Sales isn’t just selling… – Color
July 20, 2018
Tradition of taking a company selfie Every summer the Color sales team gathers at our company’s California headquarters for our annual meeting. Over the course of three days, we’ll review the first half of the year, celebrate our successes, learn from the field,... Read MoreColor Q&A: Priscila Loghry, facilities manager – Color
July 10, 2018
Okay, let’s start with the personal stuff. What’s your background? How did you come to Color? My background is in business administration, and most of my professional experience was in Brazil, where I was born and raised. I joined Color in Dec 2016 as the Office... Read MoreWhen Science, Music & Art Meet Hackers – Color
July 3, 2018
Emily (designer) with Walter (engineer) Our biannual Hack Week tradition continues at Color! Unlike most software companies, Color’s Hack Weeks benefit from the in-house clinical and scientific expertise of our colleagues. So, rather than prototyping yet another gamified... Read MoreUnderstanding prostate cancer, the most common cancer in American men
June 29, 2018
“You don’t want to do prostate cancer screening” says my primary care provider. “After all, you don’t die from prostate cancer; you die with prostate cancer.” This occurred as part of an important conversation that men-of-a-certain-age... Read More
On experiencing Father’s Day as…a father!
June 13, 2018
For 35 years, Father’s Day has meant a special time to reflect on and appreciate my dad — a man deeply devoted to family, who taught me to throw a baseball, to work hard, do good, be nice to others, and to always remember that at the end of the day character is judged by... Read MoreWhat you need to know about genetics and employee health
June 13, 2018
And how employers can help shape the future of healthcare Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash At Color, we believe genomics will inevitably be a part of everyone’s approach to staying healthy. We’ve reached a point where genetic testing can help prevent late stage... Read MoreMy Day at Color – Color
June 8, 2018
Hi! I’m a (rising) junior at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, currently living my best life on summer vacation. The beauty of summer is having the time and freedom to do absolutely anything, whether that’s sleeping, spending time with friends and family,... Read MoreSupporting patients left in limbo by DTC BRCA genetic testing
June 7, 2018
When the FDA authorized the first direct-to-consumer (DTC) BRCA test in March, they did so with the caveat that any positive test result requires confirmation and genetic counseling before it can be used to inform medical treatment. Historically, insurance will only cover BRCA... Read MoreFilling in the gaps: using genetics to learn about your health history
June 6, 2018
As someone who is adopted, Marissa has always been curious about her genetic background. So when she learned that her employer was offering Color’s Hereditary Cancer Test as a complimentary benefit to employees, she saw it as a chance to gain knowledge that could help her... Read MoreUnderstanding the Difference Between Genetic Testing Technologies
June 6, 2018
The technology used in a genetic test makes a big difference in the completeness of the results. There is a common misperception that all genetic tests are created equally and the only difference is what areas they focus on — such as ancestry, digestive flora, prenatal... Read MoreSoftware is Changing the Game for Genetic Counseling
June 6, 2018
“Genetic counseling is essential to the communication of results, and by doing it in an efficient way, the barrier of cost is a thing of the past.” I attended my first National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Annual Education Conference (AEC) in 2008 when I... Read MoreEngineered for Extreme Efficiency – Color
June 6, 2018
How creative thinking and Next Generation Sequencing delivers state-of-the-art genetic tests at the lowest achievable cost Inside the lab at Color Genomics, we’ve put together a mix of technologies and tactics that help us achieve two huge goals — performing the... Read MoreOpen Source at Color: A Statistical Risk Model for Cancer
June 6, 2018
10–15% of most cancers (in women and men) can be explained by inherited genetic mutations — which is why we built the Color Test, which analyzes 30 genes which are clinically relevant to the most common hereditary cancers. Separate from genetics, a person might... Read MoreHacking for healthy, happy humans – Color
June 6, 2018
We just wrapped up another Hack Week at Color — our most exciting one to date! It’s amazing what teams of talented, inspired engineers/designers can accomplish in 4–5 days. Teams described the week as “fun,” “hectic,”... Read MoreIt’s (another) hack week! – Color
June 6, 2018
At Color, we believe in new ideas and experimentation. So we’re pretty serious about hack weeks; our product, design, and engineering teams see them as a chance to take a step back from our normal cadence to brainstorm and build new ideas and experiences. In fact, many of... Read MoreFree Swag! (And other less important recruiting issues.)
June 6, 2018
People tend to think of recruiting as an artless career — you interview people, hire them, and the job’s done, right? Well, yes, that’s part of it, but there’s a lot of nuance involved. The recruiting team at Color works on a breadth of projects: from... Read More
Color Q&A: Abdi Khalif, automation engineer – Color
June 6, 2018
Every week (or so) we’re going to chat with someone who’s doing something interesting here at Color. Congratulations, Abdi — you’re the first Color Q&A. Let’s start with your story. Where did you grow up? What interested you as a child? I grew up in Burnaby,... Read MoreA search engine for the human genome Part I: the genome in software
June 6, 2018
Elasticsearch is an open-source, scalable search engine built on top of the Lucene core. First released eight years ago, it has since become among the most popular choices for search infrastructure, with hundreds of companies having deployed it in consumer internet applications.... Read MoreA search engine for the human genome Part II: the case for search
June 6, 2018
In part 1 of this post, we discussed how genomes are represented in software, why comparing them is useful in a clinical lab setting, and some of the constraints around implementing Identity-by-State (IBS). For those who are new to genomics, it’s worth a quick read. To... Read MoreBuilding a high-quality, reliable, and efficient bioinformatics pipeline
June 6, 2018
At Color we provide high-quality, physician-ordered, genetic testing at a low cost. A core component of this service is the bioinformatics pipeline: the software framework that processes data from the DNA sequencers in the clinical lab, finds genomic variants, annotates them for... Read More