Linda Avey

Linda Avey (née Bahnson^{[not verified in body]}) is an American biologist and entrepreneur. She is known for co-founding 23andMe, a consumer genetic data company.^[1][2]

Linda Avey
Avey in 2008
Born	1960 (age 64–65) South Dakota, United States of America[citation needed]
Alma mater	Augustana University (BA)
Known for	Co-founder of 23andMe Precise.ly, Inc.
Scientific career
Fields	Personal genomics, Biotechnology, entrepreneurship

Early life

Avey was born Linda Bahnson in 1960, in South Dakota, United States.^{[citation needed]} She attended Augustana University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in biology, in 1982.^{[3][independent source needed][4]}

Early career

Avey began her scientific career in 1982 at University of California, Irvine as a staff research associate.^{[citation needed][5][non-primary source needed]} It has been stated that in 1985, she moved into various sales and business development in the fields of biopharmaceutical and academic research.^{[citation needed]} As of 2024, a site to which Avey submits information was stating that she had "over 20 years of sales and business development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, and Washington, D.C."^[3][6] She has stated that she worked for Perlegen Sciences and for Affymetrix^[when?] "develop[ing] translational research collaborations with academic and pharmaceutical partners".^{[3][independent source needed][7][non-primary source needed]}

She also held positions at Spotfire,^{[3][independent source needed]} Chemdex,^{[citation needed]} Applied Biosystems,^{[3][independent source needed]} PerSeptive Biosystems,^{[citation needed]} Molecular Dynamics,^{[citation needed]} and Waters Corporation.^{[citation needed]}

23andMe and later career

In March 2006 Avey, Anne Wojcicki, and Paul Cusenza founded 23andMe,^[8][9][10] "one of the first, and only,^{[clarification needed]} companies to offer genetic profiles directly to consumers, rather than through doctors or researchers".^[11] Avey left the company in 2009.^[12] Cusenza had left the company in 2007.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, Avey launched the Brainstorm Research Foundation, to "creat[e] an outsourced potential to do research" with "initial focus is on Alzheimer's disease" to "creat[e] novel cohorts and collec[t]... phenotypic information".^[13] In 2011, Avey co-founded We are Curious, Inc. with Heather Anne Halpert and Mitsu Hadeishi, a company focused on online aggregation of data from sensors, wearables, trackers, apps, social media, biometrics, and other personal data.^{[14][better source needed]} In 2018, Avey and Aneil Mallavarapu began collaboration with Naryana Health to focus on collecting and analyzing genetic information from populations often economically excluded, via their further start-up, Precisely, Inc.^[15][16][17]

Avey is an advisor to Verily Life Sciences and is on the Board of Fellows at Stanford Medical School.^[17] In November of 2023, Avey joined the Board of Directors of the Human Immunome Project (HIP).^[18]