Once heralded as one of the world's hottest startups for its meteoric rise and star-studded celebrity “spit parties” at Davos and New York Fashion Week, personal genetics testing company 23andMe has recently garnered media attention due to its notable decline in valuation.
By late 2005, Avey had left Perlegen for Affymetrix. Advancements in using saliva as a DNA sample source rather than buccal cheek swabs or blood were happening at that time. “A lightbulb went off for me because pulling DNA from saliva is much easier than pulling it from blood, and that was a trigger for me about the concept of consumer genetics,” Avey said.
“It was an amazing experience starting 23andMe,” Cusenza said. “Our goals included providing people with the ability to access their own genetic information and to interpret that information accurately.” The founders’ goals also included education, accelerating medical discoveries and treatment through leveraging the large numbers of people in the 23andMe database opting in for research, and providing medical insight to those without access to family history.