Can this San Diego startup do what Theranos promised?| Mike Freeman

San Diego life sciences executive Jeff Hawkins is trying to bring credibility back to field rocked by scandal. A former Illumina vice president, Hawkins heads startup Truvian Sciences. The 5-year-old company is developing a compact blood testing machine that promises to deliver 40 standard health and wellness screening results in about 20 minutes, compared with up to a week turnaround time for similar tests processed at centralized labs. The desktop device, which targets retail health clinics such as those popping up in Walmart and CVS, medical offices and corporate wellness centers, also requires less blood than is commonly drawn for tests sent to large labs. And Truvian expects prices to be significantly lower as well. The company’s technology is still in development. While experts say Truvian is well prepared to meet accuracy and precision targets on its machines, it hasn’t proven its devices work yet.