Myriad Genetics celebrates 25 years of breakthroughs.

• Author: Christensen, Lisa
• Position: Around Utah

Salt Lake City -- On May 27, 1991, three scientists came together to form MYRIAD GENETICS, INC.

Twenty-five years later, that company has grown into a giant in its field and made scientific breakthroughs that have helped thousands gain the upper hand on ailments that were once practically death sentences.

In order to make that big vision happen, its founders thought very, very small--using a person's genes to see if they were predisposed to aggressive hereditary ailments or to target treatments for disease.

"Back in 1991, when this company was formed, this was a very visionary approach," said Mark Capone, president and CEO of Myriad Genetics. "In 1991, the very first website was launched, so we were a very long way away from the technology we have now."

Myraid Genetics boasts the largest clinical DNA sequencing laboratory in the world, with about 120,000 square feet of laboratory space in its Salt Lake City complex. Over the last quarter decade, scientists have been honing the process of isolating and identifying genetic markers and irregularities, giving the laborious process factory-like efficiency.

Scores of laboratory robots, each costing roughly the same as a Lamborghini rolled off the lot, perform a host of tasks--separate genetic material in patient samples, prepare the material for analysis, analyze the samples--and deliver results to their human coworkers, said Jeff Trost, senior vice president of operations for Myriad. The work the human lab technicians do is double-checked by other technicians, he said, to make sure human error doesn't result in an incorrect diagnosis down the line.

Capone said while the United States has an excellent healthcare system, it isn't very efficient, resulting in three times more spending than other first-world countries, but lacking in results. Part of the problem is in the timing of diagnoses, which often come too late to treat with inexpensive means, he said, and then treatment is often a case of trial and error.

"When we look at the role Myriad can play, it's actually in that area of helping--how do we prevent disease, how do we diagnose it more accurately and how do we decide much earlier on what are the appropriate treatments that we might be able to use to provide healthcare much more efficiently with a much better outcome," he said. "That was the whole principle upon which [the company was founded]."

That role is most prominent as the healthcare system shifts to more personalized...