Applied DNA Sciences Inc (APDN)

[apdn1mill]

APDN on GIZMODO now

http://gizmodo.com/inside-the-forensic-lab-that-fights-crime-and-counterfe-1634193511

Right now, ADNAS doesn't make any money. Hayward freely admitted this to me in our conversation. That's not stopping the 55-person company from embedding its custom-engineered DNA in consumer and industrial products all over the place. It's looking to make its DNA-laced products even more scalable, loading DNA ink into industrial production lines and inkjet printers alike.

The company would not release the names of its customers, but did tell me that an entire arm of ADNAS is dedicated to the textile trade, authenticating premium materials and helping brands trace the adulterated or fraudulent products that masquerade as the real thing in the marketplace.

Scientists are even looking at ways of using DNA tags to authenticate individual pills, to combat the counterfeit medications that plague places like South Africa, where the market is bogged down with ineffective knockoffs of the pharmaceuticals used to treat malaria.

For that to work, you'd need one piece of equipment that, at the moment, doesn't exist: A portable DNA decoder that could verify ADNAS tags in the field. Hayward says an in-field DNA detector is the company's brass ring, and while he won't give an ETA for such a device, he says they're close to cracking it.

It's hard to believe a man who says his company has devised an identifying technology that "cannot be copied," full stop. I have no way of predicting whether that will pan out to be true. But from what I saw touring the biotech forensics lab, the technology really is remarkable. Life's genetic code may actually start to make life more secure.