, no two DNA Profile pieces share a pattern. The only exception is identical twins, who share a profile and would receive matching pieces.
Now you know what it is
Choose your piece. Your DNA writes the rest.
Bracelets from £179. Necklaces from £249. Every piece certified and made in the UK.