Color Genomics

Color is a population health technology company which provides genetic tests and analysis directly to patients as well as through employers. The product focuses on genes that indicate risk for heart disease, cancer, and that affect medication response.

Color
Private
IndustryPopulation Health, Biotechnology
FoundedApril 2015
FoundersElad Gil, Nish Bhat, and Othman Laraki
Headquarters
Burlingame, California
,
USA
Area served
100+ Countries
Key people
Othman Laraki (CEO)
ProductsPopulation health programs, Genetic testing services, Medical research
Websitewww.color.com

History and Founders

The company was co-founded in 2015 by Elad Gil, Nish Bhat, and Othman Laraki, who now serves as company CEO, in Burlingame, California.

A native of Casablanca, Morocco, Laraki came to the US to attend Stanford, where he studied computer science as an undergraduate and graduate student. Following stints at Google and Twitter, Laraki was inspired to examine the link between genetics and disease after his grandmother passed away from breast cancer, his mother was diagnosed with the disease twice, and he learned he was a carrier of a BRCA2 pathogenic variant. Laraki teamed up with Elad Gil, who has a Ph.D. in Biology from MIT, to examine the technology available for genetic testing and determine how to make it more affordable and accessible.

Product Development

Prior to Color’s founding, clinical genetic testing was out of reach for most individuals, unless they had a significant personal or family history of hereditary disease. Testing used to cost $4,000, insurance had burdensome requirements for coverage, and even if insurance would cover the costs, testing often required multiple in-person visits, preventing people from learning information that could save their lives.[1]

Color’s product is a genetic test that costs $249, genetic counseling, and services for physicians.[2] The Color test analyzes 30 genes that highly impact risk for the most common hereditary cancers, 30 genes that impact risk for hereditary heart conditions and 14 genes that impact an individual’s genetic response to medications.[3]

Expansion to Population Health

Color provides technology, software, and clinical services for population health programs. Their services include:

  • Program strategy, planning, and implementation
  • Participant outreach and engagement
  • Participant education and consent about testing and results
  • Sample (blood or saliva) collection and genetic sequencing
  • Participant data management and clinical reporting
  • HIPAA compliance and data security
  • Return of results
  • Clinical services, like genetic counseling and clinical pharmacy
  • Personalized care routing
  • Ongoing population health management

Color has partnered with health systems including NorthShore University Health System[4], Ochsner Health System[5], and Jefferson Health[6].

Color also works with companies[7] like Visa, Levi Strauss, Salesforce, Instacart, Nvidia, OpenTable, SAP, Slack, Stripe, and Snap to offer their employees access to Color’s clinical grade genomic services, including physician-ordered genetic tests, board-certified genetic counselors, and clinical pharmacists, enabling employees to better understand their risk for certain hereditary cancers, heart disease, and genes that may impact medication response.[8]

Testing System

Color’s physician-ordered test can be initiated by individuals online, and a sample collection kit is sent in the mail. Individuals provide a saliva sample and return the kit in a pre-paid package. Color's CLIA-certified and CAP-approved lab analyzes for variants in the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, as well as 28 other genes associated with breast, prostate, colon, uterine, stomach, melanoma, pancreatic, and ovarian cancers[9]. The test also identifies variants in 30 genes related to hereditary heart conditions as well as genes that may impact medication response[10]. Genetic counseling with board-certified genetic counselors is available for free to all individuals who use Color.

Research

In 2018, Color was selected, alongside the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine (LMM) at Partners HealthCare, to establish one of three genome centers around the country for the National Institutes of Health’s historic All of Us Research Program[11]. All of Us will sequence one million or more people across the US, with the goal of accelerating health research and enabling individualized prevention, treatment, and care. The program has a focus on recruitment from populations that have been historically underrepresented in clinical science and genomic medicine, in order to build a diverse biomedical data resource that provides a foundation for better insights into the biological, environmental, and behavioral factors that influence health.[12]

In 2019, Color was named the sole awardee to deliver all of the genetic counseling for All of Us[13]. As the awardee, Color will customize software and tools to integrate data from all the genome centers, standardize reporting across the program, and ensure all results are returned in a unified way. This is a first year $4.6 million grant as part of a multi-year $25 million project.

In collaboration with the Women’s Health Initiative and Dr. Mary-Claire King at the University of Washington, Color provided genetic sequencing for the cohort of 10,000 Fabulous Ladies Over Seventy (FLOSSIES). This is the largest publicly available dataset of genetic variants associated with hereditary cancer in healthy, older individuals[14].

Color Data, a database containing aggregated genetic and clinical information from 50,000 individuals who took a Color test[15], helps researchers and scientists identify genotype-phenotype correlations and novel variants for functional analysis, as well as enables data-driven drug discovery and development. It is the largest public database of its kind[16].

As a part of the MAGENTA Study, which aims to improve availability of genetic testing for hereditary cancer syndromes to at-risk individuals through the use of an online genetic testing service, Color is working with a Stand Up to Cancer Dream Team that includes physicians, scientists and researchers from the MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Washington to provide genetic counseling to high-risk individuals through delivery models such as tele-counseling[17].

In collaboration with Dr. Laura Esserman at University of California and Sanford Health, Color is providing genetic testing for WISDOM, a 100,000-woman study that is comparing annual screenings with personalized, risk-based breast cancer screenings[18].

As part of the GENtleMEN Study, Color is working with Dr. Heather Cheng at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington to provide genetic testing and counseling to men with advanced prostate cancer[19].

Color contributes anonymized variants to ClinVar, a free database managed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that helps researchers identify links between genes and disease[20].

Color’s research collaborators include[21]:

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References
  1. Singer, Natasha (April 21, 2015). "Employees Jump at Genetic Testing. Is That a Good Thing?". The New York Times.
  2. "New Product from Color Genomics Makes Comprehensive Genetic Testing for Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk Affordable". Business Wire. April 21, 2015.
  3. "Learn about the genes Color analyzes". Color.
  4. "NorthShore Launches Complimentary Whole Genome Sequencing for 10,000 Patients". NorthShore University Health System. June 4, 2019.
  5. "Ochsner Health System to Pilot Genetic Screening Program in Partnership with Color". Ochsner Health System. October 18, 2019.
  6. Siwicki, Bill (October 24, 2019). "Jefferson Health combines genomics, population health to enhance employee wellness". HealthcareITNews.
  7. "Color Genomics Introduces Benefits Program". Business Wire. September 30, 2015.
  8. Singer, Natasha (April 15, 2018). "Employees Jump at Genetic Testing. Is That a Good Thing?". The New York Times.
  9. "Learn about the genes Color analyzes". Color.
  10. "Learn about the genes Color analyzes". Color.
  11. "Color, Broad Institute and Partners LMM selected by NIH as Genome Center for historic 'All of Us' Research Program". PR Newswire. September 25, 2018.
  12. "All of Us Research Program Overview". allofus.NIH.gov.
  13. "NIH funds genetic counseling resource ahead of million-person sequencing effort". National Institutes of Health News Releases. August 21, 2019.
  14. "FLOSSIES: A database of germline genomic variation in healthy older women". whi.color.com.
  15. "Explore Color Data to accelerate research". Color.
  16. "A scalable, aggregated genotypic–phenotypic database for human disease variation" (PDF). Database. 2019: 1–11. January 18, 2019.
  17. "About the MAGENTA Study". MAGENTA.
  18. "The WISDOM study compares annual mammogram to personalized breast screening". Wisdom.
  19. "The Gentlemen Study Pre-Screening Survey". The Gentlemen Survey.
  20. "Submitter". ClinVar.
  21. "A few of our research collaborators". Color.
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