‘Genetic testing is a responsibility if you’re having children’

Anne Wojcicki, CEO of California-based personal genetic testing company 23andMe, which enables people to check their DNA, on why she co-founded the project

23andMe offers a saliva test to create a DNA profile covering health, traits and ancestry. Have you taken the test yourself?

My family and I were some of the first people to be genotyped. It revealed I was a carrier for Bloom's syndrome and my husband [Google co-founder Sergey Brin, from whom she is now divorced] was high risk for Parkinson's disease. It was useful to know because we were planning children. I tested my son as soon as he was born and I tested my daughter's amniotic fluid [while she was in the womb].