This past week we&#8217;re continuing to read about the response to the coronavirus, and the efforts to develop a vaccine. But that intense focus hasn&#8217;t been to the exclusion of other interesting articles in our reading list this week. So here is what we&#8217;re reading.
<h2>Wash Your Hands</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-28040" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CDC-Image-of-Coronavirus-300x168.png" alt="" width="300" height="168" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CDC-Image-of-Coronavirus-300x168.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CDC-Image-of-Coronavirus.png 512w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />More on the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/asia/china-coronavirus-contain.html?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;state=default&amp;module=styln-coronavirus&amp;variant=show&amp;region=TOP_BANNER&amp;context=storyline_menu">coronavirus</a> — estimates are that China has now imposed travel restrictions on more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/world/asia/china-coronavirus.html?action=click&amp;module=Top%20Stories&amp;pgtype=Homepage">10 percent of its population</a>! The outbreak has sharpened our focus on the public health response, as well as the need for rapid research required to create an effective vaccine. In the meantime, we are all becoming a little more diligent about things like washing your hands. On that note, here&#8217;s an illustration of the most often missed areas when washing your hands.
<h2>Glass Houses</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-28039" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Real-Life-Book-Image-191x300.jpg" alt="" width="191" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Real-Life-Book-Image-191x300.jpg 191w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Real-Life-Book-Image.jpg 318w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 191px) 100vw, 191px" />We often believe that working in the sciences is somehow more progressive than working in other fields. Still, Brandon Taylor&#8217;s book Real Life offers <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/brandontaylor/i-dont-miss-being-a-scientist-except-when-i-do">a different point of view</a>. As a gay black man, he often felt isolated, silenced and marginalized. &#8220;Science was the constant humiliation of wondering if I had justified my presence,&#8221; Tayor writes in this Buzzfeed piece. He wondered if he had &#8220;made it harder for the next black person to get admitted.&#8221; Ultimately it&#8217;s what drove him from the field.
<h2>The Food We Eat</h2>
We eat <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/feb/13/how-ultra-processed-food-took-over-your-shopping-basket-brazil-carlos-monteiro">a lot of junk</a>, and that may explain why we&#8217;re getting so fat. We&#8217;re not just consuming processed food loaded with sugar, salt, and fat, but what are called &#8220;ultra-processed foods.&#8221; These are &#8220;foods&#8221; are what the Guardian calls &#8220;concoctions of concoctions&#8221; that resemble food. According to this Guardian story, now more than half the calories consumed in the United States and the UK are made up of these ultra-processed foods. Makes us think that <a href="https://michaelpollan.com/books/">Michael Pollan&#8217;s</a> diet advice, &#8220;Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.&#8221; And when he says &#8220;food&#8221; he means real food, not processed stuff.
<h2>Heavy</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-28041" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tommy-Tomlinsons-Book-197x300.png" alt="" width="197" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tommy-Tomlinsons-Book-197x300.png 197w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tommy-Tomlinsons-Book-768x1169.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tommy-Tomlinsons-Book-673x1024.png 673w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tommy-Tomlinsons-Book-578x880.png 578w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tommy-Tomlinsons-Book-775x1180.png 775w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tommy-Tomlinsons-Book.png 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px" />It would all be so simple if we ate less and made better food choices, but it&#8217;s not so simple. There&#8217;s much more involved in what drives people to eat the way they do. We wish more people had read Tommy Tomlinson&#8217;s 2019 book, &#8220;<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Elephant-in-the-Room/Tommy-Tomlinson/9781501111617">The Elephant in the Room, One Fat Man&#8217;s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America</a>.&#8221; A great writer and one-time finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, Tomlinson brings his story and a lot of humanity to the struggles of people trying to lose weight and improve their health. Helping people to make those changes requires a more profound understanding, or we&#8217;ll never deal with the looming obesity crisis. &#8220;What I want you to understand, more than anything else, is that telling a fat person to &#8216;eat less and exercise&#8217; is like telling a boxer, &#8220;Don&#8217;t get hit,&#8221; Tomlinson writes. Understanding the emotional and psychological hurdles people often need to clear before taking the actions they already know they need to take to be healthy is essential. Tomlinson&#8217;s writing brings that home, just as he vividly describes his weight&#8217;s toll on his body. Read his book, now in paperback, or at least read the piece he wrote last year for the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/weight-loss-essay-tomlinson/579832/">Atlantic</a>.
<h2></h2>
<h2>Ghost in the Machine</h2>
More good stuff on <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/genetic-traces-of-mysterious-human-lineage-detected-in-people-living-in">Ghost DNA</a> finding but no name for this ancient human cousin until we get the bones. Scientists found <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/science/west-africa-ancient-humans.html">evidence of these ancient human cousins</a> in the DNA of modern living humans in West Africa. What we are learning is that it wasn&#8217;t just <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/features/neanderthal-dna-in-modern-human-genomes-is-not-silent-66299">Neanderthals, </a>or <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/ancient-dna-puts-face-mysterious-denisovans-extinct-cousins-neanderthals">Denisovans</a>, or even <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/08/news-homo-floresiensis-hobbit-genetics-dna-pygmy-flores-island/">Hobbits</a>, that interbred with early modern humans. Our ancestors were also mixing with other as <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-humans-in-africa-may-have-interbred-with-a-mysterious-extinct-species-new-research-131699">yet unidentified ancient human cousins</a>.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Junk Food, Viruses, and Ghosts — What We’re Reading This Week

23andMe is a proud co-sponsor of “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/gene/">Ken Burns Presents, The Gene: An Intimate History,</a>” a fascinating new PBS documentary detailing the revolutionary discoveries emerging in this new genomic age.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Gene-Vertical-237x300.jpg" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-28010" width="237" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Gene-Vertical-237x300.jpg 237w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Gene-Vertical-768x971.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Gene-Vertical-810x1024.jpg 810w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Gene-Vertical-696x880.jpg 696w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Gene-Vertical-933x1180.jpg 933w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Gene-Vertical.jpg 1224w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px" />
 
The film is based on Pulitzer-prize winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee’s book of the same name. Airing over two nights in April, the four-hour documentary looks at the past, present, and future of genetic science and its promise to improve the lives of millions of people across the globe. The film movingly details the stories of people saved by breakthrough genetic therapies. But the film also looks honestly at the ethical dilemmas this new era presents.
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“These revolutionary discoveries highlight the awesome responsibility we have to make wise decisions, not just for people alive today, but for generations to come,” said Mukherjee.

<h6>A Previous Collaboration</h6>
Along with writing books, Mukherjee is also an assistant professor of medicine at the Department of Medicine, Columbia University, as well as a cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center. 
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The film is the second collaboration between Mukherjee and Burns, who previously worked together on an Emmy Award-nominated adaptation of another of Mukherjee’s books, “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies.” This new documentary is equally weighty, skillfully adding context to the mapping of the human genome, the most significant scientific breakthrough of a generation. 
<iframe loading="lazy" width="512" height="332" src="https://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/3037830122/" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
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“For me, science, like history, is the exploration of what has come before and the promise of the future,” said Burns. “THE GENE untangles the code of life itself.” 
<h6>Gene Therapy</h6>
The episodes unfold with stories about the scientists and the people they have helped to save. One episode of the series details how gene therapy has saved the lives of two young children with a typically fatal genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy. 
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“I’d say each moment where there has been a dramatic success doesn’t just enliven the people who are working on the disease, it ripples across the field,” said <a href="https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director">Dr. Francis Collins</a>, the director of the National Institutes of Health, and a geneticist who helped discover the genes associated with cystic fibrosis. “It’s one more reason to believe that those decades of really hard slogging are finally beginning to yield up some remarkable events.” 
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The film was directed by Chris Durrance and Jack Youngelson, with award-winning filmmaker Barak Goodman serving as senior producer. Burns and Mukherjee served as executive producers. With Burn’s distinctive style, the film also includes historical footage, photos, and interviews to document the history of genetic science.  
<h6>Ethics</h6>
Along with these stories and others that note how genetic science is deepening our understanding of health conditions, the series also explores the ethical implications surrounding the science of gene editing.
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The film wrestles with what happens now that the human genome is mostly readable. As in Mukherjee&#8217;s book about genetics, the series also delves into the ethical dilemmas raised by gene editing. This new technology allows scientists to modify the human germline to stave off deadly genetic conditions, or for less lofty purposes. 
Ken Burns Presents The Gene: An Intimate Story airs April 7 and 14 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on PBS member stations nationwide.
Find out more about the series and air times <a href="http://pbs.org/thegene">here</a>.
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The Gene: An Intimate History

By Kathy Hibbs, 23andMe’s Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/23andMe_Logo-1-e1521068586138-300x198.jpg" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-25534" width="300" height="198" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/23andMe_Logo-1-e1521068586138-300x198.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/23andMe_Logo-1-e1521068586138-768x507.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/23andMe_Logo-1-e1521068586138.jpg 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
A Florida judge recently issued a warrant granting law enforcement access to search the database of GEDmatch, a small publicly accessible DNA and genealogy research site. Allowing law enforcement access to GEDmatch’s nearly one million users should trouble anyone who values people’s right to privacy.
It certainly troubles us here at 23andMe. 
Perhaps just as disturbing is GEDmatch’s apparent lack of scrutiny and challenge of the validity of the warrant issued. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/business/dna-database-search-warrant.html">According to reporting by the New York Times</a>, the company opened up its database to law enforcement within 24 hours of the judge&#8217;s decision. Given this timing, it does not appear that GEDmatch exhausted all legal avenues to challenge the warrant. In contrast, if we had received a warrant, we would use every legal remedy possible. And to be clear, because our database is and always has been private, we don’t believe that this decision impacts 23andMe. 
In our 13 year history, 23andMe has never turned over any customer data to law enforcement or any other government agency. Protecting the security and privacy of our customers’ information is at the core of what we do as a business. Unfortunately, not all businesses adhere to these same principles. That is in part why we warn our customers about uploading their genetic data to third-party, public websites like GEDmatch.
It is also why 23andMe was the first consumer genetics company to openly publish a <a href="https://www.23andme.com/transparency-report/">Transparency Report</a>, which details the number of government requests we’ve received for customer data. To date, we’ve received seven requests for data from 10 of our 10 million customers and we’ve successfully challenged each one. In addition, we aligned with the non-profit organization<a href="https://fpf.org/about/"> Future of Privacy Forum</a> and other leading personal genetic testing companies to create <a href="https://fpf.org/2018/07/31/privacy-best-practices-for-consumer-genetic-testing-services/">best practice industry guidelines</a> to support the industry as a whole in protecting consumer privacy.
All of us have a certain expectation of privacy. In the United States, the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment">Fourth Amendment</a> is meant to protect people&#8217;s right to privacy and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. 
23andMe believes that people’s right to privacy is worth fighting for. Learn more about our privacy policies <a href="https://www.23andme.com/privacy/">here</a>.
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Our stance on protecting customers’ data 

A new survey of 23andMe’s <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">Health + Ancestry</a> customers conducted by M/A/R/C® Research found that more than three-quarters reported that after receiving their personalized genetic reports they made at least one positive change in their health behavior.
Changes included eating healthier, getting more sleep, and exercising more, among others.
“We’re encouraged by these preliminary findings, and they&#8217;ve spurred us to embark on more comprehensive research into behavior change as a result of our service,” said Joyce Tung, 23andMe’s Vice President for Research. “We have heard from many customers who have offered stories about how their 23andMe results have positively impacted their lives, but we want more quantitative data.”

<h6>Taking Steps to Improve Health<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-27606" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CI_Infographic_final-11-267x1024.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="1151" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CI_Infographic_final-11-267x1024.jpg 267w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CI_Infographic_final-11-78x300.jpg 78w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CI_Infographic_final-11-768x2947.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CI_Infographic_final-11-229x880.jpg 229w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CI_Infographic_final-11-scaled.jpg 667w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></h6>
Sleep, diet and exercise are key to good health, so understanding what might motivate people to make meaningful and positive changes is important. Two years ago, 23andMe researchers<a href="https://research.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/23andMe_ASHG_2017_Sarah.pdf"> presented data</a> at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, showing that after viewing their 23andMe Saturated Fat and Weight report, customers reported making healthier dietary choices.
In this new survey, external researchers asked Health + Ancestry customers about the overall impact of their 23andMe experience, regardless of their results. Among those who responded to the survey 76 percent said they made one or more healthy changes to their lifestyles. Of those who responded to the survey:
<ul>
<li> 55 percent reported healthier eating habits including eating more vegetables, and cutting out sugar and fast food.</li>
<li> 45 percent said they were exercising more.</li>
<li> 42 percent said they were getting more sleep. </li>
</ul>
<h6>The Survey</h6>
The survey, designed by 23andMe and M/A/R/C Research, and conducted online by M/A/R/C over two weeks in August 2019, included responses from 1,046 23andMe Health + Ancestry customers who have joined within the past two years.
While the responses are not representative of the US general population as a whole, they do offer preliminary insights worth studying further to gauge the impact of  23andMe results as a motivator for healthy behavior change.
<h6>Impact of Genetic Testing</h6>
There have been several other studies that have looked at the impact of genetic testing. Among the most notable has been the on-going work of the Impact of Personal Genomics Study (PGen), a collaborative effort led by scientists from  the Broad Institute of MIT, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The group’s 2017 study, “<a href="https://bmcmedgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12920-017-0258-1">Diet and exercise changes following direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing</a>,” looked at both 23andMe and Pathway Genomics customers and found “30 percent of participants reported making a change to their diet that was specifically motivated by their (personal genetic testing) results, and 26 percent reported changing their exercise based on their (personal genetic testing) results.”
Other studies have shown much more mixed results, including a study from 2011 by researchers at the Scripps Translational Science Institute &amp; Scripps Health, which found<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22199991"> minimal impact</a> either way changing behavior.
<h6>More Questions</h6>
An interesting difference between those previous studies is that they drew from customers who received an older version of 23andMe’s reports. This new survey is of customers who had access to FDA-authorized health reports. Part of the FDA’s evaluation of those reports focused on user comprehension. 23andMe was able to show that more than 90 percent of those who read the reports were able to understand the key concepts in the reports. This survey however doesn’t offer any insight into whether the difference between the old and new reports has an impact on customers’ behavior.
There are many questions raised by the survey that 23andMe researchers would like to explore further. The paramount question they would like to address is whether this survey is capturing the sentiment of a more engaged health customer, or whether the nature of 23andMe personalized genetic reports motivates positive change. But the survey results offer an intriguing first step in learning more about improving health behavior for 23andMe customers.
23andMe researchers hope to conduct follow-up studies to more rigorously measure factors related to behavior change, better establish attribution, and increase generalizability to the broader customer base. Eventually researchers hope to submit their findings for peer review and publication.

Health Change Survey

23andMe just added a third purchasing option for those who want a little bit more.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/VIP-Assets.png" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-27475" width="300" height="475" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/VIP-Assets.png 507w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/VIP-Assets-190x300.png 190w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
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The new VIP Health + Ancestry Service — $499 — delivers more options for customers, including concierge-like services. The VIP service bundles together one 23andMe Health + Ancestry Service kit, with a companion kit, overnight shipping, and priority lab processing, as well as premium customer support, and an exclusive 30 minute, one-on-one Ancestry results overview.&nbsp;
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The 23andMe <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">Health + Ancestry Service</a> — $199 —remains the only direct-to-consumer genetic test with Genetic Health Risk reports authorized by the FDA. It includes more than 125+ reports covering not just health, but also your traits, wellness and genetic ancestry. And 23andMe’s stand-alone <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">Ancestry Service</a> — $99 — offers the most comprehensive genetic ancestry breakdown on the market.&nbsp;
Now, we’re offering this third option for those customers who have asked us for a little bit more — a two -in- one package, faster results, and personal one-on-one Ancestry report walkthroughs.&nbsp;&nbsp;
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Whatever choice you make, 23andMe gives you more ways to explore and discover what your DNA can say about you.
Learn <a href="https://www.23andme.com/compare-dna-tests/">more</a>.

23andMe Adds a New VIP Health + Ancestry Service

By Lily Brickman, 23andMe Communications Intern 
23andMe’s second official internship program included 28 interns across a number of teams and in a variety of different roles.
Our interns this year come from universities all over the country and are at varying points in their education and careers. The program is run by Maddy Choate and Steven Sellers from 23andMe&#8217;s People Team. Read on to learn more about the program and to meet some of our interns!
<div id="attachment_27364" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27364" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_Hero_Image-1024x347.png" alt="" class="size-large wp-image-27364" width="1024" height="347" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_Hero_Image-1024x347.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_Hero_Image-300x102.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_Hero_Image-768x260.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_Hero_Image-880x298.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_Hero_Image.png 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />23andMe&#8217;s 2019 Summer Interns.</div>
<h6>Why 23andMe has an internship program</h6>
At 23andMe, we believe that good ideas come from anywhere. We care about developing young talent. Having interns join our workforce gives us a fresh mindset, perspective, and energy our teams benefit from.
Our interns aren’t here to pick up lattes. They are tasked with meaningful projects and responsibilities that help our company reach its goals.
To learn more about how the interns are contributing, we&#8217;ve highlighted some of their projects in the &#8220;Meet our Interns&#8221; section below.
<h6>The summer Internship Program experience</h6>
Our summer internship program kicked off on May 28, with 15 interns joining 23andMe. On June 24th, our second batch of 13 came on board.
Beyond the work, the interns also got to experience a number of activities over the summer. Those included a tour of the South San Francisco Therapeutics office, bi-weekly Q&amp;A’s with executives, and an intern offsite activity. They also took part in a resume review workshop and have their headshots taken. At the end of their internship, they had a final presentation in which they showcased their work to their teams and fellow interns.
The program helps college students learn more about the healthcare industry and what 23andMe is all about.
Interns take advantage of everything they can, by talking to as many people as possible and acting as sponges from the many bright employees that are part of our Gene Pool.
The goal of the Summer Internship Program is to also help students figure out what types of roles interest them as well as what size companies they prefer. It’s just as important for interns to know what they want to do, as it is for them to know what they don’t.
We encourage our interns to raise their hands, get exposure, take charge of what they’re interested in, but know that it’s also okay to fail sometimes.
<div id="attachment_27365" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27365" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_In_Text-1024x347.png" alt="" class="size-large wp-image-27365" width="1024" height="347" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_In_Text-1024x347.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_In_Text-300x102.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_In_Text-768x260.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_In_Text-880x298.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern_Blog_Post_In_Text.png 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />The interns had the opportunity to interact with executives as well as 23andMe CEO and Co-Founder Anne Wojcicki.</div>
<h6>Looking ahead</h6>
Building our Internship Program has been a grassroots effort and the People team is excited to see the increased level of interest for interns from more departments.
Over the next couple years and even this fall, the People Team will focus on more marketing of the available intern and entry-level roles to students across the country. 
Our People Team is getting ready for fall and spring recruiting events, so make sure to check our careers page for available opportunities at 23andme.com/careers.
Learn about the exciting things some of our interns are working on this summer:
<h6>Meet Alex</h6>
 Alex is an Engineering Project Management Intern on the Lab Operations team. As a rising senior and Biochemical Engineering major at USC, he says, “some advice I would give to a prospective intern is that it’s super valuable to have a wide range of experience in addition to focusing on one main path. Even in this role, I’m dealing with software that project managers wouldn’t normally work with. Having cross-functional experience makes it a lot easier to work with and help other people on a team.”
<h6>Meet Celine</h6>
 “I love the work culture and my team, especially. I also really like seeing how 23andMe has built out it’s Therapeutics division because that’s the future of the company. Anne’s personality and vision is always pushing us to do the next big thing,” says Celine, a Software Engineering Intern who is a soon-to-be senior and computer science major at UC Berkeley. Celine is a part of the Backoffice team and works closely with the Customer Care team.
<h6>Meet Ava</h6>
&#8220;My main project is for 23andMe&#8217;s Genetics Club Program, which falls within our research education department. I’m working on creating a leadership guidebook for students that sign up to be in this program and lead genetics clubs at their universities. I’m also helping to write summaries for new conference rooms that will be in our new Sunnyvale headquarters, which include genetics terms and names of hidden figures in STEM,” says Ava, a Research Communications intern. Ava will be a senior beginning this fall and is majoring in Molecular, Cellular, &amp; Developmental Biology at Yale University.
<h6>Meet Rachel </h6>
“My favorite thing about working here is that people really care about the mission. They’re super driven, and they want to do the right thing. It’s easy to be passionate about your job when you’re in a work environment where your own mission aligns so closely with the company’s vision,” says Rachel, a Design Intern on the Marketing team. She’s a rising junior and Economics and Cognitive Science double-major at UC Berkeley.
<h6>Meet Emma</h6>
 “I’m helping the Product team build a new feature to assist Health + Ancestry customers. Given the multifaceted nature of the Health + Ancestry product, working on this project has been an enjoyable cross-functional experience,” says Emma, a Product Management Intern on the Product Health Team. She is currently between her first and second years as a graduate student at Stanford University. Emma is working towards her Master’s in Management Science and Engineering with a focus in Health Systems Modeling.
<h6>Meet Ashwin</h6>
 “For me, every other internship up until now was focused more on getting the job done and satisfying the requirements, and I didn’t have much support from the team. I was focused primarily on technical skills. At 23andMe, I not only received tremendous support but was also encouraged to present my findings to Product Managers and work with them to come up with subtle product feature changes within three weeks of the internship. It speaks volumes about how this internship is a perfect launchpad for anyone who wants to work in the industry,” says Ashwin, a Data Science Intern on the Engineering team. He’s a graduating senior at UCLA with a major in Statistics.
<h6>Meet Bailey </h6>
“As an intern in Therapeutics, I have been able to apply technical skills I learned throughout my undergraduate and graduate degrees. In addition, I have been able to see the differences between working in an academic lab setting and working in industry. Day to day, I plan and run various experiments. I then meet with the Biology team in order to discuss our results, analyze them, and decide where to go next,” says Bailey, an intern on the Therapeutics team. She recently received her Master’s degree in Biotechnology from San Jose State University and was a CIRM Scholar at Stanford University in the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute.
<h6>Meet Raina </h6>
Raina, a Software Engineering Intern and a rising junior and Symbolic Systems major at Stanford University says, “I’ve learned to not be afraid to ask for help, but to also have confidence in your skills and what you know. You’ll feel better about what you’re doing, and everyone is super helpful and collaborative.”
<h6>Meet Jack </h6>
“Advice I would give to prospective interns is to know what you want to get out of the internship. Have goals going into it in order to make the most out of it. But also make sure to understand what your team expects from you. I have a lot more autonomy at 23andMe than I did in previous internships, which means that there&#8217;s more opportunity for growth. But there’s also more expected of me, ” says Jack, a Corporate Development Intern on the Business Development team and a second-year MBA student at Stanford Graduate School of Business.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern-Blog-Post-In-Text-2-1024x347.png" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-27366" width="1024" height="347" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern-Blog-Post-In-Text-2-1024x347.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern-Blog-Post-In-Text-2-300x102.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern-Blog-Post-In-Text-2-768x260.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern-Blog-Post-In-Text-2-880x298.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Intern-Blog-Post-In-Text-2.png 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
23andMe Intern Lily Brickman is a junior at USC majoring in communication.

Lily Brickman

Meet 23andMe’s Interns

<figure class="wp-block-image alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="252" height="300" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Anne-headshot_2018-e1532470981667-252x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-26375" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Anne-headshot_2018-e1532470981667-252x300.jpeg 252w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Anne-headshot_2018-e1532470981667-859x1024.jpeg 859w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Anne-headshot_2018-e1532470981667-990x1180.jpeg 990w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Anne-headshot_2018-e1532470981667-768x915.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Anne-headshot_2018-e1532470981667-739x880.jpeg 739w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px" /></figure>



Great workers make for great places to work, and at 23andMe, it all starts at the top with CEO and Co-Founder Anne Wojcicki.



This week, Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest job and recruiting sites, made it official and named Anne among its 2019 Employees’ Choice Awards honoring Top CEOs, U.S. SMBs. The award highlights leaders who <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/23andme-named-one-of-the-best-places-to-work-in-2019-on-glassdoor">employees love working with</a> and is unique because winners are selected based on<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/mz-survey/start_input.htm?cr=&amp;c=PR&amp;showSurvey=Reviews"> reviews shared</a> on Glassdoor by their employees.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-best-places-to-work">Best Places to Work</h2>



It’s the second time in the last six months that 23andMe has been recognized by Glassdoor. Late last year, 23andMe was named as one of the<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/23andme-named-one-of-the-best-places-to-work-in-2019-on-glassdoor/"> Best Places to Work in 2019</a> on Glassdoor. Again, like the Top CEO award, that honor was based entirely on reviews from 23andMe employees. This makes<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/index.htm"> these awards</a> even more reputable because there is no self-nominating process. The Top CEO award is based on the opinion of those who know the workplace best, the employees.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="190" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23andme-banner-1491416147859-1024x190.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-26738" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23andme-banner-1491416147859-1024x190.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23andme-banner-1491416147859-300x56.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23andme-banner-1491416147859-768x142.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23andme-banner-1491416147859-880x163.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23andme-banner-1491416147859-1180x219.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/23andme-banner-1491416147859.jpg 1478w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



“It’s an honor to recognize incredible leaders who exemplify exceptional vision, trust, and communication from their employees&#8217; perspectives. Glassdoor’s Top CEOs award continues to be more competitive every year,” said Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor president and chief operating officer. “I congratulate each leader on their achievement.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reviews">Reviews</h2>



On Glassdoor’s site, employees can anonymously<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/survey/start_input.htm?contentOriginHook=PR&amp;showSurvey=REVIEWS"> submit reviews</a> about their company. When they submit a review, they are asked to rate various factors about their employment experience, including their overall satisfaction and other workplace attributes like senior management. As part of these ratings, employees are also asked to rate whether they approve, disapprove, or are neutral about the job their CEO is doing. Among the approximately 900,000 companies reviewed on Glassdoor, the average CEO approval rating is 69 percent. Anne was ranked on this year’s list with a 97 percent employee approval rating.



Check out the Employees’ Choice Awards for the Top CEOs in 2019 on the U.S. SMB list here:<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/Top-CEOs-at-SMBs-LST_KQ0,16.htm"> https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/Top-CEOs-at-SMBs-LST_KQ0,16.htm</a>.



Interested in joining our gene pool? Learn more here.



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Glassdoor Names 23andMe’s Anne Wojcicki A Top CEO

After an audit by the Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance (OTA), 23andMe was honored for protection, security and privacy of customer data. 23andMe was named to the OTA “Honor Roll” overall, and ranked #1 in the Healthcare category. The OTA published the results earlier this month. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ota_honor_roll_2018-300x265.jpg" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-27056" width="300" height="265" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ota_honor_roll_2018-300x265.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ota_honor_roll_2018-768x678.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ota_honor_roll_2018-1024x904.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ota_honor_roll_2018-880x777.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ota_honor_roll_2018-1180x1042.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ota_honor_roll_2018.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
The Honor Roll is the OTA’s de facto standard for recognizing excellence in consumer protection, security, and responsible privacy practices for the world’s top companies. 
“Protecting the privacy and security of our customers’ data is at the core of what we do here at 23andMe,” said Ashutosh Agrawal, 23andMe’s Senior Manager for Security &amp; Privacy Compliance. “So seeing how we compare to the healthcare industry as a whole is validation of all the hard work and our security and privacy practices. Finishing tops in the Healthcare category is also a great recognition.”
The<a href="https://www.internetsociety.org/"> Internet Society</a> is a global nonprofit dedicated to ensuring an open, globally connected, trustworthy, and secure Internet for everyone. The purpose of the group’s audit is to both identify and promote best security and privacy practices for handling consumer data. 23andMe and other public and private organizations, vendors, researchers, and policymakers all contribute to and follow OTA’s guidance. The intent is to help make online transactions safer and better protect users’ data.
The audit compared security and privacy practices of more than 1200 organizations. In addition to ranking at the top among Healthcare companies and organizations, 23andMe was ranked in the top 50 of all groups.
Currently this is looked at as the most comprehensive outside audit, and offers an independent online benchmark. It evaluates websites in three main categories: domain, brand and consumer protection; site, server and infrastructure security; and privacy, transparency and disclosures. Based on a composite weighted analysis, sites that scored 80 percent or better overall, without failing in any one category, received the honor roll designation (read the entire methodology here). 
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“In this age where many companies are accused of putting profits ahead of customers, the websites that made the Honor Roll should be commended for their commitment to online trust,” said Jeff Wilbur, Technical Director of the Online Trust Alliance initiative at the Internet Society. “This designation shows that you can be one of the world’s most successful businesses without sacrificing consumer privacy, protection, and security.”
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More details about the 2018 OTA Online Trust Audit and Honor Roll is at https://otalliance.org/2018HonorRoll.
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More About OTA
The Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance (OTA) identifies and promotes security and privacy best practices that build consumer confidence in the Internet. Leading public and private organizations, vendors, researchers, and policymakers contribute to and follow OTA’s guidance to help make online transactions safer and better protect users’ data. The<a href="https://www.internetsociety.org/"> Internet Society</a> is a global nonprofit dedicated to ensuring an open, globally connected, trustworthy, and secure Internet for everyone.
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23andMe Makes Honor Roll for Privacy and Security

March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize the extraordinary achievements, courage, persistence, and contributions of women worldwide. This is the second profile of some of the women at 23andMe who inspire us each day. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22641" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/@PITER-23andMe-EmilyDrabant-19-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/@PITER-23andMe-EmilyDrabant-19-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/@PITER-23andMe-EmilyDrabant-19-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/@PITER-23andMe-EmilyDrabant-19-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/@PITER-23andMe-EmilyDrabant-19-587x880.jpg 587w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/@PITER-23andMe-EmilyDrabant-19-787x1180.jpg 787w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/@PITER-23andMe-EmilyDrabant-19-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Even in her busy position as 23andMe’s Vice President of Business Development, Emily Drabant Conley never forgets what inspired her way back in high school.
It was during her first job working as a swimming coach for autistic children. Working with these kids, learning about developmental disorders and differences in behavior, pushed her to learn more. It’s what sparked her interest in understanding developmental disorders and psychiatric illnesses as a psychology major at Vanderbilt University. That early exposure to autistic children shaped her passion for science and led her to study neuroscience at Stanford as a graduate student and ultimately brought Emily to 23andMe. Emily joined our small but mighty team in 2010. She came with deep experience conducting research that combined genetics and neuroimaging to understand diseases of the brain, and she initially joined 23andMe to manage our nascent Parkinson’s Research Community. Emily helped to build that community into the largest cohort of genotyped patients with Parkinson’s disease in the world, and the groundbreaking work she’s done helped to form a template for the creation of several other disease research communities we’ve since set up. Since then, Emily has risen the ranks to serve as our Vice President of Business Development. In this role, she has helped lead many of the company’s major research collaborations. Combining her business acumen with her deep scientific knowledge, Emily has been instrumental in spearheading our collaborations with many biotechnology companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech and Pfizer. These collaborations fuel research discoveries. To date, Emily has also authored more than thirty peer reviewed scientific publications on a wide variety of topics including opioid dependence, Parkinson’s disease, depression risk and general cognitive ability. In addition to the many responsibilities in her current role, Emily is also the executive sponsor of 23andMe’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Beyond 23andMe, she previously served on the Advisory Board of the UCSF Alliance Health Project, a clinic that provides services to the LGBT and HIV-affected communities in San Francisco. She also currently serves on the Board of Lesbians Who Tech, an organization seeking to improve representation of women and lesbians in technology.
Before joining 23andMe, she told Anne, our CEO, that she was disillusioned by the slow pace of science in academia. Emily wanted to do something bigger, to accelerate the pace of research and create a new model for genetic research. Emily’s energy, her knowledge of science, and skill working with people has fueled her successes at 23andMe. She, like all the women making strides at the company, is why 23andMe is honoring Women’s History Month.
<h6>Be Inspired</h6>
What joins these women together, beyond the work they do here, is their thirst for knowledge and their optimism about the future. That’s what 23andMe is built on. And as we take a moment to recognize Women’s History Month and the incredible achievements made by women around the world, we all take inspiration from those examples and the everyday examples of other women we featured on the blog this month like our VP of Research Joyce Tung, Director of Health Product Shirley Wu, and now Emily — as well as the many other women here at 23andMe. We hope their stories help encourage others to truly realize that anyone can be a scientist.

News — Page 11