Founder's note
About Varia
What I felt was missing from the consumer genomic space and what I built.
Hello! My name is Eric. I appreciate you checking out Varia. My goal is for this to be a genuinely useful tool founded on strict policies of validation and fact-checking to produce reliable and potentially actionable information for the general people.
I have had a semi-obsession with health and well-being most of my life. My issue for a long time was that I did not have high quality mentors and I did not know where to look. I "Googled around" for medical and health guidance; perhaps some of you are familiar with this tactic.
I did my 23andMe genome without having a good reason to do it. I mostly just thought it would be interesting to have my genome scanned and see if any surprises came from it. The results were interesting, but surface level. Years went by and I started listening to the likes of Peter Attia, Rhonda Patrick and Andrew Huberman. I learned somewhere around 2018/19 that Rhonda Patrick offered a tool where you could run your raw 23andMe data through it and you would be given a detailed PDF of your genome which was not visible on 23andMe. This is where I discovered I am APOE 4/4. This discovery cemented my interest in genomic interpretation. I learned how much was possible through conversation with my clinician, focused on mitigating the chances of the worst-case scenario rather than eliminating an apparent threat.
The main issue I had was that, while my genome did not change, the science did and most importantly for my knowledge, the tools available to me were not sufficient to get the information I wanted, or at least in a way I found actionable. Every few months, new literature would land that shifted the interpretation of a variant I already knew I carried, and I had no way to fold that in or a single resource to use. The dense raw-data tools went the other direction. They surfaced thousands of associations without ranking them, which is a useful thing if you are a researcher and an overwhelming thing if you are trying to decide what to do this week. The mass-market consumer tests sat in a third place, gamifying traits and ancestry while leaving the variants that actually matter for someone with my genotype either absent or buried.
I built Varia for the question I actually had. Given this genotype, what should I be ready to discuss with my doctor at my next appointment? The answer Varia provides is a curated set of 221 insights across 84 variants in 12 health domains, kept current as the literature evolves, with the editorial discipline made visible so you can decide whether to trust it. Instead of a tool giving users the ability to wade through an endless sea of currently uninteresting and distracting data, Varia exclusively offers vetted resources in an effort to create the first trusted active (and growing) genetic tracker. I am not trying to convince anyone of anything; my goal is to create a centralized and reliable resource for the growing genetic field as it relates to those who wish to explore their own genome (specifically in actionable ways). Every editorial choice on this site assumes the reader is making decisions that matter.
I am one person doing this work. If you believe something is wrong on this site, you can email me at editorial@variagenome.com and I can promise you that I will investigate and apply the relevant updates, as proven applicable.
Knowing both what a tool does and what it deliberately doesn't do is the trust signal. Here is what Varia is, and what it is not.
What Varia is
Editorial discipline made visible. Every insight in Varia has a named significance tier (ELEVATED, HIGH, MODERATE, PHARMACOGENOMIC, PROTECTIVE, NEUTRAL, UNRESOLVED), a named source from an allowlist of peer-reviewed journals and authoritative bodies, and a documented review process. When the literature is mixed, the entry shows an "Evidence is mixed" callout instead of silently picking a side. When a citation is in process or recently resolved, the entry shows a provisional flag rather than displaying a stale interpretation. The full standard is published at Editorial Standards.
A scanner that tells you what it saw. Most consumer tools skip variants their input did not test and let you assume silence means good news. Varia labels every finding as "tested, you carry it," "tested, you do not carry it," or "not tested in your file" so you always know what you actually learned. The full architecture is documented at The Genome.
Pharmacogenetics as the focal use case. Knowing your CYP2C19 status before clopidogrel, your SLCO1B1 status before a statin, or your VKORC1 status before warfarin can change the clinical decision in front of you. Varia surfaces every pharmacogenomic-tier finding into one cross-domain panel called Medication Response, and produces a clinician-readable PDF ordered PGx-first so you can carry it into a prescriber appointment. The limitations are named, not hidden: consumer-chip data identifies SNP variants in PGx genes but does not detect CYP2D6 copy-number variation or full HLA typing. See Medication Response.
Transparency about authority. Every source Varia cites is publicly listed at Sources: peer-reviewed journal allowlist, variant catalogs, clinical guidelines, domain consortia, build-time tooling. The page is a reference list, not a curation dump. Where a recognized authority is missing, the reason is named.
What Varia is not
Varia is not an AI chat assistant for your genome. Conversational genomics interpretation is the failure mode of every consumer product that has tried it. It generates infinite exploration without curation. Varia gives you a fixed, peer-reviewed knowledge base instead.
Varia is not a polygenic risk score engine. PRS validity is population-stratified in ways that consumer-genomics products handle badly, and the most-defensible PRS panels are clinical-grade products in regulated markets. The risk of being wrong outweighs the benefit of being timely.
Varia is not a supplement, lifestyle, or training protocol generator. Making product or behavior recommendations crosses a deliberate line. The Variant Evidence Summary is the bright edge of what Varia publishes: variants and biomarker and drug-class names, never doses or protocols. Those decisions belong to you and your doctor.
Varia is not a continuous-tracking or wearable-integration product. Continuous engagement is a different product shape and a different commercial model. Varia is a one-time interpretation tool, kept current by database updates rather than by your data stream.
Varia is not a whole-genome exploration tool. Exploration is the explicit anti-positioning. Varia covers what is currently understood and clinically actionable. It does not help you wade into what is not.
Varia is not an ancestry product. Ancestry is a different category (23andMe, AncestryDNA, LivingDNA) with different data requirements and a different competitive set.
If you want to go deeper
Pick the depth page that matches the question you are bringing.
- Methodology. The tier system, source allowlist, and recommendation boundary that drive every finding.
- Editorial Standards. The full editorial discipline, including how I handle provisional citations and conflict-of-evidence.
- The Genome. What a genome is, what scan types cover, and how I built the scanner.
- Medication Response. The pharmacogenetics focal use case in clinical detail.
- Sources. The peer-reviewed journals, variant catalogs, clinical guidelines, and consortia I cite.
- Varia vs Promethease. A direct comparison with the dominant raw-data interpretation tool.
Varia is one person's editorial mission, priced fairly, with the work made visible. It opens July 1. The first 100 founding members unlock everything for $12, then it returns to $29.
- Eric
