genetic-testing
(10)
The Newport Beach Holding Company Quietly Running Labs, Call Centers and a Mental-Health Machine
Upfront Inc doesn't pick one lane. From a Newport Beach office it runs mental-health programs, diagnostic labs, call centers and a PR shop as parts of the same growth engine.
The Quiet Machine Behind One in Three American Adults
Quest Diagnostics is easy to mistake for a chain of blood-draw centers. Its real product is a national system that moves specimens, data and decisions through American healthcare at unusual scale.
Allelica, Inc.
Allelica is a genomics software company building the tools that move polygenic risk scores (PRS) out of the research lab and into routine clinical care. Its cloud platform lets labs and health systems develop, validate, and apply PRS across multiple ancestries, and its clinical test AbsoluteDx combines rare-variant (monogenic) and genome-wide (polygenic) risk in a single report. The company's stated priority is equity - building risk scores that work for patients regardless of genetic ancestry - and its multi-ancestry coronary artery disease work was cited in the 2026 ACC/AHA cardiovascular prevention guidelines.
GENETICA® US
Genetica is a San Francisco-founded gene decoding company built for Asian genomes. It pairs a proprietary genotyping chip - manufactured with Illumina and Thermo Fisher - with AI analysis to turn a saliva sample into reports on health risks, innate ability, behavior, nutrition and fitness. Marketed direct-to-consumer across Vietnam and Southeast Asia, its CLIA- and CAP-certified pipeline is reviewed by scientists tied to UCSF, Harvard, Stanford and Cornell.
Genomelink
Genomelink is a consumer genomics platform - a self-described 'DNA App Store' - that lets people upload raw DNA data from services like 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and MyHeritage to unlock 400+ trait reports and deep ancestry breakdowns without buying another test kit. Operated by AWAKENS, Inc. and based in Berkeley, California, the company was founded by three genomics specialists from Japan who built it into one of the largest independent DNA-analysis sites while pushing into AI-powered genealogy (YourRoots) and clinical screening (T1D Scout).
NeuroAge Therapeutics
NeuroAge Therapeutics is a San Francisco tech-bio company that measures how old your brain actually is - and tries to make it younger. Founded in 2022 by physician-scientist Dr. Christin Glorioso, the company's flagship NeuroAge Test blends brain MRI, cognitive games, proprietary RNA blood biomarkers, and genetic screening into a single 'brain age' score that aims to flag dementia risk up to 30 years before symptoms appear. The longer-term goal is bolder: small-molecule drugs that reprogram aging neurons back toward a younger state.
Tomohiro Takano
Tomohiro Takano is the co-founder and CEO of Genomelink (operated by AWAKENS, Inc.), a Berkeley-based consumer genomics company building what he calls a 'DNA App Store.' The platform lets people who have taken tests from services like 23andMe or AncestryDNA upload their raw DNA data to unlock ancestry breakdowns, ancient-DNA comparisons, hundreds of trait analyses, and DNA matching. Takano started the company in 2016 as a weekend project in Japan with co-founders he met at university, moved to the Bay Area with no visa and little funding, and won a spot at Berkeley SkyDeck one day before the team was set to fly home and shut down. He frames himself as a 'risk manager' rather than a risk taker, and credits a liberal arts education for teaching him to ask the right questions.
Tuan Cao
Tuan Cao is the co-founder and CEO of Genetica and LIFE AI, biotech companies building AI-driven precision health for Asian populations. A Cornell-trained computer scientist who once redesigned Google's Ads reporting engine, he left a comfortable Silicon Valley career to decode genomes built for the nearly one billion people of East Asian descent that Western genetic tools serve poorly. His current venture, LIFE AI, is a Singapore-based foundational AI platform he calls the Intelligence Layer of Human Health, securing 15+ petabytes of genomic data on-chain and aiming to let people own and benefit from their own genetic data.
Orchid
Orchid is a reproductive genetics company offering the first commercially available whole-genome sequencing test for IVF embryos. Founded by Noor Siddiqui in 2019, Orchid reads more than 99% of an embryo's genome before implantation and screens for over 1,200 monogenic conditions, chromosomal abnormalities, de novo mutations, and polygenic disease risk - so prospective parents can make informed choices before pregnancy begins.
Noor Siddiqui
Noor Siddiqui is the founder and CEO of Orchid Health, a San Francisco-based biotech startup offering whole-genome sequencing for IVF embryos, screening for 1,200+ genetic variants. Motivated by watching her mother lose her sight to retinitis pigmentosa, she dropped out of high school at 17 to become one of the youngest Thiel Fellows, later returned to earn dual CS degrees at Stanford, and then built Orchid with $16.5M in funding from investors including 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki and Coinbase's Brian Armstrong. She is also the host of the podcast 'Conceivable with Noor.'