16 minutes News

16 Minutes on the News #18: Personal Genomics – Hype vs Reality

Jorge Conde and Sonal Chokshi

Posted January 5, 2020

For our first episode of 2020 — #18 of our show 16 Minutes, where we cover recent headlines, the a16z way, from our vantage point in tech, and especially what’s hype/ what’s real — we do one of our special deep-dive episodes on a single topic: personal genomics.

It’s a turn of the decade — and January-appropriate! — look backward/ look forward given recent and past retrospective and prospective pieces in the media on the promise, and perils, of the ability to sequence one’s DNA: What did it, and does it, mean for personalized medicine, criminal investigations, privacy, and so on?

Our a16z expert for this episode is general partner Jorge Conde, who has a long history in the space, in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi. They cover everything from where genealogy databases and large datasets come in to fetal testing, multi-omics, and much more spanning past, present, and future.

image: Petra Fritz / Flickr