CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Everybody wants to find love and these days that search often involves a dating app.
But what if we told you one app also wants your DNA to help make a match?
This app claims science holds the key to your heart.
Two years ago, Ali Washburn and Lauren Levine started a podcast after they realized they spent a lot of time talking about their dating lives.
“We both were single and talking about being single all the time and lamenting the fact that we were using dating apps and hating it,” Ali said.
The podcast, The Margarita Confessionals, is so popular they’re also being aired on the radio.
“Everyone wants to meet someone that’s a universal thing,” Lauren said.
So they weren’t at all surprised to hear of the new dating app, Pheramor, which claims to use your DNA and social media pages to find your soulmate.
Co-founder Asma Mirza says, “We look at 11 very specific genes in your DNA. Don’t look at whole genome so we won’t know eye color or genetic predisposition."
"These genes encode for your chemical and biological attraction towards somebody,” Mirza added.
Mirza said the science is actually based on the whole opposites attract thing.
“The more diverse those genes are from somebody else, more likely to be attracted to them,” Mirza said.
Professor Ruth Groenhout is a bioethicist at UNC Charlotte and she said there is some truth to pheromones being related to attraction.
“There is some science to it," Groenhout said. "It's pretty small. what they’re testing for is biological compatibility and I think what most of us are looking for is psychological and emotional compatibility- different things.”
She worries more about what happens with your cheek swab.
“Genetic data is pretty personal and just handing it off to a dating site, not knowing where it’s going to end up whether hackers have access," she said.
"That makes me a little nervous,” she added.
But the folks at Pheramor said they destroy the DNA samples when they’re done with them.
So they say the only thing you have to worry about is finding your soulmate.
One of the co-founders of Pheramor is from here in North Carolina. She said they’re hoping to launch here in Charlotte within the year.