ABOUT DENA
With over 75k followers across social media platforms, Dena Goldberg, MS, CGC, commonly known as "Dena DNA" is a multifaceted board-certified genetic counselor, media personality, educator, illustrator and science communicator.
Official bio
Dena Goldberg, MS, CGC, known online as "Dena DNA", is a board-certified genetic counselor, content creator, and healthcare thought leader. Formerly the Endowed Counselor of Hereditary Gastrointestinal Cancer Prevention at UCSF, she now runs her media brand dedicated to making genetics accessible through creative, engaging content.
​
As the most followed genetic counselor on social media, with 75k+ followers, Dena produces educational videos, illustrations, and other forms of content that raise awareness of genetic counseling and proactive health. She works with genetic testing companies, healthcare startups, and advocacy groups to transform complex science into relatable, expert-backed content. She also consults for organizations across the healthcare, genetics, cancer, women's health and fertility fields.
​
Dena brings a unique perspective as both provider and patient. She is a sibling of an adult with a chromosome abnormality, a fertility and IVF patient, and a new mom living with chronic illness. These experiences fuel her commitment to helping others understand their health risks and advocate for better care.
​
Through her private telemedicine practice, Malibu Genetics, Dena sees patients and specializes in cancer genetics and proactive genetic testing. She believes access to testing should not be limited by outdated criteria and is dedicated to expanding personalized, preventive care.
​
Her work has been featured on national television and at major conferences, where she helps shape conversations on genetics, health equity, and the future of medicine.
More About Dena
Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, Dena has been fascinated by genetics since she was six years old when her little sister was diagnosed with a rare genetic syndrome.
She started her career in a laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she was sequencing human mitochondrial genomes as an undergraduate student. She then moved to San Francisco to work in cancer research at UC San Francisco. Dena quickly realized that she needed more patient interaction, so she obtained a graduate degree in genetic counseling at UC Irvine and spent four years seeing patients and conducting research in hereditary cancer syndromes at UCSF as the Gordon and Betty Moore Endowed Counselor of Hereditary GI Cancer Prevention.
​
Synthesizing her passion for media and genetics, she founded her personal brand “Dena DNA” with a mission to spread awareness of medical genetics and medical genetics services to the general public through media and marketing techniques not typically used by the medical community. She has created several successful social media campaigns, designed educational programming, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of bringing genetic counseling to the mainstream media and becoming the first TV genetic counselor.