San Jose, California | Prosecutors and defence attorneys sketched duelling portraits of fallen Silicon Valley star Elizabeth Holmes as her trial got under way on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), alternatively describing her as a greedy villain who faked her way to the top and as a passionate underdog who spent years trying to shake up the healthcare industry.

The two sides are now expected to spend the next three months trying to sway a 12-person jury impanelled to hear the evidence in a case airing allegations that Ms Holmes used her start-up, Theranos, as a scheme to realise her dreams of becoming rich and as famous as one of her role models, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

AP