A federal judge on Thursday declined to block the bankruptcy sale of genetic testing company 23andMe to its co-founder Anne Wojcicki pending the outcome of a legal challenge by California.

23andMe started in 2006 and has been accumulating users ever since, helping bolster its genetic research findings. Customers spit into a test tube and mail it off to a lab where their DNA is analyzed.

A lawsuit against genomics firm 23andMe is stirring a debate about what the proper role of government is in regulating how private companies use sensitive data. In June, 27 states filed a lawsuit ...

Shares of 23andMe (NASDAQ:ME) more than doubled in the morning hours Thursday after a federal judge, hearing the company's Chapter 11 proceedings, permitted its management to sell its most ...