This month,<a href="https://www.comparably.com/news"> Comparably</a> included 23andMe on its list of businesses with the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/large-companies-best-work-life-balance-comparably-ranking-2021-10">Best Company Work-Life Balance in 2021</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="250" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/work-life-balance-2021-large-300x250.png" alt="" class="wp-image-29179" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/work-life-balance-2021-large-300x250.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/work-life-balance-2021-large-768x639.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/work-life-balance-2021-large-1024x852.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/work-life-balance-2021-large-880x732.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/work-life-balance-2021-large-1180x982.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/work-life-balance-2021-large.png 1238w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></figure>



The list was compiled by Comparably using anonymous ratings from 23andMe employees over the last year. The pandemic has heightened many people’s focus on the difficulty of balancing their work obligations with their home responsibilities. Finding that balance was difficult even before the pandemic.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-happy-at-work">Happy at Work</h2>



The award highlights companies where employees answered that they were satisfied with their work-life balance. 23andMe was listed as one of the Top 10 companies with the best work-life balance among large-sized companies, with more than 87 percent of employees saying they were <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/happy-together-at-23andme">happy with the work-life balance at 23andMe</a>.



One employee singled out how <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/23andmes-anne-wojcicki-among-the-best-ceos-for-women">23andMe’s CEO and Co-Founder Anne Wojcicki</a> has made this a top priority.



&#8220;I love that she values work-life balance and treats us as human beings rather than cogs in a machine. I also love her readiness to innovate&#8211;even in things like rethinking the workplace of the future.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-work-life-balance">Work-Life Balance</h2>



Long before COVID-19, 23andMe created a culture that valued getting your work done and having a healthy, vibrant life outside the office.&nbsp;



Family leave, flexible work schedules, and a robust benefits package played a role. And over the last year and a half, since the pandemic has forced most of the 23andMe employees to work from home, the company has added new and creative ways to address this new reality, from virtual movie showings to half days on Fridays to new wellness benefits. Earlier this year, 23andMe made Comparably’s list of the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/23andmes-anne-wojcicki-among-the-best-ceos-for-women/">Best CEOs for Women</a>.



Making Comparably’s list of Best Company Work-Life Balance is validation that 23andMe&#8217;s work is helping our employees navigate the new realities of the workplace.&nbsp;

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Work-Life Balance at 23andMe

With the world still feeling the effects of the pandemic, the <a href="https://www.ashg.org/meetings/2021meeting/">annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics</a> will yet again be virtual this year.
Last year’s conference showed that yes, it was possible to bring together thousands of scientists through their computer screens alone. From October 18th to October 22nd, scientists will virtually gather again for a week of presentations on the latest breakthroughs in genetics.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-28236 size-medium" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 270w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 192w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 32w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 512w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
<h6>Diversity in Genetics Research</h6>
This year’s <a href="https://www.ashg.org/publications-news/newsletter/20210922-president/">Presidential Symposium</a> will feature a series of talks on diversity, race, inclusion and equity. We’ve previously highlighted 23andMe’s efforts to make our research and product more equitable, and we look forward to learning from others in the field about how we might further improve along with the rest of the broader genomics community.
<h6>23andMe Research Presentations</h6>
The conference will include a broad range of research across the field of genomics. Several scientists from 23andMe will also be presenting some of our related research. This includes our latest research on rare diseases, a recent study of gene expression in blood of individuals of African ancestry, and improved methods for polygenic risk scores.
Here is a list of 23andMe’s presentations and posters:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/rare-disease-research/">Suyash Shringarpure</a>, PhD, Sr. Scientist I, Statistical Genetics</li>
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Talk: “<a href="https://eventpilotadmin.com/web/page.php?page=Session&#038;project=ASHG21&#038;id=P1310">Novel genetic associations for rare diseases with GWAS and trans-ethnic analysis of self-reported medical data</a>”</li>
<li aria-level="2">Tue, Oct 19; 4:00pm &#8211; 4:15pm ET</li>
</ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/therapeutics/kipper-fletez-brant/">Kipper Fletez-Brant</a>, PhD, Scientist II, Computational Biology</li>
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Poster: <a href="https://eventpilotadmin.com/web/page.php?page=Session&#038;project=ASHG21&#038;id=odP3106&#038;title=Related%20Sessions">“Black Representation in Genomics Research (BRGR) Study of eQTLs in venous blood of 23andMe research participants with African ancestry”</a></li>
<li aria-level="2">Mon, Oct 18; 5:30-6:30pm ET</li>
<li aria-level="2">PrgmNr 3700<div id="attachment_29289" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29289" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BRGR-ASHG-Poster-Kipper-1024x576.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-29289 size-large" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BRGR-ASHG-Poster-Kipper-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BRGR-ASHG-Poster-Kipper-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BRGR-ASHG-Poster-Kipper-768x432.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BRGR-ASHG-Poster-Kipper-880x495.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BRGR-ASHG-Poster-Kipper-1180x664.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Kipper&#8217;s ASHG poster detailing preliminary data from the BRGR study.</div></li>
</ul>
<li aria-level="1">Jingchunzi Shi, PhD, Scientist II, Statistical Genetics</li>
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Poster: “<a href="https://eventpilotadmin.com/web/page.php?page=Session&#038;project=ASHG21&#038;id=P3291">Improving Polygenic Risk Score Transferability by Leveraging GWAS Signals from Diverse Populations</a>”</li>
<li aria-level="2">Mon, Oct 18; 5:30-6:30pm ET</li>
<li aria-level="2">PrgmNr 3885<div id="attachment_29293" style="width: 970px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29293" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ASHG2021_Multi_Population_PRS-.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-29293 size-full" width="960" height="540" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ASHG2021_Multi_Population_PRS-.jpg 960w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ASHG2021_Multi_Population_PRS--300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ASHG2021_Multi_Population_PRS--768x432.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ASHG2021_Multi_Population_PRS--880x495.jpg 880w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" />Jingchunzi&#8217;s ASHG poster on improving polygenic risk scores for diverse populations.</div></li>
</ul>
</ul>
You can find out more about this years ASHG meeting <a href="https://www.ashg.org/meetings/2021meeting/">here</a>.

23andMe at ASHG 2021

Kipper Fletez-Brant, a computational biologist with our Therapeutics division, thought he’d be a physicist one day.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kipper_pic_2-196x300.jpg" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-29155 size-medium" width="196" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kipper_pic_2-196x300.jpg 196w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kipper_pic_2-768x1176.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kipper_pic_2-669x1024.jpg 669w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kipper_pic_2-575x880.jpg 575w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kipper_pic_2-771x1180.jpg 771w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kipper_pic_2.jpg 1288w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px" />Growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, Kipper escaped the heat reading “hard-sci-fi novels” with mind-bending plots woven with currently understood science about things like dark matter, wormholes, and the bending of the space-time continuum.
“But I realized at some point I liked living things and physics wasn&#8217;t the best fit,” he said.
Physics is sometimes referred to as the philosopher’s science. So perhaps it was appropriate that instead of a hard science, Kipper tackled other kinds of hard questions and studied philosophy as an undergraduate at St. John’s College.
After four years of wrestling with the eternal questions of life, he wanted something different.
“I wasn&#8217;t keen on the fact that there aren&#8217;t answers in philosophy,” Kipper said.
And that in turn motivated him to “think about science again.”
After graduation, while doing clerical work for an ophthalmologist, a doctor who noticed his aptitude and interest suggested he consider bioinformatics.
“I learned that was a way to put math and biology together,” Kipper said. “There was just one catch. I hadn’t studied either.”
It’s what motivated him to go back to school and break into the field. What followed was a Masters in Biotechnology giving him crash courses in computer science and molecular biology. He went on to work in a genetics lab and then spent time at the <a href="https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/vrc">National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center</a>, working on data related to vaccine trials. Work that he’s been thinking about on a daily basis since the pandemic.
“Our mission was to understand, on a molecular level, what changes vaccines caused, so that we could make better, more effective vaccines,” Kipper said. 
The mission was important but Kipper wanted to lead research himself, and so he returned to school, but this time for a Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/institute-genetic-medicine/">McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine</a> at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine and a Masters in Statistics from the School of Public Health.
Now three years into his work at 23andMe, Kipper is a critical part of the team of scientists and computational biologists looking for potential drug targets. One of the projects that Kipper is working on is a research effort called the<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/black-representation-in-research/"> Black Representation in Genomic Research Study</a> (BRGR) in which scientists are studying the genetics of gene expression with the aim of improving diversity in biomedical research. Ultimately, the aggregated and de-identified RNA and whole-genome sequencing data from the project will be made available to qualified researchers through the NIH’s dbGap. The hope is that this will assist those developing more effective drugs that can treat conditions and diseases affecting members of the Black community who have been underrepresented in traditional research.
It’s just one of many examples of what excites Kipper about working at 23andMe. For a scientist still fascinated by the potential of genetics to lead to novel therapies, he said being part of <a href="https://therapeutics.23andme.com/">23andMe’s Therapeutics </a>division offers rare opportunities.
“The genetic and phenotypic data at 23andMe is unparalleled,” Kipper said. “There is simply no other resource that compares to the 23andMe database in terms of the scale of phenotypes surveyed or size of the cohort.”
As part of an occasional series about scientists working at 23andMe, we sat down with Kipper to talk more about computational biology, 23andMe, and what it’s like being a scientist in 23andMe’s Therapeutics division.
<h6>Where did you grow up?</h6>
I grew up in Phoenix, AZ. I remember when it hit 122F in the early 90s. It grounded airplanes, many people had heatstroke. We didn&#8217;t have AC at the time, so my mom sprayed us with the hose (this motivated my parents to get AC)
<h6>What did you study as an undergrad?</h6>
I studied philosophy at St. John&#8217;s College, a small liberal arts college in Annapolis, Maryland. (It is directly across the street from the United States Naval Academy).
<h6>Did you always want to be a scientist?</h6>
Intermittently. As a child, I thought I might want to do physics because I read a lot of &#8220;hard&#8221; sci-fi where they talked about the physics of things like space travel. But I realized at some point I liked living things and physics wasn&#8217;t the best fit. I did philosophy because at least I thought about difficult things a lot, but I wasn&#8217;t keen on the fact that there aren&#8217;t answers in philosophy, which motivated me to think about science again.
<h6>Was your interest inspired by a person or a book or an experience?</h6>
After undergrad, I was working as an administrative assistant in a North Baltimore suburb for an ophthalmology office, and one of the doctors told me I should look at bioinformatics. I learned that was a way to put math and biology together. The catch was I hadn’t studied either. But that motivated me to look around for ways to break into the field.
<h6>Why did you get two master’s degrees (in Statistics and Biotechnology) and was there something that changed to prompt you to get your Ph.D. in human genetics?</h6>
I somehow talked my way into my first masters, in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins, despite having a degree in philosophy and no scientific training. I was essentially making up for lost time. I studied computer science and molecular biology during this degree, while also interning as a laboratory technician in a molecular genetics lab. It really set me up for success, and after graduating I took a job as a data analyst at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Vaccine Research Center, mainly working on datasets that came from participants in vaccine trials. Our mission was to understand, on a molecular level, what changes vaccines caused so that we could make better, more effective vaccines.
<h6>Why did you leave the NIH?</h6>
While the NIH was a great job with really smart people, I knew I wanted to lead research projects, and I did not have the training for that. I also missed working in genetics and genomics, and so I enrolled in the Human Genetics program at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. While there, I knew I needed serious training in statistics to match the biological training from my Ph.D. program, so I did my Ph.D. work with Kasper Hansen, a professor in the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health, and also did a master&#8217;s degree in biostatistics. In addition, I was a fellow of the Maryland Genetics, Epidemiology and Medicine (MD-GEM) training program, where I also trained in genetic epidemiology. 
<h6>What are the kinds of questions or problems you like to study?</h6>
I really like difficult problems that don’t have clear answers and make you think in several disciplines at once. At the NIH, I developed a tool for doing quality control of vaccine data that uses statistical concepts typically used in geology. While a Ph.D. student, I worked on statistical methods to find genetic variants that impact what 3D structure DNA actually takes when it is in a cell.
<h6>What attracted you to working for 23andMe’s Therapeutics team?</h6>
At the NIH I was working very closely with clinical research, and I knew that after my Ph.D. I wanted to return to more translational work. 23andMe, where everything is based on genetics, was a natural choice for me. And to date, I have used every part of my training, from molecular genetics to epidemiology to statistics, to answer questions about how to take our genetic findings and identify drug targets using them. 
<h6>Could you explain a little bit about your job analyzing functional genomics data and how it plays a role in characterizing potential drug targets?</h6>
At 23andMe, everything we do starts with genetics.  We know which genetic variants are associated with which diseases. The problem is that knowing that some genetic variant is associated with a disease often tells you nothing about how the variant causes disease, nor what you might do about it. The Computational Biology group helps generate ideas about how diseases are caused by genetic variation, and which genes might be good drug targets, by using our genetic data in conjunction with other biological data, such as the gene expression profiling we did in the BRGR study. Specifically, we often ask questions about whether particular variants affect the expression or function of possible target genes — maybe a particular gene is over-expressed in some diseases with an unmet medical need, for example.
<h6>What is unique about working at 23andMe either in terms of the kind of data you’re working with or the culture?</h6>
The genetic and phenotypic data at 23andMe is unparalleled. There is simply no other resource that compares to the 23andMe database in terms of the scale of phenotypes surveyed or the size of the cohort. Many GWAS that we run yield signals seen in no other cohort. In this context, drug development is very exciting, in that how to use genetic information to hone in on a drug target is a topic of active research in the community. 23andMe Therapeutics is breaking ground on hard questions and is one of the leaders in this space.
<h6>How is what you’re doing now different from what you were doing at St. Johns, or different from other jobs you’ve had?</h6>
My role at 23andMe is closer to the drug/therapeutic development process than any other job I’ve had, which was a huge draw for me, to be honest. At Johns Hopkins, I worked on questions that were focused on understanding basic biology, and at the NIH I was downstream of the development process. Here I am actively helping the Therapeutics team find new targets.
<h6>What are your hopes for the work you are doing?</h6>
I am optimistic that we will find “the best” way to use genetics to inform drug discovery. Our comprehensive dataset allows us to target a wide variety of diseases, and I am hopeful we can make an impact on many of them and the lives of people living with those diseases.

Tackling Tough Problems with the 23andMe Therapeutics Team

We know you care about privacy, and we’ve been working hard to deliver on our promises of transparency and choice, even beyond your experience at 23andMe. 
This is why we’re excited to share that California recently enacted a new law to protect consumers’ genetic data privacy. We have worked hard with the <a href="https://geneticdataprotection.com/">Coalition for Genetic Data Protection</a> to make this happen in California, as well as <a href="https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title13/Chapter60/13-60.html?v=C13-60_2021050520210505">Utah</a> and <a href="https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/44/08001.htm">Arizona</a> earlier this year, and we hope to see this legislation become a model for genetic privacy legislation nationally.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-28236 size-medium" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 270w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 192w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 32w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-23ANDME-LOGO.jpg 512w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“We fundamentally believe that it&#8217;s our responsibility to protect our customers&#8217; data and ensure their privacy,” said Jacquie Cooke Haggarty, deputy general counsel, and privacy officer at 23andMe.  
We believe every consumer deserves the same level of genetic data privacy, and California’s new<a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB41#:~:text=SB%2041%2C%20Umberg.,Privacy%3A%20genetic%20testing%20companies.&#038;text=This%20bill%20would%20require%20a,days%20of%20revocation%20of%20consent."> Genetic Information Privacy Act</a> (“GIPA”), signed by Governor Newsom on October 6, 2021, builds on industry best practices and existing consumer privacy protections adopted by the state two years ago under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). GIPA requires genetic testing services to provide consumers with transparency and choice, which are 23andMe’s core privacy principles that have guided our privacy program from the beginning. 
“That trust is built on a foundation of transparency and choice — our customers know that they are always in control of their data,” Jacquie said.
In 2018, 23andMe joined forces with the non-profit <a href="https://fpf.org/about/">Future of Privacy Forum</a> and worked alongside other personal genetic testing companies, including Ancestry.com and Helix, to develop the <a href="https://fpf.org/blog/privacy-best-practices-for-consumer-genetic-testing-services/">Privacy Best Practices for Consumer Genetic Testing Services</a>. The best practices offer a framework for protecting consumer genetic data, as well as guidelines for the collection, protection, sharing, and use of genetic data generated from consumer genetic testing. 
Now all consumers in California, Utah, and Arizona will be afforded the same level of privacy protection regardless of whether the genetic testing company with which they tested adheres to the best practices or not. Importantly, genetic testing companies include those that provide genetic interpretation services, too.   
The California, Utah, and Arizona laws include many of the same protections that 23andMe has long offered its customers, including:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Requiring separate express consent for genetic data to be: </li>
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">used for scientific research purposes</li>
<li aria-level="2">shared with a third party</li>
<li aria-level="2">used for marketing purposes</li>
</ul>
<li aria-level="1">If a customer opts in to research, offering a simple way to opt-out of research at any time</li>
<li aria-level="1">Giving customers a clear and easy way to close their accounts and delete their data, if they choose</li>
<li aria-level="1">Requiring destruction of a customer’s biological sample within 30 days of the customer’s request </li>
<li aria-level="1">Prohibiting genetic testing companies from sharing genetic data with employers or providers of insurance for any reason</li>
<li aria-level="1">Requiring genetic testing companies to provide clear and complete information about their privacy practices and protocols</li>
</ul>
You can learn more about 23andMe’s privacy policies<a href="https://www.23andme.com/privacy/"> here</a>.

California Expands Consumer Protections for Genetic Testing

This week, Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe’s CEO, and Co-Founder signed a letter, along with dozens of CEOs, making a commitment toward advancing equity and inclusion for employees and customers with disabilities. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-30848 size-larger" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1-880x461.png" alt="" width="880" height="461" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1-880x461.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1-300x157.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1-768x402.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1.png 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px" />
The move deepened the company’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through participating in the Disability Equality Index. The index offers a way to gauge the company’s policies and practices for employees and customers with disabilities in the coming years.
Administered by the non-profit group, <a href="https://www.aapd.com/about/">American Association of People with Disabilities</a> and <a href="https://disabilityin.org/who-we-are/about/">Disability:IN</a>, the index will offer the company — and those outside the company — a benchmark assessment for measures of inclusivity for those with disabilities. It will allow 23andMe to better see how inclusive our products and working environment are for people with disabilities. The benchmarking will begin next year.
As a company that prides itself in celebrating the shared humanity of all people, diversity, equity and inclusion are at 23andMe’s core. People who feel empowered to be their authentic selves make better employees and bring broader perspectives to the work they do. That, in turn, helps the kinds of products we make and ensures that what we do serves all our customers, no matter their ability.
“The world really can change. But the world changes because there are individuals who drive forward that change,” Anne Wojcicki said in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctMLKTXqsmM&amp;t=194s">a discussion recently</a> about why making and following through with commitments toward diversity, equity, and inclusion are so important for the company.
“And so that’s the responsibility of 23andMe as an activist brand,” she said. “We have an opportunity, and frankly a responsibility, to lead. And there is absolutely this opportunity to drive forward a different, better, and more inclusive world &#8230;we’re going to try and lead by example.”
While 23andMe has made diversity, inclusion, and equity a priority, using the index in the coming years will allow 23andMe to deepen that commitment and it will offer ways of measuring our success and identifying areas for improvement.
For more information about the Disability Equity Index go <a href="https://disabilityin.org/what-we-do/disability-equality-index/">here</a>.

Equity and Inclusion at 23andMe for People with Disabilities

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we want to share stories from customers like Kristy who&#8217;ve taken action after learning she carried a variant in the BRCA1 gene associated with a higher likelihood of developing breast and ovarian cancer. 
Kristy never got to know her dad. He died when she was just two. Her mom, who was busy raising Kristy and her three brothers and three sisters, never shared a lot about him.
And then, in 2016, about 50 years after her father&#8217;s death, Kristy learned something surprising about her dad after using 23andMe.
&#8220;I found out I was half Jewish, specifically Ashkenazi Jewish,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was fun to get my (23andMe) ancestry results and share them with my six siblings.&#8221;
<h6>Ashkenazi Ancestry</h6>
Raised in a busy midwest Catholic family, Kristy had no idea her dad was 100 percent Jewish. He had left the faith and became a Catholic when he married her mom. The news was interesting; it also reoriented some of what she knew about her family. But at the time, Kristy didn&#8217;t recognize the significance of that family history for her health, and the health of her brothers and sisters and their children.
&#8220;I knew that he was part Jewish, but nothing near 100 percent Jewish,&#8221; she said recently.
It wasn&#8217;t until two years later that she found out just how important knowing her ancestry was. Still, before explaining what happened, it helps to know a little about the uniqueness of Ashkenazi ancestry.
<h6>Ancestry and Health</h6>
The word &#8220;Ashkenazi&#8221; comes from Ashkenaz, a descendant of Noah in the Hebrew bible. People with Ashkenazi ancestry have roots in Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe, who had migrated there via Southern Europe. As with many groups, members married and raised families within their faith in these small, close-knit communities. Ashkenazi people were also were more isolated because of violent persecution directed against them from surrounding communities. Over centuries this isolation helped establish a distinct religious, linguistic, and <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674397316">cultural Jewish identity</a>.
&nbsp;

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="718" height="1024" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kristy4-718x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-29152" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kristy4-718x1024.jpg 718w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kristy4-210x300.jpg 210w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kristy4-768x1095.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kristy4-617x880.jpg 617w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kristy4-827x1180.jpg 827w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kristy4-scaled.jpg 1795w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 718px) 100vw, 718px" /></figure>
 
And similar to other culturally or geographically isolated populations, this isolation (and a resulting &#8220;founder bottleneck&#8221;) has created distinct genetic heritage over generations, which can also have implications for health.
So, for example, people with Ashkenazi ancestry are more likely to carry genetic variants that cause single-gene recessive inherited conditions. These include conditions such as <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/carrier/gaucher-disease-type-1">Gaucher disease</a>, <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/carrier/canavan-disease">Canavan disease</a>, and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/carrier/tay-sachs-disease">Tay-Sachs disease</a>. People of Ashkenazi ancestry also have a higher prevalence of genetic variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes associated with increased risk for breast, ovarian, prostate, and certain other cancers.
Kristy knew none of this.
<h6>A New Genetic Health Risk Report</h6>
Then in 2018, 23andMe released its BRCA1/BRCA2 (Selected Variants) Genetic Health Risk* Report, the first direct to consumer genetic test for inherited cancer authorized by the FDA. The report looks at three of the BRCA variants most common in people of Ashkenazi ancestry. Women with one of these variants have a 45-85 percent risk of developing breast cancer by age 70, compared to about 13 percent in the general population. In addition, having one of these variants increases the risk for ovarian cancer. After opting to receive the information and going through a tutorial about the report, Kristy opened up her results.
She had one of the variants in the BRCA1 gene.
&#8220;And so began an almost two-year journey of discovering what this all meant,&#8221; she said.
<h6>Kristy&#8217;s Health Journey</h6>
For Kristy, it meant consulting five different doctors and talking to a genetic counselor to best understand her risk. Initially, her doctor did a confirmatory test. She did indeed carry the variant. Then, working with her doctors, they looked at her family medical history. An aunt had died of ovarian cancer, and a grandmother had survived ovarian cancer. They used all this information to give their best estimate for her risks.
&#8220;I think I had a 50 percent risk for ovarian cancer and up to an 80 percent risk for breast cancer,&#8221; Kristy said. 
Her aunt had died of ovarian cancer at 52, and Kristy, nearing that age herself, didn&#8217;t want to wait. She decided to have preventative surgeries, a double mastectomy, and an oophorectomy (removal of her ovaries). Later Kristy had reconstructive surgery. It was an emotional and at times frightening period. But what she hadn&#8217;t expected was how hard it was to talk to her family about it. 
Not only did the knowledge about her own risk also have implications for her sisters, but also her brothers. Like Kristy, they all could have inherited the same risk variant. And it wasn&#8217;t just about her siblings but their children as well.
&#8220;My family, in particular my sisters, were having a tough time understanding why I was going through this, and then why they may have to go through it too,&#8221; she said.
<h6>Talking to Family</h6>
At first, they thought she might be overreacting. So because of that response, Kristy went back to her genetic counselor to once again review all the findings. She wanted to make sure she understood the risk, and reconfirm her decision.
&#8220;I went through all the numbers and the family health history and everything to make sure I was doing the right thing,&#8221; she said.
It took a while for them to grasp the importance of it all. But eventually, all of her sisters and two of her three brothers tested. All three of her sisters had the variant, as well as one of her brothers. Eventually, they were able to share information to help each other work through what to expect. For her siblings with children, it&#8217;s information they could share with them as well.
<h6>A Gift</h6>
But if it weren’t for Kristy&#8217;s 23andMe reports, they may have never known.
Indeed, many people who carry a BRCA genetic variant associated with an increased risk for breast, ovarian, prostate, and certain other cancers only find out that they have one of those variants after they&#8217;ve been diagnosed with cancer. They often don&#8217;t have a family history of cancer or don&#8217;t know their family medical history or ancestry. These are all used to evaluate whether a patient should get BRCA testing. A study by 23andMe researchers published last year in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63466-x">Scientific Reports</a> found that many of those individuals who carry one of the BRCA risk variants that 23andMe tests for are likely to be missed under current clinical testing criteria. 
For Kristy, the knowledge gave her and her family potentially lifesaving information.
&#8220;I was given the gift of knowing,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Some people never get that chance.&#8221;
Learn more about the BRCA gene and its role in some cancers <a href="https://www.23andme.com/brca/">here</a>.
<hr />
*The 23andMe PGS test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva for the purpose of reporting and interpreting genetic health risks and reporting carrier status. It is not intended to diagnose any disease. Your ethnicity may affect the relevance of each report and how your genetic health risk results are interpreted. Each genetic health risk report describes if a person has variants associated with a higher risk of developing a disease, but does not describe a person’s overall risk of developing the disease. The test is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions, including whether or not you should take a medication, how much of a medication you should take, or determine any treatment. Our carrier status reports can be used to determine carrier status, but cannot determine if you have two copies of any genetic variant. These carrier reports are not intended to tell you anything about your risk for developing a disease in the future, the health of your fetus, or your newborn child’s risk of developing a particular disease later in life. For certain conditions, we provide a single report that includes information on both carrier status and genetic health risk. Warnings &amp; Limitations: The 23andMe PGS Genetic Health Risk Report for BRCA1/BRCA2 (Selected Variants) is indicated for reporting of the 185delAG and 5382insC variants in the BRCA1 gene and the 6174delT variant in the BRCA2 gene. The report describes if a woman is at increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, and if a man is at increased risk of developing breast cancer or may be at increased risk of developing prostate cancer. The three variants included in this report are most common in people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and do not represent the majority of BRCA1/BRCA2 variants in the general population. This report does not include variants in other genes linked to hereditary cancers and the absence of variants included in this report does not rule out the presence of other genetic variants that may impact cancer risk. The PGS test is not a substitute for visits to a healthcare professional for recommended screenings or appropriate follow-up. Results should be confirmed in a clinical setting before taking any medical action. For important information and limitations regarding other genetic health risk reports and carrier status reports, [visit<a href="https://www.23andme.com/test-info/"> https://www.23andme.com/test-info/</a>].

The Gift of Knowing

Xin Fang’s interest in science started at the dinner table, listening to her parents talking about what they did each day. 
Both her mom and dad are plant scientists. Her mom focuses on genetics, and her father on the environment. They worked long hours, but they would come home enthused. And, sitting with her parents at the table for the family meal, Xin listened as her mom and dad engaged in conversations about the latest discoveries made or problems solved. It fascinated her.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/XinFang1-200x300.jpg" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-29144 size-medium" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/XinFang1-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/XinFang1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/XinFang1-587x880.jpg 587w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/XinFang1-787x1180.jpg 787w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/XinFang1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/XinFang1-scaled.jpg 1706w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
<h3>The Wonders of Human Biology</h3>
Now a computational biologist in 23andMe’s Therapeutics division, Xin said her parents’ passion for science fueled her own ambition. By high school she knew she wanted to be a scientist, she just wasn’t sure about her path. Moving from China to the United States to attend Johns Hopkins University, Xin studied chemical and biomolecular engineering. It was there that her interest in bioinformatics took root. She was fascinated by the “mystery of the human body and how it works,” she said. Xin was sucked into the fact that data and bioinformatics offered a door to understanding parts of the mystery of human biology.
“I love the fact that we can develop new techniques to understand the mechanisms behind human biology,” Xin said.
Now a little over a year into her work at 23andMe, Xin is deep into collaborating with fellow computational biologists and bench scientists to help find potential drug targets to pursue. Computational biology, data science, and machine learning play a critical role in 23andMe’s drug discovery process. Our scientists have the great fortune of gleaning insights from what is one of the largest genetic and phenotypic datasets in the world.
For Xin, the attraction of coming to work at 23andMe wasn’t just that she’s interested in genetics or that she sees the promise of 23andMe’s data helping to accelerate the development of new treatments, it’s also because drug discovery at 23andMe is driven by data, which allows computational biologists like her to propose new research directions and make major contributions. The size and scale of our dataset enables rapid discoveries.
As part of an occasional series about scientists working at 23andMe, we sat down with Xin to talk about computational biology, 23andMe, and what it’s like being an early career scientist here.
<h6>Did you always want to be a scientist?</h6>
Pretty early on I did. By high school, I knew I wanted to do something in biochemistry but I wasn’t sure what.
<h6>Was your interest in science inspired by a person or an experience?</h6>
Definitely it came from my parents. They were both scientists and very passionate about it, and it had a great impact on me. They worked a lot but they were happy about what they were doing. We spent a lot of hours talking about their work over dinner.
<h6>You studied chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins, what prompted you to do your doctoral work in bioengineering?</h6>
I took a gap year working at Genentech after my undergraduate studies. That and my experience during undergrad helped me realize that I was more interested in bioinformatics and computational modeling.
Consider the human body. It’s this perfect mystery that it works in a way that it does, and we don’t totally understand it. But when you bring in high-throughput data, especially from large genomics datasets or next-generation sequencing, you start to see more clearly different biological mechanisms at play. That’s the most fascinating part. And I love that we can use these new techniques and assays to try and understand it. It’s just awesome.
<h6>Why did you focus on studying the gut microbiomes and IBD during your doctoral work at UCSD?</h6>
The gut microbiome is a significant part of our body but it hasn’t been well understood before. It interacts with the rest of the human body in a lot of different ways including things like exchanging metabolites and breaking down medicines. And in recent years it has been discovered that the gut microbiome is associated with several diseases and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of them.  Basically, what you observe is an imbalance in the microbiome where there is a reduction in the beneficial microbes but an increase in pathogens. My thesis looked at characterizing if there are any specific pathogens associated with developing inflammatory bowel disease. The second part of what I did was to look at how the microbiome could affect the treatment for IBD.
<h6>What attracted you to working for 23andMe’s Therapeutics team?</h6>
I was a 23andMe customer even when I was a broke Ph.D. student. And I’m in bioinformatics and a huge fan of genetics. I’ve always been a strong believer that personal genetics is going to make its way into modern medicine, and become a part of standard practice.
So, when I was looking for a job, 23andMe was a company I was really interested in. But to be honest I didn’t know much back then about 23andMe’s Therapeutics program. I didn’t know about 23andMe’s unique approach to target discovery or the drug pipeline. It wasn’t really until the interview and until I had the opportunity to talk to the Computational Biology team that I fully understood what the Therapeutics program was about and it was really exciting.
A major advantage we have is the size of our database. And this is extremely important in terms of discovery because we have better power to detect genetic signals useful for identifying drug targets that other databases can’t. And of course, our data comes from customers who consented to participate in research and who we can contact in the future if we need to. So, that’s another advantage. 
<h6>Describe a little bit about some of what you do in your day-to-day work.</h6>
I can divide my current role into two different aspects that support our therapeutics discovery and development process. The first is to help with data analysis in support of identifying biomarkers that could be useful for clinical trials. I am also working on developing automatic reports for later stage programs. 
And the second part of my job is more upstream, on integrating different datasets to improve the variant (GWAS hit) to target gene mapping process. We want to identify genes that are actually affecting the disease and understand the mechanism of action.
<h6>What’s different about working here?</h6>
For me, I guess what influenced my decision to come here is that 23andMe is doing genetics-based, data-driven discovery. So as part of the Computational Biology team, you can make major contributions to drug discovery whereas in a more traditional biotech/pharma setting Computational Biology would play much more of a supporting role.
As a scientist, I am very interested in doing research and exploratory projects that are intellectually challenging and at 23andMe we have the opportunity to do these things.
<h6>How have you managed your work-life balance over the last year during the pandemic?</h6>
I’m working primarily from home but I go to the office two or three times a week. At first, it was hard because I started at 23andMe during the shelter in place while we were all working from home. But the team has been really good about meeting each week and making sure questions are answered so I don’t feel like I’m by myself all the time. And there is a good work-life balance.
<h6>What interests you outside of work?</h6>
I used to play a lot of badminton. I actually trained for it as a kid, but stopped playing in grad school and shifted over to table tennis. In the office we have a table tennis tournament going on after the work hours, so that’s fun. And during the pandemic, I got a puppy so that’s occupying my time right now too.

Helping to Drive Discovery in 23andMe’s Therapeutics Division

The first thing you notice about Aaron Harris is his ever-present smile.
It punctuates his conversation even when he describes the parts of his life that were dark and joyless.
Born premature, at just 26 weeks, Aaron was a &#8220;micro-preemie&#8221; who struggled in his first year just to survive.
He came into this world addicted to the same opiates that his mother and father had been using. He weighed just one pound, 4 ounces, and spent his first months on oxygen. The doctors and nurses who cared for him didn&#8217;t think he would make it. If he survived, they feared he&#8217;d end up blind or deaf. That didn’t happen but it was a struggle. By the time he was one, his parents — who had two infants, twins born less than a year before Aaron — had abandoned him to foster care.
&#8220;I went through a lot,&#8221; he said with a smile and a nod of his head.

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="512" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-harris-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-29124" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-harris-1.png 512w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-harris-1-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-harris-1-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-harris-1-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-harris-1-372x372.png 372w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></figure>
 
<h2>A Revelation</h2>
He&#8217;s now trying to unravel it all. So that he can understand where he came from, who he&#8217;s related to, and maybe a bit of what makes him who he is now. Several years ago, an aunt gave him 23andMe as a gift. It was a revelation for someone who was adopted and didn&#8217;t know much about his origins.
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t even know any medical history,&#8221; said Aaron, who is making a documentary about his experience called And Then There Were Seven.
He always assumed he was Latino because of his complexion but learned through 23andMe that he was Native American. Suddenly the Native American summer camps he happened to go to and the draw of the culture made more sense.
&#8220;It&#8217;s really cool to get a glimpse of my genetics,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So, I&#8217;m like 60 percent white guy, which is super funny because I&#8217;m brown. But I find out I&#8217;m 40 percent Native American.&#8221;
<h2>Authentic Self</h2>
Knowing that bit about himself helped a lot.
&#8220;It helped me pursue my authentic self,&#8221; he said.
Yet Aaron also wanted to know about any siblings out there. In part, he was worried about the children his birth parents kept, the twins. He&#8217;d learned about them from his adoptive mom and never stopped thinking about them.
Despite everything he went through physically, the only lingering physical effect was scarring in his airways from the oxygen tubes used to help him breathe in the ICU. He has pulmonary dysplasia and is prone to bronchitis and pneumonia. But instead of hardening him, the emotional scars of those early experiences and being abandoned by his birth parents created in him a deep well of empathy for others. He knew he was lucky. He wanted to know what happened to his siblings.
<h6>You&#8217;re Meant to be Aaron&#8217;s Mom</h6>
During his first three years, he was largely cared for by nurses or foster parents, but a woman, a play therapist, would visit during that time. Her name was Eva and she bonded with Aaron. She’d come when it wasn&#8217;t her shift, ensuring he had a stable caregiver. She was concerned he&#8217;d have trouble bonding if someone didn&#8217;t interact with him. She would give him bottles regularly, take him for walks in the stroller when he was stronger. At one point, Aaron wound up back in the hospital.
His foster mom looked at the play therapist and said, &#8220;I think you&#8217;re meant to be Aaron&#8217;s mom.&#8221;
Eva was still young and only recently married. She and her new husband, Shane, a rookie firefighter, adopted Aaron. A day later, she discovered she was pregnant with Aaron&#8217;s adoptive sister, Tatum.
Aaron grew up in Ventura. During his teen years and early 20s, Aaron began to come to terms with his gender identity, eventually transitioning to male. That experience gave him an innate connection with outsiders, the forgotten, and people looked over or cast away by others. He also never forgot that he had siblings out there, the twins. Both Aaron and his mom never stopped thinking about those two kids. They worried about them.
<h2>Searching</h2>
Aaron had tried a bit of sleuthing to find them. A few years ago he&#8217;d posted what information he had about his birth parents on a search site for adoptees — names from his adoption and social service records. He&#8217;d found some newspaper clippings related to criminal cases against his parents that included a description of his birth mom&#8217;s tattoo. That helped lead him to his paternal uncle. But once the uncle learned that Aaron was transgender, he ended contact with him.
Aaron kept searching.
Fast-forward to May 2021. He saw he had a new 23andMe DNA Relative match with a first cousin. They quickly connected. Within half an hour, he learned from his cousin that he didn&#8217;t have just two siblings, but six, and that they&#8217;d all been adopted by a couple in Maryland—Heidi and Doug—who had two children of their own. The couple had promised their birth mom that she would keep them together.
In all, his birth parents, who struggled with addiction and were in and out of jail, had seven children born in five years. There were two sets of twins, and six of the seven children were like Aaron, born addicted to opiates. Five were born prematurely.
Aaron&#8217;s cousin helped him connect with each of the siblings in a group chat. They&#8217;d known about Aaron, having learned about him through their uncle, and they knew he was transgender, but that wasn’t an issue for them. They just wanted to find him. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-29123 size-full" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-surrounded-by-siblings.png" alt="" width="274" height="512" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-surrounded-by-siblings.png 274w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/aaron-surrounded-by-siblings-161x300.png 161w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px" />
Once she learned he&#8217;d found his siblings, Aaron&#8217;s mom insisted he see them as soon as possible. So he, his mom, Eva, and his sister Tatum flew to Maryland a few weeks later to meet his newfound siblings.
&#8220;Tatum said it was like being with a bunch of alternate versions of me,&#8221; Aaron said. &#8220;We&#8217;re just so much alike, and I can see myself in all of them.&#8221;
<h2>Permission</h2>
During his time in Maryland, Aaron also had the chance to meet his birth mom.
Despite everything, he said that at least she knew she couldn&#8217;t care for her children and helped ensure that they stayed together and were adopted by the same family. Heidi and Doug, the couple in Maryland who, with their two biological children, helped keep them a family.
But Aaron also said that he harbors some anger toward her and his birth father as well. He had so many questions he knew she wouldn&#8217;t be able to answer. And although she was pleasant to him, she also avoided being alone.
&#8220;It&#8217;s hard because I try to be patient, loving, and kind, but I had these feelings,&#8221; Aaron said. &#8220;It still hurts.&#8221;
But he also felt empathy for her and himself, permitting himself to feel the way he felt. But more striking was what he felt toward his siblings. This powerful connection wasn&#8217;t just biological. It was that they, too, had experienced the same pain. He thought about how all of them had survived despite an early life marred by drug abuse, poverty, and neglect. They&#8217;d each been given a second chance by families who adopted them loved them, and raised them to be who they are.
And it&#8217;s that idea that drives him now.
&#8220;I want to share our story of struggle, adoption, perseverance, hope, family, and love with the world.&#8221;

Aaron Harris standing with his two brothers and four sisters.

An Adoptee’s Search

A welcomed pregnancy comes with all sorts of emotions—most often joy, excitement, and maybe a little anxiety.
You can take steps before getting pregnant that can go a long way toward tamping down some of that worry and supporting your and your baby&#8217;s health through your pregnancy and beyond. Of course, learning more about your health is a great start. It&#8217;s also important to know that simple day-to-day actions like exercising and watching your diet can help set you on the right path.
<h6><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-29130 size-large" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PRS-Gestational-Diabetes-Blog-1200x628-1-1-1024x536.png" alt="" width="1024" height="536" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PRS-Gestational-Diabetes-Blog-1200x628-1-1-1024x536.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PRS-Gestational-Diabetes-Blog-1200x628-1-1-300x157.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PRS-Gestational-Diabetes-Blog-1200x628-1-1-768x402.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PRS-Gestational-Diabetes-Blog-1200x628-1-1-880x461.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PRS-Gestational-Diabetes-Blog-1200x628-1-1-1180x618.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PRS-Gestational-Diabetes-Blog-1200x628-1-1.png 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Gestational Diabetes</h6>
23andMe recently released a new 23andMe+ Premium report on gestational diabetes report. Powered by 23andMe research, this new report uses machine learning techniques to estimate a person&#8217;s likelihood of developing gestational diabetes. To make that estimate, we use a statistical model that looks at a person&#8217;s ethnicity and more than 6,000 genetic variants associated with developing gestational diabetes mellitus, commonly known as gestational diabetes.
Fortunately, it&#8217;s a condition that is largely preventable. While genetics plays a role, healthy lifestyle habits before pregnancy, like maintaining a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, exercising, and not smoking, can lower your risk.
So, what is gestational diabetes?
During pregnancy, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/gestational.html">your body changes</a>. It adapts to make more hormones, and you put on weight. In turn, your body’s cells aren’t able to use insulin, a hormone that’s instrumental in regulating your blood sugar levels, as effectively. This is known as “insulin resistance,” which is common during pregnancy. Typically, the body responds by producing more insulin. However, gestational diabetes occurs when your body can&#8217;t produce enough insulin to meet the increased need, resulting in blood sugar levels that are too high. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-29128 size-medium alignright" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/gd-story-1.c7f99f33b94c.svg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads//2021/09/gd-story-1.c7f99f33b94c.svg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads//2021/09/gd-story-1.c7f99f33b94c.svg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads//2021/09/gd-story-1.c7f99f33b94c.svg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
<h6>The Numbers</h6>
Unfortunately, gestational diabetes has become much more common as the rates of obesity have risen. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/diabetes-during-pregnancy.htm">6 percent and 9 percent</a> of those expecting will develop the condition, which is often preventable. The risk for gestational diabetes is particularly high among African Americans, Asian Americans, and people of Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous American, and Pacific Islander descent.
Gestational diabetes typically occurs without any symptoms but can have longer-term impacts on your and your baby&#8217;s health. For example, those with gestational diabetes are more likely to develop high blood pressure during pregnancy or have a larger baby that requires a cesarean section for delivery. Gestational diabetes also increases the parent and child’s chances of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
All this adds to the importance of knowing your potential of developing gestational diabetes. Beyond genetics, there are other factors that can increase your chances. For example, having had gestational diabetes in a previous pregnancy increases the likelihood of developing it again in a subsequent pregnancy. So too does having prediabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, or a family history of diabetes, increase one’s chances. Being overweight also adds to the likelihood. And as people get older, this condition tends to be more common. If you may become pregnant, sharing whether you have any of these factors with your health care provider is important. They may suggest testing earlier during pregnancy to know for sure if you have gestational diabetes.
<h6>Taking Action</h6>
Understanding more about your genetic and non-genetic factors that may influence your likelihood of developing gestational diabetes might be the knowledge you need to spur action. Then, you can lower your risk.
Remember to talk with your healthcare provider before making any significant lifestyle changes. That said, before pregnancy, maintaining a healthy weight, eating right, and getting plenty of exercise can go a long way toward better health in the long run.
23andMe&#8217;s new Gestational Diabetes report (Powered by 23andMe Research) is available to all 23andMe+ Premium members who report their birth sex as female. To learn more about your report, go <a href="https://you.23andme.com/reports/prs.gestational_diabetes/">here</a>.
Not yet a customer? Find out more about 23andMe+ Premium <a href="https://www.23andme.com/membership">here</a>.
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*Note: The 23andMe Gestational Diabetes report is based on 23andMe research and incorporates more than 6,000 genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of developing gestational diabetes mellitus. The report does not account for lifestyle or family history and has not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. Visit www.23andme.com/topics/health-predispositions/ for additional important information on 23andMe&#8217;s Health Predisposition reports.

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