I remember clearly the meeting at Illumina and I still get goosebumps when I think about it,

where we realized that we could be seeing the signals of cancer in a blood test.

We were processing samples from pregnant mothers.

One of our scientists noticed that there was something unusual about the maternal DNA,

and in all of those cases the mothers went on to find that they had cancer and didn't

know it.

What the FTC is saying is that by us getting into this space, we will reduce innovation

in the cancer screening space.

Now that's just fundamentally not correct.

Our team was actually called into Wuhan at the end of 2019, and the first viral genome

of SARS-CoV-2 that was published on Jan 10th was done on Illumina sequencers.

We worked with Moderna and BioNTech.

Their entire vaccine development program is based on the data that comes off Illumina

machines.

We know if we acquire Grille, tens of thousands of lives will be saved.

That wouldn't be saved if we don't acquire Grille.

That motivates us deeply.

That's Francis de Suza, CEO of Illumina, the world's dominant maker of gene sequencing

technology.

De Suza is locked in a battle with the FTC over the re-acquisition of a company Illumina

previously spun out, called Grille, that has a breakthrough cancer screening test.

Ambobsaffian, former editor of Fast Company, founder of the Flutch Group and host of

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