Ambry was founded on a single vision, with a single mission, by a single person – Charles Dunlop. He believed the world would be a better place if all human disease was understood. Fueled by this vision and frustrated with the politics of academia during his education, Charlie built a genetics lab with a group of  scientists whose only goal was to advance science for the greater good of humanity.

Since 1999, Ambry has participated and supported a variety of local and national organizations to help increase awareness of inherited conditions, promote healthy lifestyles, empower patients both before and after diagnosis, and raise funds for research.

This year, Ambry was honored to be included in The Civic 50 Orange County, an award recognizing the 50 most community-minded small, medium, and large Orange County businesses. Honorees were determined by using True Impact’s adapted national Civic 50 online survey, which is independently administered and scored.

Companies’ contributions to the community were evaluated in four areas: investment, integration, institutionalization, and impact.  Members of each of the Civic 50 Orange County Awards recipients were invited to a luncheon at Hotel Irvine in Irvine, California. We were humbled by being acknowledged in a room with so many other organizations making a similar positive impact.

Connecting with other local companies and community members reinforced the importance of giving back and investing in community projects and initiatives. Ambry believes in the power of a community focused perspective to deepen an individual’s purpose, and to encourage everyone to work together in finding answers. Corporate social responsibility was and is the glue that binds all Ambry employees of vastly different talents together.

We appreciate the work initiated by our partnered nonprofits, and it is our goal to go above and beyond merely sponsoring these organizations and be ‘hands on’ with our involvement to help educate the community about hereditary disease. We all have the power within us to create change where it is needed.

When it comes to making an impact, at  Ambry there are core values at the center of our philanthropic efforts:

1. Empowering and strengthening communities: We are committed to help make those living with genetic conditions feel celebrated and loved, not alone. We created initiatives like our online blog to give a platform for patients to share their stories and connect with other patients. We host on-site drives to collect new items for those going through chemotherapy and toys to gift to our local children’s hospital. We invite community and staff members for movie nights on campus, sharing films of empowerment and patient stories.
2. Increasing awareness and education on genetics and testing: These efforts include corporate contributions for patient-focused organizations, genetic testing donations, social media collaborations and campaigns, exhibit booths with genetic screening simulations, lab tours, guest lectures, student rotations, educational webinars and conference presentations.
3. Advancing research, collaboration, and innovation: Almost two years ago, we launched AmbryShare, our free data sharing project that gives researchers unrestricted access to the deidentified genetic data of more than 10,000 samples of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer patients. The findings are already up playing a major role in research that will lead to a definitive understanding between genes and disease. These correlations are the first steps towards the development of targeted treatments and, ultimately, cures for disease.

We are excited to continue our efforts within the community to advance science and increase our portfolio of patient focused programs.