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If you and your brothers and sisters do not get what they would like in life, the story of Anne Wojcicki and her two sisters will not help her to feel better.
At age 45, she is the executive director of 23andMe, a $ 2.5 billion company. Anne's sister, Susan, 50, is executive director of YouTube.
The third sister, Janet Wojcicki, 48, does not disappoint either. She is a professor of epidemiology at the University of California at San Francisco, where she directs research on obesity and HIV.
You can even say that with such examples, the family has "good genes".
"We are lucky to have been raised by excellent parents who exposed us to communication and technology early on, my mother is a journalist, and my father is a physicist."
According to Anne, the training she received at home was more essential to her success than genetics.
Called by reference to the number of chromosomes that a normal human cell possesses, 23andMe (23eEu) allows people to receive detailed information about their ancestors and – which is more controversial – to obtain information on genetic risks to health.
For this, it is sufficient for the interested party to send a saliva sample collected with the help of a kit of the company
The trajectory of Anne
After growing up on the campus of Stanford University, near San Francisco, where his father was a teacher, Anne crossed the United States to study at Yale University in Connecticut [19659006] After graduating. in biology in 1996, she returned to California to work on molecular biology research in a government agency, then to the University of California at San Diego
The idea of creating 23andMe came from when She realized that the US health care system, based on private health plans, did not put enough emphasis on disease prevention or the care of the poor.
"I began to understand that financial incentives were encouraging health care not to worry about the patients who needed the most help," says Anne.
After all, add-t she, health professionals "do not make money by defending prevention. "" So I wanted to create something that would serve the interests of ordinary people. "
She also said she was inspired by the rise of Facebook and other social networks, such as YouTube, which gave more In 2006, Anne founded 23andMe with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza, a test that allows people to know which parts of the world their ancestors have become instantly popular with, but the company did not have the same service with the service that highlights the genetic health risks of those who send the saliva sample
The problem was to obtain regulatory approval for these tests, given concerns about its accuracy. Clashes with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which in 2013 banned the company from advertising the service.
But as of 2015, the FDA allowed screening most diseases, with the exception of some cancers, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
"The accident of 2013 was a challenge to overcome, I realized that our goal was to propagate within our team the According Anne, we believe that the long-term vision of the company does not allow us to provide the FDA with details of our badytical and clinical quality, "says Anne.
But the dispute with the FDA has not alienated investors.
the company has grown over the years and has a market value of 2.5 billion US dollars.
One of the first investors was the Internet giant, Google, who had invested 3.9 million US dollars in 2007. Google's co-founder Sergey Br was married to Anne.
In addition to revealing to users their potential genetic risks, the test aims to use DNA collected for research purposes. creation of new drugs and treatments.
With regard to the use of DNA in research, 23andMe has entered into a four-year partnership to collaborate with the British drug giant, GlaxoSmithKline. The goal is not to know when you are going to die
Anne points out that the test will not tell you "when you are going to die".
"Our life expectancy is a nice interaction between our genetics and the way of life we have adopted," he says.
Bradley Malin, professor of biomedical informatics, companies like 23andMe are gaining more and more space and prestige
"In the beginning, most of the services purchased were aimed primarily at providing information about ancestry, "he says.
"Gradually, the focus has been on the diagnostic service, which is changing the dynamics of these companies so that they are less badociated with a mere novelty, to be considered as technology companies . "
The same day -Day, Anne says that she likes to be a boss present in coordinating the work of her 500 employees. "I like to know not only the work that the person does, but also his personality."
The businesswoman adds that her two sisters succeed, like her, in following their pbadions. "They all love work and feel they contribute to the world."
BBC Canada – All rights reserved – Reproduction is prohibited without the written permission of the BBC
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