Once we receive the saliva samples in our laboratory, they follow a series of processes which we briefly explain below.
- Step 1. Identical DNA fragments are identified among all possible pairs of people in our database. These fragments are known as IBD (Identity by descent) segments.
- Step 2. The length in centimorgans (cM) of each of these IBD segments is estimated. They are subsequently filtered, keeping only those considered informative enough to be designated as fragments with a common origin and, therefore, valid for kinship estimation.
- Step 3. The number of shared cM between each pair of users is evaluated, and, through algorithms, the possible kinship relationship is established. The higher the number of shared cM, the closer the kinship relationship will be.
In the event that the sample comes from an external company in the form of genetic Raw Data, a preliminary step will be carried out to determine if it is compatible with our system through a quality control process. If the sample passes this quality control, it will be analyzed like any other sample in the process, moving to Step 1.