So in 2009, Diaz and some Johns Hopkins colleagues launched Personal Genome Diagnostics, PGDx, for which Vogelstein serves as a “founding scientific advisor.” PGDx now offers cancer sequencing similar to what Lukas Wartman underwent, and it also has a research arm. PGDx’s offices sit on the waterfront in East Baltimore. Diaz and a dozen colleagues have been there for some time, yet the offices are surprisingly barren: everyone is too busy splicing tumors and crunching data to decorate the walls. They are on a mission, one that springs to life when Diaz thunders through the office.
