women and men : take a little piece of my heart

In California, fans don't hunt for autographs anymore, they collect DNA

How better to meld the ancient quest for talismanic power with the 20th-century cult of personality than by wearing an amulet of celebrity DNA?

A company in northern California will soon attempt to market the genetic essence of stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, James Dean, Abe Lincoln and George Washington. If StarGene Inc is successful, the autograph collectors of the next millennium will no longer lurk about with pen and paper. Instead, they will pluck the hair, swab the sweat, collect the skin, or snatch any other personal traces that can be culled from their quarry. Then they will take it to StarGene and have it "amplified" using the scientific method that won the company's founder, Dr Kary Mullis, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993. "It's the ultimate identification because everyone's DNA is 100 per cent unique," says Carol Zimmerman, the company's spokeswoman. "Rather than signing their name, the star will give a DNA 'fingerprint'."

If an agreement is reached with the Marilyn Monroe estate, customers will be able to purchase a Monroe watch and dog tag together with a "Genetic Memoir" declaring the authenticity of the DNA sample, which was taken from hairs on the nape of the star's neck during her post-mortem examination. The DNA itself appears as a white powder suspended in a gem-like amulet - called a "GeneStone" - that StarGene promotes as the "touchstone to the spirit of the celebrity". The line of products is set to include bracelets, brooches and other decorative trinkets priced at roughly $100 (pounds 68). Under the polymerase chain reaction process so beloved of police in matching criminals to crimes, DNA from a starter culture can be amplified into thousands of identical copies in minutes. However, only a small fraction of the complete biological blueprint can be recovered intact, so a resurrected Marilyn is not expected soon. "It's absolutely impossible," says Zimmerman."There's a billion genomes and we probably have a minute fraction of the cell itself."

Most of StarGene's samples were originally collected by John Reznikoff, president of University Archives in Stamford, Connecticut, who owns tresses from nearly 100 historical figures, including Napoleon, Lincoln, Franz Liszt and a lock saved from Elvis's GI haircut. But who, if anyone, owns the rights to molecular memorabilia remains a thorny issue.

American law is vague on the subject, and some of the dead stars' relatives are not happy with StarGene's plans. "It's still an issue with the Monroe estate and definitely with the Presleys," says Zimmerman. "We own the DNA, but they still have the rights to the use of the name and their likeness."

Who will want to wear a DNA dog tag? Zimmerman is confident that StarGene is a $100m business waiting to happen. "If it's Monroe or Presley, fans will want the product," says Zimmerman. "With someone like Lincoln it's more of a collectible product for those interested in history."

Others are not so sure. "When someone shows me DNA from a cell culture and says, 'I have a piece of Mick Jagger', my reaction is, 'Does it sing?' " says Arthur Caplan, head of the University of Pennsylvania's Centre for Bioethics. "You might have a piece of Mick, but it's certainly not the most interesting part."

Edward Helmore