Cedric Ingrand interviews Linda Avey

Alright, it’s we’re heading towards Le Web (probably great) lunch while things on the stage are still going strong. Check out our previous coverage of the Parisian festivities here after you’ve enjoyed some quotes from an on-stage interview with Linda Avey.

She’s the co-founder of 23AndMe, a start-up that checks your DNA and presents the results in an accessible way. Avey has used her 20 years of sales and business development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and partnered up with Anne Wojcicki – Sergey Brin’s wife. Their final goal? Making the human genome searchable.

23AndMe – named after your 23 paired chromosomes – is a rather spectacular, controversial, and revolutionary project. It’s now up to Resident Geek and tech blogger Cedric Ingrand to find out more about the Mountain View-based company.

Linda first explains how the whole process works. You sign up at their website, get a tube delivered to your house, you spit in it (a lot!) and within 4 tot 6 weeks you get an email with your account data and you will be able to browse through, well, yourself! All your genes, chromosomes and whatever listed conveniently on a page on the web.

Don’t worry though, everything is secure. 23 and me uses international banking standards for securing your data so they are pretty sure nobody will be able to access your data. After all, nobody ever successfully robbed a bank either. No worries there.

So once you have your genetical profile online you can play around with it. Linda does warn you that it is not her fault if you find out that your parents might not be who you think they are. How about that!

Besides genealogy you can also research your own health which might be very useful. Even more useful is that you can find out if you like Brussels sprout. Apparently the taste for Brussels sprout is genetically spread through your genes. You either like it or you don’t.

You could also connect to other people based on similar genes. As far as I can remember we are actually more attracted to people who have completely different genes. But I could be wrong there.

Recently 23 and me has lowered the price of their DNA kit to $399 from $999 for a complete genetics check. They want to become THE interface between you and your genetics. So go ahead, spit in that tube and lets connect!