PolyGenomics was spun-out of Yale University to develop a genetic amplification technology in the search for genes implicated in psychiatric illnesses.

By 1994, functional genomics companies began forming to help a Big Pharma suddenly deluged by genomic data. Through the study of model genetic systems like nematodes and fruit flies, or homogenous peoples, these gene hunters hope to gain an understanding of how and when genes function--under normal conditions and in disease.