Linda Avey

Linda Avey (née Bahnson) is an American biologist and entrepreneur. She is known for co-founding 23andMe, a consumer genetic data company.[1][2]

Early life

Avey was born Linda Bahnson in 1960, in South Dakota, United States. She attended Augustana University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in biology, in 1982.[4]

Early career

Avey began her scientific career in 1982 at University of California, Irvine as a staff research associate.[5] It has been stated that in 1985, she moved into various sales and business development in the fields of biopharmaceutical and academic research. 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."[6][7] She has stated that she worked for Perlegen Sciences and for Affymetrix "develop[ing] translational research collaborations with academic and pharmaceutical partners".[6][8]

She also held positions at Spotfire,[6] Chemdex, Applied Biosystems,[6] PerSeptive Biosystems, Molecular Dynamics, and Waters Corporation.

23andMe and later career

In March 2006 Avey, Anne Wojcicki, and Paul Cusenza founded 23andMe,[12][13][14] "one of the first, and only, companies to offer genetic profiles directly to consumers, rather than through doctors or researchers".[15] Avey left the company in 2009.[16] Cusenza had left the company in 2007.

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".[17] 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.[18] 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.[19][20][21]

Avey is an advisor to Verily Life Sciences and is on the Board of Fellows at Stanford Medical School.[21] In November of 2023, Avey joined the Board of Directors of the Human Immunome Project (HIP).[22]

23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025 [23]

Further reading

• An article referring to Avery and 23andMe regarding the limited data protection offered to her company's clients.
• Naming of Avey to the board of Verily.
• Interview with two of the founders.

External links

• Biographical information on Paul Cusenza, one of Avery's co-founders at 23andMe.
• New Yorker Video Interview with two of three 23andMe co-founders, Avey and Wojcicki.