Last week, the owner of the fund fund Delian Asarouhov realized that he had not checked his genetics for some time. He clicked on a dashboard created by Nucleus Genomics, a startup supported by founders who obtain sequential saliva samples and therefore compare DNA results with large data that connect health problems to the genes. In a few seconds, he concluded that he had a predisposition for schizophrenia, a very high Qi and prostate cancer. “Bummer”, shrugged.
If the reaction of Asparouhov seems casual, it is only because he and the team of the nucleus he has supported are dreaming much, much bigger. Imagine a world in which your medical treatments are adapted to your genetics or in which each couple puts their sequence DNA before having children together – or a world in which, as Asparouhov imagines, appointments apps have a “simulation for Children “who sets your genetic tests together and shows what a child could inherit.
Today, the nucleus is a step forward to that future. The company, founded by the 25 -year -old Kian Sadeghi, has announced a series of $ 14 million, bringing its total funding to about $ 32 million. Investors such as Seven Seven Six Six Six, Balaji Srinivasan and Spacex Achal Upadhyaya by Alexis Ohanian, all gathered behind the vision of Sadeghi for largely available genetic tests.
“DNA is actually the type of final health test,” said Sadeghi. “So a swab and get your analysis on about 800 conditions. And this will grow rapidly in the coming months, until every common and rare disease is actually known. ”
The nucleus is possible because the cost of sequencing the genome has fallen in recent years. In 2007, the sequencing of the genome costs near $ 1 million. Today, the nucleus, managed by a team of doctoral and genetic experts, charged $ 400 to send a saliva sample to a third -party sequencer and therefore analyzes the results, telling users a series of potential diseases that could be at risk. Sadeghi believes that, in the next five years, “the cost of sequencing the genome will be negligible” and everyone will have “their genome on their smartphone”.
Sadeghi’s dream began with the tragedy. One night, his cousin died in his sleep from a previously unknown genetic condition. The loss permanently changed the path of his life. He left the college and moved home, where his program was the following: waking up, meditating for an hour, scribbling the plans of the company related to the gene on a notebook for 12 hours, meditate for another hour. “I believe in the soul,” he reflected. “I meditated every day for, I think, five years.”
His year of work and meditation was born the nucleus and sent Sadeghi in the orbit of the most famous opposites of Silicon Valley. He met Peter Thiel for the first time in Hereticon, the Fund Fund Bash that celebrates everything that is controversial (Sadeghi remembers a particularly exciting exorcist). It was a right place to meet, considering all the disputes that Sadeghi would have court.
Last year, Sadeghi launched Nucleus Qi, who tells users how much their genetics is related to markers for high intelligence. Sadeghi places a huge asterisk alongside this statement: there is still much that we do not know the connection between genes and qi and, even if we did it, genetics can only explain so much, while the environment manages the rest.
The geneticist Sasha Gusev has questioned the accuracy of the Qi tests of the nucleus (Sadeghi has therefore published a long defense), and others stressed that the core Qi tests could lead to discrimination and stigmatization. Sadeghi’s approach is also considerably different from competitors: in 2018, 23andme told the Mit Technology Review that he would not intentionally release consumers about genetics and intelligence for fear of “incorrect interpretation”.
But Sadeghi and Asparouhov believe that the average American should have as many information as possible on their genetics. Asparouhov finds the hesitation around the Qi “very strange” nucleus, adding that if we are able to recognize the genetic advantages in the athletes (how, let’s say, surprising wing of Michael Phelps), why should we not do the same for IQ? “Experts claim to know what is best for you,” he said. “But I think it is better to provide consumers with the information available for them and let them decide.”
Since the core acquires more customers, Asparouhov says that the company’s intuitions will still improve, the results on a nucleus dashboard automatically update with new information. “At a certain point, perhaps there will be, as, the phenotypic relationships, in which you say to the nucleus, I have blue eyes, I have brown hair, perhaps you come for an qi test, etc. and this actually improves the model”, he he he said.
When asked whether to connect things like blue eyes, blond hair and qi could be interpreted like eugenics, he clarified with a laugh, “I said brown hair!”
So, imitating the same movement of the hand that Elon Musk performed following the inauguration of President Trump, joked: “My heart goes to you”.