Google hands $2.6M to 23andMe

It pays to be married to a Google co-founder. 23andMe, a genetics company started by Google co-founder's Sergey Brin's wife Anne Wojcicki (photo), has landed a $2.6 million investment from the Internet giant. This comes in addition to $3.6 million in funding invested in May 2007.

23andMe, which bills itself as an "industry leader in personal genetics," is one of a number of companies that gives consumers a glimpse of their health risks and ancestry using DNA analysis technologies. For just $399, 23andMe will genotype your DNA. (The company does not offer whole genome sequencing, which still cost at least $48,000.) It also lets customers create a public profile and share their genetic data through a company-sponsored social networking site.

"We believed 23andMe's technology had promise the first time we invested, and we continue to believe that now," said Google spokesperson Jane Penner in an email statement. "23andme helps people make sense of their genetic information, a mission we support and view as being consistent with Google's goal of organizing the world's information."

- see the Wall Street Journal report
- here's more on the financing