Anne Wojcicki on Breakthrough Prize, Trump and 23andMe

So you've been doing this now for five years. Five years, babe. Five years! What have you learned? I mean the idea was to empower scientists just like technologists are empowered in Silicon Valley. What have you learned about that process and how you do that? For me the goal of this was like make scientists celebrities the way other people are celebrities. Like Zuckerberg and Sergey obviously like they can create a company and they're scientists and they can create a company and it has huge financial rewards and you know Michael Jordan and sports athletes and celebrities like they're all known and my goal was like how do you actually make scientists part of the pop culture and how do you make them to be celebrities and people who grow up and say I want to be a scientist and I want to get a breakthrough prize award and it's going to have money but I'm going to be passionate like how do we actually instill in the youth that like this is a really exciting viable career opportunity. Do you think it's working? I do. I actually really do. I think that like the live TV getting these scientists out there talking about it I think that trying to trickle it down more and more even to kindergarten level like getting people excited about science for sure I think it resonates in the whole industry. What is the breakthrough you're most excited about so far? I have two like two things I'm super excited about. One obviously I'm biased because I'm in the world of genetics and so many of these discoveries have a genetic basis. I think the second thing is that my dad is a particle physicist and I absolutely love seeing his peers and people I've known my entire life who've never looked for any kind of celebrity and never looked for any kind of fame and they're just purists they love what they do and they're getting this attention and it's what I always said like these people are so wonderful and to find someone who's so wonderful who just cares about making discoveries about the world that's going to have an impact and to honor them in this way to me is incredibly meaningful. It's one thing to be taking this on as private citizens and business leaders but do you have any concerns that a Trump administration won't prioritize this kind of research this kind of funding this kind of innovation? For sure I think it's definitely a concern that science is not going to be as prioritized but I'm hopeful that by things like Breakthrough Prize and more efforts to educate the youth that it doesn't matter what the government is actually saying as much because I think that you'll instill this you'll inspire individuals to actually start learning about and getting involved and I think in some ways like that's where government matters but it doesn't matter like there's nothing there's no there's no government policy about basketball but clearly we're all pretty into basketball and my goal is to make it almost independent get people to look around the world and feel so inspired and so excited that they're always asking questions and learning about it. What are your broader concerns and reflections on the election given the industry that you work in given that you know we were this close to seeing a woman in the White House? I you know to be honest like I'm wait and see you know I love to actually be able to judge once I once things are happening and I'm eagerly waiting to see actually who's going to be FDA commissioner and I now see who's HHS and I'm excited about the idea of potentially you know more freedoms obviously but obviously want to keep supporting the fact that science is incredibly important and that without a scientific fact-based world that we're living in then then I have concerns. What about some of the potentials whether it's unwinding the Affordable Care Act or not hiking drug prices as much as previous? So I I'm waiting to like so I think there's all kinds of ways to spin in terms of worries I think without a doubt people the benefit of Affordable Care Act is that there are millions of Americans who are saying wow it's like great to have health care and I think without a doubt people it would be hard people want to have those benefits people want to actually feel empowered to actually take charge of their health so I'm completely open-minded to alternative ways of looking at it I'm a Kaiser baby I've always been a huge fan of Kaiser I would love to see Kaiser take over everything but I think that I'm open-minded eager to see what's going to happen but I know that once those people have gotten actually their health care it's gonna be hard to take it away from them. So give us an update on 23andMe you're now selling genetic data in addition to charging consumers to give them that data how do you see? We never sell genetic data we we've always done research projects and so it's one that things that I am without a doubt the most exciting thing for me I love that consumers are stepping forward and saying they want their genetic information but almost more than that I absolutely love how well we can make discoveries from this research database and I get people who have had sarcoma or have migraines or have some kind of chronic ailment and they're saying just help us understand why this has happened to us and the fact that we are actually able to so effectively leverage all of our customers who've come together answer questions and make really meaningful discoveries gives me actually a huge optimism about what we're going to be able to do in the future and how quickly we're going to be able to make meaningful discoveries we do research projects we never sell your individual level data right so it's anonymized obviously but you're we never give the data so what will happen is a pharma company potential come to us and say we want to do a project looking at migraines in this population and we'll do the analysis and we'll give them the results of the analysis so it's one of the things that we're really protective of to make sure that people understand your individual level data we're never selling your explicit data we actually don't sell data we're doing research projects with them and the results of that research we're trying to empower pharma companies to make discoveries faster with a genetic basis and how about the drug discovery part of the research that you've been doing what can you give us an update on that and any any diseases you're honing in on I'm I'm I like you know like being in a science event you shouldn't be that excited but it's one of the things that almost keeps me up at night because I'm so excited I'm so proud of my science team and how well the system works and we are making discoveries and I you know we have Richard Scheller who's running our therapeutics unit who came from Genentech and we have a number of compounds in development we have new labs going up in South San Francisco so I'm enthused and incredibly inspired that the database of information will potentially yield novel therapeutics and I'm hoping to prove out the fact that we can do it faster and more efficient than other pharmaceutical companies because we're starting with a human genetic database and are there any diseases you're honing in on or have conditions that's the thing that's amazing we follow the data so there's a number it's interesting we're looking at things from autoimmune to cancer to liver diseases like across the spectrum so there has been some management turnover lately talk to us about the vision how you're restructuring how you see the company in two five years so I one of things I've learned over time is like we we need to drive efficiency and this is a fast like it's only getting more competitive it's only getting more exciting so we've made management changes in part because I just want to streamline decision making and I want to get out there and and be as effective as I can with the company and and and I have a vision I'm a very very clear vision about what I want to do I want to make it happen so I've had a great team I'm super grateful to my team Andy page was an incredible present for me built up a structure for me that now and now enables me to actually run with it last question on women in technology and leadership I'm passionate about you're passionate about given that you know Hillary Clinton didn't make it to the White House you know we're still struggling to get the numbers up in technology where do you see signs of progress and where do you see the most work that really needs to be done is it is it a cultural shift is it more than a cultural shift I think that there's for every you know to try to really make progress forward you have to assume that there's going to be some kind of setback so I am without a doubt wildly optimistic when I see kids today and I see this tech community and the support out there for women and I realize there are pockets where you're not supported and there's definitely industries like I've gotten involved in real estate lately like there are industries where there are not a lot of women but without it out the tight like the you know history is already set like we know the direction things are going it's a matter of time and I think that the most important thing I think for women like me is making sure that we all have a responsibility to mentor the next generation so for you and for me it's our job to make sure that our children and that the younger generation out there that we're volunteering in schools and that you're showing people that you are a role model and one of my favorite parts of 23andMe is the number of young girls you know from their teens to their 20s who come up and say because of you I was inspired in science like there's like that to me is a slam dunk there's nothing that is better or more rewarding for me and because of that like I feel like I do have a responsibility there's a civic duty for me to go back and actually inspire and to work with girls and believe in them and say you can do any of these things.