Celebrating 2 years of service – Color

Like millions of families around the world, many members of the Color team have lost loved ones to cancer and agonized over what could have been done differently. These questions led to the creation of Color, and our goal of making it possible for everyone to understand their hereditary risk of cancer, so they have an opportunity to prevent it or catch it early, at a more treatable stage.

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the launch of the Color Test, a saliva-based genetic test that that covers genes that impact the eight most common hereditary cancers. By combining clinical-grade quality with accessibility and convenience, Color made it possible for people to easily access potentially life-saving information, and helped advance the healthcare community’s adoption of broader genetic testing in the process. The past two years have made clear that genetic technology’s potential to help people and their families is even greater than we expected. Prevention and early detection — particularly when prompted by the use of genetic and other data-driven insights — are foundational to our ability to combat the most deadly diseases we face.

Since Color’s first launch, thousands of women and men from all around the world have used the Color Test to explore the impact of genetics on their health, as well as that of their loved ones. Some, like Lauren and Christy, have shared their experiences with us and other families. Through our work with thousands of healthcare providers and dozens of companies who offer the Color Test to their employees as a benefit, we’ve had the privilege of serving a broad and diverse population. Their stories have moved us, and reminded us that bringing the benefits of genetic testing to as many people as possible is why we launched Color in the first place.

Our dedication to helping a broad population has also driven our commitment to scientific research, based on close collaborations and an open model that views scientific data as a common good rather than a proprietary asset. Color scientists have been fortunate to work with researchers from institutions like UCSF, UPenn, MD Anderson, the University of Washington and many others. Our support for the research community has enabled the launch of FLOSSIES, a collaboration with Dr. Mary-Claire King and the Women’s Health Initiative, the largest variant database of healthy older women. We’re pleased to be participating in the WISDOM Study, a 100,000-woman study of breast screening protocols. The Color Foundation offers Color Research Grants to benefit genetic research. And we’re proud of our partnerships with hospitals, including the Morehouse School of Medicine and the UCSF Medical Center, to launch the Every Woman Program, to make sure that nobody is denied genetic testing due to financial constraints. reasons. Finally, we partnered with the BRCA Foundation to launch the Family Testing Program, which has enabled family members of mutation carriers to access testing as inexpensively as possible.

Color employees combine world-class skills across engineering, product, marketing, design, genetic counseling, bioinformatics, business partnerships, and sales. Assembling and growing a strong mission-driven team is one of the most rewarding aspects of our efforts, so we’re honored to have been named one of 2017’s Bay Area’s Best Places to Work (and if this all sounds good to you, we’re hiring!).

We are grateful to have had the opportunity these past two years to serve our customers and advance our goal of using genetic data to help people lead healthier lives. We look forward to touching the lives of many more people in the years to come.