Theranos Blew It. But It Didn’t Ruin Biotech Startups for Everyone

IN THE LATE 1990s, Elizabeth Holmes was in middle school. Her scandal-beset company Theranos—which promised to use amazing advances in a hybrid scientific field of microfluidics to detect multiple conditions from a single drop of blood—didn’t exist.

But at the University of Washington, bioengineer Paul Yager was using microfluidics to develop paper-based assays that he hoped would detect pathogens with just a nasal swab. And like Holmes did later, he also saw the potential in making these tests directly accessible to patients. He was ahead of his time.

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