Nov
04
2009
The Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH) is an exceptional study that has the potential to transform medicine. As someone who proudly spent over 25 years as a patient with Kaiser, I would be excited to see my family’s medical records used for such a worthy cause. I was disappointed, however, [...]
Jun
22
2009
Each one of us carries in our cells the vital genetic data, compliments of our parents, that code for many of our traits and attributes. Whether it’s our eye color, height or the ability to consume dairy products, the variations in our genes contribute to making us ‘one of a kind’. Unfortunately, these variations can [...]
Tags: data access, Declaration of Health Data Rights, DNA, genetic data, genome-wide association studies, GWAS, research
Mar
31
2009
By 23andMe Co-founders Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki
Every year, 130 million babies are born around the world. Yet little is known about why some women sail through their pregnancies, while others encounter issues such as infertility, miscarriage, pre-term labor, preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Giving birth, whether in medically-advanced countries or in the developing world, [...]
Tags: Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey, pregnancy, pregnancy community
Mar
11
2009
By 23andMe Co-Founders Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki
We started 23andMe with a simple, yet expansive, vision: to take DNA into the mainstream. In order to demystify genetics, we thought the best approach was to give individuals access to their genomes and help them gain personalized insight into their own unique code. This was our premise [...]
Tags: 23andWe, Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey, Parkinson's, Parkinson's Disease, Research 2.0
Dec
29
2008
My surname — Holden — has gone through many incarnations since it originated in England nearly 700 years ago. Letters were added, then dropped. Some branches of my family added an extra “u” in the middle, while others changed the pronunciation entirely. Then, when my ancestors arrived in America over 200 years ago, the name [...]
Tags: forensics, genealogy, Surname, Y-chromosome
Oct
02
2008
23andMe is marking the 23rd anniversary of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October with an initiative to build a web-based forum dedicated to helping women who face the disease.
Co-founders Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki told science and business leaders at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit today that we will be creating a specific breast [...]
Tags: 23andWe, Anne Wojcicki, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Fortune, Linda Avey
Sep
11
2008
This is Fashion Week in New York City, a twice-yearly spectacle where designers, models, celebrities and the merely style-obsessed meet to consider next season’s top looks. 23andMe managed to lure a few hundred people away from the catwalks Tuesday night to consider the beauty that lies within — DNA.
Our Fashion Week spit party was sort [...]
Tags: Anne Wojcicki, IAC, InterActiveCorp, Linda Avey, New York, Spit Party
Sep
08
2008
By 23andMe Co-founders Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki
23andMe is proud to announce a major step toward our goal of democratizing genetic information by giving our customers access to even more of their SNP data through our next generation custom content, all at a lower price.
With the introduction of v2, our next-generation analytical platform, 23andMe customers will have [...]
Aug
26
2008
By 23andMe founders Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki.
23andMe Co-Founder Linda Avey.
Personal genomics is an emerging field, and we were aware, when we first started the company, that we would challenge some of the existing precepts about how, and why, people might choose to access their genetic information. When we launched the 23andMe Personal Genome [...]
Jul
06
2008
The California Department of Public Health has made headlines in the past few weeks with its effort to rein in direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies. We were one of 13 companies who received a cease-and-desist letter from the department, to which we’ve responded (more on that here).
We agree that this evolving field of personal genomics [...]
Tags: 23andMe, Linda Avey, personal genomics