Is it science or is it art? Californian company Yonder biology says it's both. For several hundred dollars depending on your chosen design, former biotech scientists Stein Sarah and Andy Bess would take your DNA, and turn it into a portrait.

A lot of people, they don't even know what DNA looks like or you know, it's just, it's just an idea. This we can actually give them something tangible that they can hold them in their hands,and say ' Oh, this is me. This is what my DNA is. '

DNA makes for intriguing art given it's complicated scientific funtion. The genes within DNA are passed down from each parent and determine such characteristics as hair colour and skin tone. And because each customer is unique, so is the portrait. The artistic process begins with a cheek swab. The cells collected on the swab contain the DNA which Yonder biology extracts and processes to the point where it can be imaged on the computer. Dean Sauer says scientists have been using similar methods for decades.

It's not a cutting-edge technology, I mean, this technology has been around since the 1980s. So, it's nothing really new, but it's definitely new to the average everday consumer. Consumers like Charlie Bishop whose best friend passed away 2 years ago. Charlie ended up marrying his late friend's widow, and adopting their daugher Lauren who's 7 months old at the time. For his wife's birthday, Bishop ordered a Yonder biology artwork mixing a photograph of Lauren with her DNA, a pictorial link to her late father.

It's not just a piece of art, it's, it's a connection with the past, it's the connection to Lauren' dad, to my best friend.

And for Andy Bess and Dean Sourer it's a product of the growing business that they say has become a part of their DNA.

Robert Muir Reuters.