23 and me started selling its kits in two thousand and seven, pitching them mostly as a way to assess a smattering of health traits. The company's 100 staff scientists hired over the past six years, work out of its therapeutics offices in south san francisco. On one side, robots make the drug prototypes. There are robots for pivoting diane into cells, robots for purifying liquids and even robots that just swirl containers of liquid for a certain amount of time. Scientists suss out the basics of how jeans and diseases are connected, often performing tasks by hand at their benches. While companies typically specialize in a few kinds of treatment, 23 and me can direct research wherever it takes