\n<\/p>\n
Last week, Founders Fund partner Delian Asparouhov realized he hadn\u2019t checked on his genetics in a while. He clicked open a dashboard created by Nucleus Genomics, a Founders Fund-backed startup that gets saliva samples sequenced and then compares the DNA results to extensive data linking health issues to genes. Within seconds, he concluded that he had a predisposition for schizophrenia, a sky-high IQ, and prostate cancer. \u201cBummer,\u201d he shrugged.<\/p>\n
If Asparouhov\u2019s reaction seems nonchalant, it\u2019s only because he and the Nucleus team he backed are dreaming much, much bigger. Imagine a world where your medical treatments are tailored to your genetics or where every couple gets their DNA sequenced before having kids together \u2014 or a world where, as Asparouhov imagines, dating apps have a \u201ckid simulation\u201d that meshes your genetic tests together and shows you what a child might inherit.<\/p>\n
Today, Nucleus is a step closer to that future. The company, founded by 25-year-old Kian Sadeghi, announced a $14 million Series A, bringing its total funding to about $32 million. Investors like Alexis Ohanian\u2019s Seven Seven Six, Balaji Srinivasan and SpaceX alum Achal Upadhyaya<\/a> have all rallied behind Sadeghi\u2019s vision for widely available genetic testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDNA is actually the kind of ultimate health test,\u201d Sadeghi said. \u201cSo one swab and you get your analysis on about 800-plus conditions. And that\u2019s going to be rapidly growing over the next several months, until it\u2019s effectively every common and rare disease known.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Nucleus is possible because the cost of genome sequencing has plummeted in recent years. In 2007, genome sequencing cost close to $1 million<\/a>. Today, Nucleus, staffed by a team of PhDs and genetic experts<\/a>, charges $400 to send a saliva sample to a third-party sequencer and then analyze the results, telling users a host of potential illnesses they may be at risk for. Sadeghi believes that, in the next five years, \u201cthe cost of sequencing the genome is going to be negligible,\u201d and everyone will have \u201ctheir genome on their smartphone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sadeghi\u2019s dream began with tragedy. One night, his cousin died in her sleep from a previously unknown genetic condition. The loss permanently altered his life\u2019s path. He dropped out of college and moved home, where his schedule was as follows: wake up, meditate for an hour, scribble gene-related company plans in a notebook for 12 hours, meditate for another hour. \u201cI do believe in the soul,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI\u2019ve meditated every day for, I think, five years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n His year of work and meditation birthed Nucleus \u2014 and sent Sadeghi into the orbit of Silicon Valley\u2019s most famous contrarians. He first met Peter Thiel at Hereticon, the Founder Fund bash that celebrates all that is controversial (Sadeghi recalls a particularly exciting exorcist). It was a fitting place to meet, considering all the controversy that Sadeghi would court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, Sadeghi launched Nucleus IQ, which tells users how much their genetics correlate with markers for high intelligence. Sadeghi puts a huge asterisk next to that claim: There is still much we don\u2019t know about the connection between genes and IQ, and, even if we did, genetics can only account for so much, while one\u2019s environment handles the rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n Geneticist Sasha Gusev called into question the accuracy of Nucleus\u2019s IQ tests (Sadeghi then published a lengthy defense<\/a>), and others pointed out<\/a> that Nucleus\u2019s IQ tests could lead to discrimination and stigmatization. Sadeghi\u2019s approach is also markedly different from competitors: Back in 2018, 23andMe told the MIT Technology Review it purposefully wouldn\u2019t release consumer information around genetics and intelligence for fear of \u201cmisinterpretation.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n But Sadeghi and Asparouhov believe that the average American should have as much information about their genetics as possible. Asparouhov finds the hesitancy around Nucleus IQ \u201cvery odd,\u201d adding that\u00a0if we\u2019re able to acknowledge genetic advantages in athletes (like, say, Michael Phelps\u2019 astonishing wingspan), why wouldn\u2019t we do the same for IQ? \u201cExperts claim that they know what\u2019s best for you,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s best to just give consumers the information that\u2019s available to them and let them decide.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n As Nucleus acquires more customers, Asparouhov says the company\u2019s insights will get even better, the results on a Nucleus dashboard automatically updating with new information. \u201cAt some point maybe there will be, like, phenotypic reporting, where you tell Nucleus, I have blue eyes, I have brown hair, maybe you come in for an IQ test, etc., and that actually improves the model,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked if linking things like blue eyes, blonde hair, and IQ could be interpreted as eugenics, he clarified with a laugh, \u201cI said brown hair!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, miming the same hand motion that Elon Musk performed following President Trump\u2019s inauguration, he joked, \u201cMy heart goes out to you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n