Sports excite, inspire, and move us in unique ways. We love to follow our favorite athletes as they play through a season. We pay thousands of dollars each year to sweat with dozens of other people in ever-hipper boot camp classes. We can buy the perfect shoe designed for exactly…

If you’ve ever tried to start a new routine — whether it’s a new workout regimen or skipping that 3pm carb-fest — you know how hard it is to change behavior. We live in an era of data and have made vast advancements in our understanding of health, so we…

Today, we’ve announced a collaboration with Illumina Accelerator that will enable entrepreneurs who are innovating in personal genomics to take their ideas to the next level. The opportunity is enormous, and the timing couldn’t be better. The recent launch of our marketplace for DNA-powered products and services was a starting…

By Misha DS Rashkin, MS, CGC, Senior Genetic Counselor It’s difficult to overstate the importance that the BRCA genes — BRCA1 and BRCA2 — have played in the story of modern genetic testing. They were identified in the early ’90s by Mary-Claire King, PhD (a story told in the movie…

It seems like some people are just born to be good at certain sports. They’re the perfect height or they have the right physique or they’re so much faster than most people. To us, their skills appear to be effortless — or, at the very least, their bodies respond better…

By Elissa Levin, M.S., CGC, Director of Policy and Genomic Services, Helix We’re all interested in what’s in our DNA, the genetic code personalized to each of us. But… how many of us know anything about the technology that reads DNA? And more importantly, why should we care? What you…

Modern genetics is changing the way that humanity understands disease, identity, and even the definition of “health.” The scope of discovery is changing our daily lives in all sorts of ways too. New medications are hitting the market, people are learning about their ancestry, and we’re able to treat diseases…

Spit. Spittle. Dribble. Drool. Slobber. Sputum. Here at Helix, we refer to it as saliva. But whatever synonym you choose, the key — from a science perspective — is what’s inside that saliva. DNA — 3 letters packed with everything that makes you, you. But how do we extract DNA…

By Elissa Levin, M.S., CGC, Director of Policy and Clinical Services Genetic counselors can be a powerful resource to help you understand your options, your results, and maybe even how you feel about them. Genetic counselors have a shared experience, an inside joke that comes with the profession, that when we’re at a social event and people ask the inevitable, “What do you do?”… we know what to expect.