Counsyl Pioneers Genetic Testing

Balaji explains how he created one of the first companies to use genomics in clinical medicine.

"We were one of the first companies to use genomics in medicine. We took genetic diseases like Tay-Sachs or Sickle Cell - these are simple genetic diseases that can be predicted by variation in one gene. What we did was test all of these at once with a universal genetic test.

This was one of the first applications of genomics in the clinic. The scalability of it, being able to assess many different markers and variants at the same time, allowed us to cut costs compared to traditional one-gene or one-variant blood tests.

The company was called Counsyl, which is now under Myriad Women's Health division. It was a successful exit, around $300 million."