Thread by @OrchidInc

We believe every couple that wants to conceive, should be able to do so confidently.

Announcing Orchid, a first-of-its-kind, ultra high resolution genetic testing system for couples.

guides.orchidhealth.com/post/announcin…

Orchid’s focus is to help couples have healthy babies.

Today, couples go into the most consequential moment of their life—conceiving their child—blind.

Couples have no visibility into how their genetics will impact their future child’s health.

Couples with family members who suffer from diseases like schizophrenia are so consumed with fear around passing on the condition that some forgo having children at all.

We’re here to change that.

We believe prospective parents deserve access to modern genetics so they can make informed choices about how to protect the health of their family.

Here's what families impacted by schizophrenia have to say about screening
guides.orchidhealth.com/post/what-fami…

Over the past year, we’ve brought together leaders in fertility, genomics, and reproductive health, to build a first-of-its-kind ultra high resolution genetic testing system that allows couples to measure and mitigate genetic risk for the diseases that matter to most of us.

We're honored to work with the world's best, like Dr. Barry Behr guides.orchidhealth.com/post/barry-beh…

and highly sought after reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Ruben Alvero
guides.orchidhealth.com/post/dr-ruben-…

Our reports detect if a couple can pass on an elevated genetic predisposition to their future children for 10 top diseases: heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's Disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes, and IBD

Existing genetic tests only allow parents to screen for the super rare events with a 1 in 10,000 or even 1 in a million chance of happening. These diseases follow a “simple” inheritance pattern and are caused by single gene mutations.

Unfortunately, the diseases that matter to most of us aren’t so “simple”. For most diseases, there isn’t a single genetic cause but rather millions of variants across the genome collectively driving disease risk.

Orchid can quantify risk for these “complex” diseases that matter to most of us - 1 in 5 Americans is affected by the diseases we screen for.

Existing genetic tests only sequence less than 2% of a single partner’s genome. In contrast, Orchid reads 100% of both partner’s genomes. We don’t cut corners and are here to provide the most comprehensive results available.

Existing genetic tests aren’t actionable. In contrast, Orchid allows couples to understand if they are at elevated genetic risk before they conceive.

Couples then have the option to quantify genetic risk present in each embryo, and transfer the lowest risk embryo that is most likely to lead to a healthy, normal pregnancy.

Orchid’s Couple Report is available now.

‍You can join the waitlist here: orchidhealth.com/signup-preconc…

Orchid’s Couple Report is designed for all couples looking to go into their pregnancy prepared and informed about how to optimize health for their family.

The Couple Report is a simple at-home saliva test

It comes with three reports – one detailing a future child’s risk and one outlining each partner’s individual risk. You’re not alone – every report is reviewed by a board certified genetic counselor before delivery to you.

Later this year, we’ll roll out Orchid’s Embryo Report to help prioritize embryos based on mitigating disease risk for couples in the IVF process.

We’re excited to deliver on the promise of precision medicine. The goal of genomic medicine for over three decades has finally been realized – we can now measure genetic susceptibility to the diseases that matter most.

We’re honored to give parents the ability to change the trajectory of their children’s life – toward health, and away from diseases that have burdened their family for generations.

Here’s to a future where every couple that wants to conceive, gets to do so with confidence.

Here’s to a future where fewer of our children suffer from the same diseases that affected their parents.

Here’s to a future where fewer lives are hijacked by health issues.

Thank you to the exceptional group of operators and investors that are helping us build that future. We’ve raised a $4.6M seed round from the founders 23andMe @annewoj23 , Coinbase (@brian_armstrong, @FEhrsam ), Counsyl (@balajis )

Clover (@VivekGaripalli ), Eventbrite (@kevinhartz), Flatiron (@natsturner ), Oscar (@mariots ), Stellar (@JedMcCaleb ) as well as institutional support from @refactor Capital, @villageglobal, @DayOneVC , @OliveWang839, @varsharao and more.

Life is short, do work that matters at Orchid
orchidhealth.com/careers

We’re a small team of optimistic builders working on Orchid because we believe helping couples have healthy babies will be the most significant work of our lives.

Orchid is deeply committed to our technology being made available to every family that stands to benefit.

If you could benefit but can't afford testing, please fill out this application for financial assistance and we’ll see how we can help.

docs.google.com/forms/d/10JnJo…