23andMe Founder Anne Wojcicki is Bringing Genetics to the People
“The healthcare world has made this assumption that you are not capable of making decisions… that you need the white coat, you need the degree, you need me to make your decisions. And I think, those days are over.”
Anne Wojcicki started 23andMe in 2006 to empower consumers with access to their own genetic information. There are few things more personal to all of us than our DNA. It forms the basis for what makes us similar and unique. It has the potential to unlock ancestry, dictate traits, and influence health. Anne founded 23andMe with the mission of enabling people to access, understand, and benefit from this powerful information. And over the last 16 years, the company has made accessing genetic information more accessible, affordable, and simple enough for consumers of all education levels to understand.
In this episode, Anne shares the highs and lows of this journey including getting an FDA warning letter, going public, and genotyping over 12 million customers.
Topics covered:
Building genetics into primary care
Building a direct-to-consumer healthcare business
Overcoming the challenge of getting an FDA warning letter
How genetic relative surprises are remarkably common
23andMe’s role in the discussion of race
Her vision for crowd-based research
Why they likely won’t get into the business of whole-genome sequencing
Listen