genetic-testing
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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.
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.'