Personalis

The founders brought extensive and complementary expertise to the venture. John West, the founding CEO who retired at the end of 2022, had a long career in DNA sequencing, including leading the development of automated sequencing systems and serving as CEO of Solexa, which he sold to Illumina in 2007. His interest in the clinical application of genomics was solidified when his family became the first healthy family of four to be sequenced, an experience that led directly to the founding of Personalis. The other co-founders are distinguished academics from Stanford: Dr. Euan Ashley is a physician-scientist known for establishing the field of precision medicine; Dr. Russ Altman's work focuses on applying AI and data science to understand drug action; and Dr. Michael Snyder is a leader in functional genomics, proteomics, and personalized medicine.

Personalis generates revenue primarily through the sale of sequencing and data analysis services. Its business model targets biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and clinical oncologists. The company's main revenue streams come from providing these services for pharmaceutical research and development, population sequencing programs like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Million Veterans Program (VA MVP), and, increasingly, from clinical diagnostic testing. For the full year 2024, Personalis reported revenue of $84.6 million.

The core of the company's offering is its NeXT Platform™, which provides comprehensive molecular data about a patient's cancer and immune response from a single tissue sample, analyzing all of the approximately 20,000 human genes. A key product derived from this platform is NeXT Personal, an ultra-sensitive test designed to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) and cancer recurrence by identifying minute traces of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). This personalized approach aims to guide patient care throughout their cancer journey, from initial biopsy to long-term monitoring. The company went public with an initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange on June 20, 2019, under the ticker symbol "PSNL".