Ellen Matloff spent the first part of her career in Genetic Counseling at the Yale School of Medicine, where she served as the Director of the Cancer Genetic Counseling Program for 18 years. She was also one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, the 2013 BRCA patent case that reached the United States Supreme Court and resulted in several patents related to human genetic testing being overturned. Four years ago, inspired by the rapidly evolving realities of the genetic testing marketplace and the need to provide insights from genetic counseling to patients in digital, scalable, efficient ways, Ellen founded My Gene Counsel.


Story Reference Points:

Ellen’s path to genetic counseling @ 2:15

Margie: Ellen’s first patient (BRCA1) as a new grad in 1996 @ 3:53

Change in attitudes toward genetic counseling and testing over the past two decades @ 9:49

Nate: A belated genetic diagnosis (GREM1) makes Cascade Testing possible for family members @13:03

Keeping up with evolving testing options @ 20:20

Changing protocols for pre- and post-test genetic counseling @ 22:18

Ellen’s change in perspective on genetic testing and direct-to-consumer genetic testing @ 26:32

My Gene Counsel offers digital, scalable genetic counseling insights with push notifications as new data becomes available @ 28:46

How Ellen sees the role of the Genetic Counselor continuing to evolve @ 35:51

The challenge of informed decision making with direct-to-consumer genetic testing @ 38:48

Need for tools to help patients and healthcare providers to understand genetic testing results @ 39:43

Need to innovate and diversify within the field of genetic counseling @ 43:08

What consumers should know about order genetic testing online @ 48:25


Links and Resources
My Gene Counsel

Ellen Matloff on Forbes

My Gene Counsel blog post on Nate’s story: "Beyond BRCA: GREM1"


Guest post on My Gene Counsel by Brianne Kirkpatrick: "Oprah Thinks You Should Buy a Genetic Testing Kit for Christmas … But What Does the Genetic Counselor Say?"

Grey Genetics Blog Post: "What Can 23andMe Results Tell You About Your Breast Cancer Risk?"

Historic NIH-Funded Research Genetic Testing Program All of Us


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On Twitter: @MyGeneCounsel

On Instagram: @mygenecounsel

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