It’s All In the Genes

Would you like to have access to your genetic information? Isn’t your genetic information fundamentally yours? Shouldn’t it be your choice whether to access it? These are the questions that Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, weighs every day. A company that opens such doors to a person’s past and future is bound to be the source of ethical debate. 

Wojcicki talked to Big Think about the genesis of her partnership with Linda Avey, who will soon be leaving the 23andMe to start a foundation related to Alzheimer’s disease. She spoke of 23andMe’s devotion to clinical trials that they hope will uncover new findings about Parkinson’s; they hope to announce something big soon.

Wojcicki is also the wife of Sergey Brin, one of Google’s famous founders. She gave Big Think an inside look on what it was like to watch her husband build the startup from the ground up, and how it felt to discover that her husband has a gene for Parkinson’s. Plus, why Larry Page once told her to stop complaining.