DNA-testing giant 23andMe is laying off about 14% of its staff, the latest sign of a slump in the business.

About 100 employees have been let go in departments across the organization in an effort to scale back on work that isn't core to the consumer testing and therapeutics businesses that 23andMe operates, a spokesman told Business Insider. The therapeutics team was not impacted by the layoffs, he said.

CNBC's Christina Farr reported on the layoffs earlier on Thursday.

23andMe will also be scaling back on its work recruiting for clinical trials, the spokesman said.

Over the past few years, genetic tests have grown in popularity. That's helped consumer genetics companies like 23andMe grow to 10 million users who've shipped off their spit with the hopes of learning more about their family trees, genetic traits, or even some health information.

Along the way, there have been beenflags raised about ethics and privacy, along with a slew of tough questions about identity and family.

Still, for years, it seemed like interest in genetic testing was only increasing. But in 2019, the companies started to run into a slowdown.

Read more: The DNA-testing 'fad' is over, and one company just halted operations. The CEOs of Ancestry and 23andMe reveal how they're fighting back.

The first warning was raised by Illumina, the company that makes all the tech that's used to read info about your genes. On an earnings call in July, the company noted "softness" in the market.

And in December, Veritas Genetics, a company that provides whole-genome sequencing for $600, said it had suspended its US operations, citing issues raising additional funding.

"It's a new technology, and I think it's hit a lull," 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki told Business Insider in an October interview on the sidelines of a conference.

She attributed that in large part to privacy concerns coming in from the tech industry, or what she calls the "Facebook Effect."

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23andMe just laid off 100 employees as the DNA-testing 'fad' ends - Business Insider - Business Insider