Spit Party

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Linda Avey

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Anne Wojcicki

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What sort of social networking would you like to see personally?

Avey: I have this heart condition called Wolff Parkinson White. All of a sudden out of nowhere your heart rate goes up to 190 beats per minute and you feel faint. I've only ever met one other person that's had the same thing. She was in high school and she and I were very close. When you share something in common with someone that affects your life like that you really feel an immediate connection.

What other benefits do you see?

Wojcicki: Part of the thing that really motivated me in getting into this was adverse events. Vioxx got taken off the market because a small percentage of the patients had an adverse event. It's insane to think one drug could work on the entire population. I would love to have cancer patients be able to walk in five years from now and get their tumor genotyped and know they should be taking this kind of drug instead of that one.

An editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested it was premature to use consumer DNA testing for making decisions about health and suggested people would better spend their money on a gym membership.

Avey: We totally agree it's premature. This information isn't ready for diagnostic purposes or for necessarily taking any kind of action. We're really more about building a new research paradigm. We want to align ourselves with the research community so our customers feel like they're actively engaged in a process.

When and how will the company start making a profit?

Avey: We're not really talking about our financials openly. But we feel very strongly that we have a great business model and we feel very confident there is a business in this. We hope we will be profitable very soon.

What's the story behind your name?

Wojcicki: I was sitting in the kitchen reading Wikipedia, and there was a very nice picture of the 23 pairs of chromosomes and I started singing "23 and me." My husband started humming the song, I realized that if he thought it was catchy--he's relatively tone deaf--we might be onto something.

Why were so many people spitting into tubes at the World Economic Forum in Davos?

Wojcicki: It was a really interesting group of people and they had a lot of questions. I assume that once these people start getting their data they'll give us a lot of feedback. The "spit party" concept was we had people walking around in lab coats that said "spit coach" on the back. It gave a good levity to Davos. People aren't really used to it -- how often do you have to spit in a tube? It requires a bit of coaching because we do require a fair amount of saliva. We had some people late at night who we really had to encourage: Come on, you can do it! Keep spitting!