The Information's TITV
00:13:48 · Anne Wojcicki, Stephanie Palazzolo
[00:13:48] S5: Interestingly, there hasn't... Like, when we went to NeurIPS, we were the only genetics paper there. And so that was last year. So it's been really interesting to see, you know, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, like, everyone is coming. Like, everyone looks at biology and health care now, and it's super interesting to people. So there's a lot of really interesting players out there, you know, a lot of expertise in little pockets of some of these companies. I don't know. We'll have to see sort of like who makes the most sense. And I think for us as a nonprofit, what's always top priority for us is that mission. Like, are we doing... How can we fulfill the mission that our customers have entrusted us with? Like, I wanna really understand risk prediction. I wanna be able to give that information back to individuals. I wanna be able to predict disease because then you can actually do something about it and try to prevent. [00:14:37] S0: And I guess talking a bit about the business and the business model, obviously, you're a nonprofit now. I think a big concern in the past has been that perhaps the business model as even as a for profit wasn't necessarily sustainable. And I know you've talked a bit about cutting back on certain areas and really like kind of focusing on these key, on these kind of key areas for 23andMe now. But why is like a nonprofit the right way to go? And are are you concerned about some of these sustainability questions coming up now
00:15:08 · Anne Wojcicki
[00:15:08] S5: I think, as to be honest, I think there's like a there's a slight misunderstanding around 23andMe. And I think that there's, you know, the question I get that question a lot, and I... It's always interesting to understand the roots of where that comes from. If you look at most institutions that do research, and if you look at most biotechs, they do not make money. Like, while you are researching, it's like it's like building the foundation. You're like building the, you know, the foundation for your house. So when 23andMe, you know, came into issues in 2023, it's because we had put... We had built this incredible machine of a consumer business that allowed people to get, you know, affordable access to genetic data. We were working then with GSK on drug discovery. We had over 50 programs. We had this incredible AI genetic power discovery machine. And the biotech market collapsed. And, you know, half of biotech companies were trading under cash. So there was always... I think people sometimes confused, like, what is the business model? The business model for us was always about how do we have the most meaningful impact on genetic data and then return that back to our customers. That's about access to it, but it's also about discovery. So I think a lot of that question comes from when people didn't understand what the mission... Like, our mission was always on discovery, and discovery often does not lead to profitability for many, many years. So today, what's very different is like a research institute, someone like The Broad or Gladstone Institute, they are making a huge number of discoveries. They get grant funding, they get philanthropic dollars, and they do some pharma partnerships. And that is exactly what 23andMe will do. 23andMe has the consumer side still, which is very much about helping people get access to it. Affordability and easy access to lifesaving information is a huge mission for us. And then secondly, on the research side, we're looking for philanthropic donors. We will talk to, you know, government grant funders as well as, you know, pharmaceutical partnerships.
00:17:15 · Stephanie Palazzolo, Jessica Lessin
[00:17:15] S0: And, you know, when we talk about the mission that you're telling me about, what... What's... You know, what are some potential exciting discoveries that you're looking forward to that you think the genetic... That that you think that the genetic data that you have could unlock in the next five to ten years? [00:17:33] S1: I think... Look, I think that one of
00:17:33 · Jessica Lessin, Anne Wojcicki
[00:17:33] S1: I think... Look, I think that one of [00:17:35] S5: the most important things is people like my sister or, you know, parents of kids with rare disease, like, are always asking the question, why? And I think it's really hard when you don't know why. And I think that one of my hopes here is that 23andMe will be able to help people get that answer. And, you know, understanding if you have a genetic risk factor or if there are environmental components, like, what is it that you... You know, that potentially caused something? And I think that we have a we have a real opportunity of helping people understand that why. And I think the advantage of knowing that is then you can prevent for the next generation. And I think for all of us, like I look today, the people who can understand if they have a BRCA variant, and then you can have increased screening and prevent breast cancer, people who have, you know, familiar hypocholesterolemia and have just really high cholesterol, like those people can take a medication to actually reduce it. Like, it's a bit of, like, a... You know, like, an acceptance. Like, you can't necessarily just change that with environment. You have to take a a therapy for that. So my hope here is that, you know, people will be able to... We're really going to be able to answer that question as to why, and I think that we'll really be able to help people prevent.
00:18:52 · Stephanie Palazzolo, Nicole Su
[00:18:52] S0: Mhmm. And obviously, you know, 23andMe's mission here is to be able to take... As you're describing, be able to take people's genetic data and be able to flag to them, you know, things that they might have to get early checks for, for instance. [00:19:06] S3: Yeah. [00:19:07] S0: A lot of people, think, are also just taking their health data into their own hands and feeding it into chatbots and seeing what comes out. Yeah. I'm curious what you think of that because I think, yeah. I think there are strong arguments to both, you know, the pro and the con side.
00:19:07 · Stephanie Palazzolo, Anne Wojcicki
[00:19:07] S0: A lot of people, think, are also just taking their health data into their own hands and feeding it into chatbots and seeing what comes out. Yeah. I'm curious what you think of that because I think, yeah. I think there are strong arguments to both, you know, the pro and the con side. [00:19:20] S5: And I see... I think I think there's a couple of things. Like, one, it's always interesting when people experiment. But it's not... I think that's not mainstream. You know? Like, the reality is, like, most people want to have it curated for them. Secondly, I think one of the issues is about data quality. And I think, again, this administration, others also all recognize this. There's a lot of publications that come out that are in very small populations. They're small numbers of people. Like, doesn't... It's not really a gold star kind of study. So understanding what is real is important. And so part of what we will do is we'll put a curation, and we... This is what we do do now is, like, we have the curation layer on top of it. So we're curating the information so that when I give it back to you, that I know it's actually all things that are well validated, that are meaningful for you. Mhmm. And I think that the, you know, the chattypety, like all of the LM, like interpretations are remarkably good. But there's aspects where I'd say, okay, I am getting results that I would not say are necessarily scientifically valid that I would want to follow. Mhmm. [00:20:29] S0: So kind of... Yeah. Kind of being able to filter out maybe what is accurate