The Health Diaries

How Genetic Testing Changed This CEO’s Lifestyle

Color CEO Othman Laraki is a carrier for a gene that increases the risk for breast cancer

There are many ways to live a healthy life. The Health Diaries is a weekly series about the habits that keep notable people living well.

Othman Laraki is a father, husband, avid cyclist, and runner. But he’s also a health visionary who believes that knowing your DNA profile can make all the difference in creating healthy habits that stick. That’s why Laraki co-founded Color, a population health technology company, in 2015.

The company partners with several organizations, including some of the world’s top health systems, to help manage the health of large groups of people. In January, Color announced a partnership with NorthShore University HealthSystem with the goal of providing thousands of people with whole genome sequencing to understand their risks for certain hereditary conditions, and help NorthShore personalize its patient care and improve overall outcomes.

Laraki says Color set out to reduce barriers to clinical grade genetic testing by “reimagining the way these services are delivered to large populations.” The company built a lab and used innovative software and robotics to…