[bhuffman]

Good stuff! Really excited to see this launch. Clearly a large benefit of the service for Evera is the large collection of stem cells. How do you anticipate the drug discoveries and advancements will differ from discoveries made by genomics companies like 23andMe? What labs are you currently working with for this work?

[nquryshi]

Nice question! The main thing to keep in mind here is that unlike companies such as 23andMe who collect dead saliva cells, we are able to preserve living cells which are far more valuable for drug discovery efforts and therapeutic development. We are currently working with two labs at Harvard and one at Stanford to advance our therapeutic and disease modeling pipeline. We're making tech that will allow us to model complex diseases completely in-vitro as well as therapies to replace damaged or lost tissue!

However, I want to make it clear that our focus will always be towards our users and their privacy. Users will always be given the choice if they want to contribute their sample to our research initiatives. Samples will not automatically be used for research unless there is explicit consent. Users will also have the ability to remove their sample from our research pipeline at any time. We take privacy and consent extremely seriously.

Additionally, we are currently setting up infrastructure that will allow users to get rewarded if they do contribute their sample to research. We believe it is our right to reward those that contribute to our research efforts. Stay tuned for details.