Information for Health professionals
Our team at NorthGene appreciates the invaluable assistance of healthcare professionals throughout the UK. We put our profit into medical research, education and training.
Your patient will contact you to arrange an appointment for DNA sampling. Once our Customer Support Team has been made aware of these arrangements, we will send you the necessary sampling kits along with detailed instructions. Please inform your patient of any sampling fee before an appointment is arranged. It is the responsibility of the patient to pay this fee.
We use buccal swabs to collect cheek cells for DNA analysis. This is a quick, easy and painless procedure. Please note that each patient must bring two recent, full-faced, passport-type photographs (3 in Immigration cases) with them for identification purposes. If these photographs are not provided then please do not take the DNA sample, as in accordance with governmental guidelines we are unable to process samples without photographic identification. If photographs are not supplied then a further sampling appointment should be arranged.
The sampling kit is composed of:
- A sample declaration form for each individual
- A sterile ‘cotton bud’ mouth swab
- A stain card labelled with the person’s name and date of birth
- A pre-labelled tamper-evident plastic bag
- A NorthGene addressed, postage paid return envelope
The Sample Declaration Form
This is to be signed by the patient and witnessed by you to say that the patient in question consents to giving a DNA sample for analysis to be run. Each patient that provides a DNA sample must give you two or three recent, full-faced, passport-sized photographs by way of identification. These photographs must be signed on the back by you to say that this is a true likeness of the patient in question. Please attach these photographs to the sample declaration form.
The Sterile ‘Cotton Bud’ Mouth Swab
This is to be gently rubbed around the inside of the patient’s mouth and then rolled onto the pink discs of the Stain Card until the disc turns white.
The Pink Stain Card
This is to be signed by the patient and witnessed by you to say that the DNA sample carried by the card was taken from the patient in question.
The Tamper-Evident Bag
Please place the sample(s) into the Tamper Evident bag and ensure that it is sealed.
The NorthGene addressed Return Envelope
Please place the tamper-evident bag containing the DNA sample(s) into this addressed envelope along with the sample declaration form(s) and send back to NorthGene in our prepaid envelope.
Register as a DNA Sampler
Please join our list of registered DNA samplers by completing our online registration form.