Linda Avey is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 biotech analyst, biologist

Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...

, and the co-founder of 23andMe

23andMe

23andMe is a privately held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California that is developing new methods and technologies that will enable consumers to understand their own genetic information...

.

Avey spent 20 years in sales and business development in biopharmaceuticals. Avey helped develop research programs for Affymetrix

Affymetrix

Affymetrix is a company that manufactures DNA microarrays; it is based in Santa Clara, California, United States. The company was founded by Dr. Stephen Fodor in 1992. It began as a unit in Affymax N.V...

 and Perlegen Sciences.

In 2006, she co-founded 23andMe

23andMe

23andMe is a privately held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California that is developing new methods and technologies that will enable consumers to understand their own genetic information...

 with Anne Wojcicki

Anne Wojcicki

Anne E. Wojcicki is an American biotech analyst, biologist, and the co-founder of 23andMe.Wojcicki is the daughter of educator Esther Wojcicki and Stanley Wojcicki, a Polish American physics professor at Stanford University. She attended Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, where she was one...

. In September 2009, Avey left 23andMe to start research on Alzheimer's; her father-in-law had recently died of the disease