Calico (company)

Calico LLC
Subsidiary
Industry
Founded September 18, 2013 (2013-09-18)
Founders Bill Maris[1][2][3][4]
Headquarters 1170 Veterans Blvd, South San Francisco, California, United States
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Arthur D. Levinson (CEO)
Parent Google (2013–2015)
Alphabet Inc. (2015–present)
Website calicolabs.com

Calico is a research and development biotech company founded on September 18, 2013 by Bill Maris[3][4][2][1] and backed by Google with the goal of combating aging and associated diseases.[5] In Google's 2013 Founders' Letter, Larry Page described Calico as a company focused on "health, well-being, and longevity". The company's name is an acronym for "California Life Company".[6][7]

In 2015, Google restructured into Alphabet Inc., making Calico a subsidiary of the new company along with Google and others. As of 2018, Calico has not developed any known drugs or biotechnology products.[8]

Partnerships and staff

In September 2014, it was announced that Calico, in partnership with AbbVie, would be opening up an R&D facility focused on aging and age-related diseases, such as neurodegeneration and cancer. Initially, each company will invest $350 million, with an option for each to add an extra $500 million later on.[9] In the same month, Calico announced a partnership with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and 2M Companies regarding drug development for neurodegenerative disorders.[10]

In 2015, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced a partnership with Calico to "advance research on age-related diseases and therapeutics",[11] a further partnership also was announced with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.[12] Also in 2015, Calico announced a partnership with QB3 based on researching the biology of aging and identifying potential therapeutics for age-related diseases[13] and one with AncestryDNA based on conducting research into the genetics of human lifespan.[14]

At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Calico lost two top scientists; in December 2017 Hal Barron, its head of R&D, left for GlaxoSmithKline, and in March 2018 Daphne Koller, who was leading their AI efforts, left to pursue a venture in applying machine learning techniques to drug design.[15][16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The brains behind Calico? Bill Maris of Google Ventures". VentureBeat. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  2. 1 2 Regalado, Antonio. "Can naked mole rats teach us the secrets to living longer?". Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  3. 1 2 Naughton, John (9 April 2017). "Why Silicon Valley wants to thwart the grim reaper". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  4. 1 2 Fortuna, W. Harry. "Seeking eternal life, Silicon Valley is solving for death". Quartz. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  5. ↑ "Google announces Calico, a new company focused on health and well-being". 18 September 2013.
  6. ↑ Pollack, Andrew; Miller, Claire Cain (18 September 2013). "Tech Titans Form Biotechnology Company". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  7. ↑ Page, Larry. "2013 Founders' Letter".
  8. ↑ Womack, Brian (10 August 2015). "Google Creates New Company Called Alphabet, Restructures Stock". Bloomberg. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "AbbVie and Calico Announce a Novel Collaboration to Accelerate the Discovery, Development, and Commercialization of New Therapies". 3 September 2014.
  10. ↑ "UT Southwestern researchers discover novel class of NAMPT activators for neurodegenerative disease; Calico enters into exclusive collaboration with 2M to develop UTSW technology". 11 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "Broad Institute and Calico announce an extensive collaboration focused on the biology of aging and therapeutic approaches to diseases of aging".
  12. ↑ "Google's Calico continues its partnering romp on aging R&D with Buck collaboration".
  13. ↑ "Calico and QB3 announce partnership to conduct research into the biology of aging and to identify potential therapeutics for age-related diseases". 24 March 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "AncestryDNA and Calico to Research the Genetics of Human Lifespan".
  15. ↑ Al Idrus, Amirah (March 2, 2018). "Calico loses its second executive in 4 months as Daphne Koller quits". FierceBiotech.
  16. ↑ https://medium.com/@daphne_38275/insitro-rethinking-drug-discovery-using-machine-learning-dcb0371870ee
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.