Love stinks

Eric Holzle has been making rounds with talk of dirty T-shirts.

He's got a theory that puts a new spin on the idea that opposites attract: that straight women are naturally attracted to men based on their immune systems. He bases this theory on a more than 10-year-old study in Switzerland that had straight women smell dirty T-shirts worn by randomly selected men. As it turned out, the women were most attracted to the smell of the shirts belonging to men with complementary immune systems.

Holzle says this is because "nature wants us to breed." More specifically, nature wants us to make the healthiest babies. And combining complementary immune systems yields babies with the most complete immune systems - who are likely to be the healthiest.

Holzle, a 44-year-old Northeastern University graduate who got a business degree at Babson, is so convinced of his theory that a year ago he created www.ScientificMatch.com, a dating website that pairs people from the Boston and Providence area by their immune systems. It works like this: You pay $1,995 to sign up for the service (there's a limited-time special of $995), and receive a genetic testing kit in the mail. You use the kit to take a cheek swab of your skin cells and return it to a lab in Oklahoma, which determines your DNA immunity makeup. After a background check and a test where you list priorities about practical things like age and geography, you'll be able to go online to find a batch of potential love interests whose DNA test results combine well with your own.

Isn't that romantic?

Of course, then you have to do the same thing that other online daters have to do - from your batch of potential mates, you'll have to weed out the stupid, the mean, the commitment phobic, and those who don't share your interests. But Holzle says knowing you're a genetic match with a potential mate is a good start. From your ScientificMatch .com group of compatible singles, you'll be able to choose a mate with whom, at the very least, you'll have the right chemistry.

Holzle says that a recent University of New Mexico study shows that couples with complementary genetic immunity profiles have better sex lives, more intense orgasms, greater fertility - and cheat less.

Holzle won't say how many folks have signed up for his service, so no word on how many you'll get to chose from. Right now the site is only open to local singles, but he claims there's enough interest to go national.

Of course, I had misgivings about online dating based on genetic testing. Besides all of the obvious weirdness, it seemed odd that women on the pill aren't allowed to join because, as Holzle explains, they've chemically altered their bodies to avoid the need to breed.

And what about gay couples? Do Holzle's theories apply to them as well?

Holzle says the site is equal opportunity, but he admits there's no scientific evidence about immunity and T-shirt smells in the gay community.

Somewhat bewildered, I bounced the concept off David Altshuler, a geneticist at Harvard University. I explained to him that there was a service that matches you with a partner based on genetics and immunity. He was intrigued, but after perusing Holzle's site, he said, without apologies, "This is all such hooey."

Altshuler has heard of the dirty T-shirt study, and he certainly believes there's something to it, but he rejected the notion that the best relationships begin with genetics.

"The idea that DNA is like incredibly powerful or important is a fallacy," said the geneticist. "Potentially nothing about the genetics about the DNA ends up shaping the phenotype."

It's people's phenotype - meaning, their personality - not genotype, that applies to dating, he says. It's more important that a mate makes you laugh, cares for you, and shares your interests.

Of course, the type of person who would sign up to find a soul mate based on DNA will probably find that like-minded singles are doing the same thing. That's about phenotype, for those paying attention, but if it works, who cares?

And if nothing else, for $1,995, members of ScientificMatch.com will have found, at the very least, someone who doesn't mind the smell of their dirty laundry.

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.