Genomics revolutionising healthcare
"We can't change our DNA, but we can change the way it impacts us."
Melbourne-based genetic counsellor Zoe Milgrom built Australia’s first direct-to-consumer clinical-grade genetic testing company, aiming to shift healthcare from reactive treatment to prevention.
Milgrom co-founded Eugene in 2017 with Kunal Kalro, after she felt frustrated by the health system in which she often had to deliver “the worst possible news” to patients in public genetics clinics, and where wait lists stretched six to 18 months for high-risk patients.
“After delivering so much bad news, I was pretty fatigued and pretty disillusioned by the healthcare system, because I knew there was a better, more proactive way.” Milgrom told The AJN.
Working in paediatrics and high-risk obstetrics, she witnessed how genomic technologies evolved rapidly while public health services struggled.
She reflected, “There was no way for a healthy person in Australia to access proactive, preventative genomics” except for small scale Jewish community carrier screening programs.
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