Calico (company)

Calico LLC is an American 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]

For other uses, see Calico (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Coleco.
Calico LLC
TypeSubsidiary
Industry
FoundedSeptember 18, 2013 (2013-09-18)
FounderBill Maris[1][2][3][4]
Headquarters
South San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Arthur D. Levinson (CEO)
ParentGoogle (2013–2015)
Alphabet Inc. (2015–present)
Websitecalicolabs.com

In 2015, Google restructured into Alphabet Inc., making Calico a subsidiary of the new company along with Google and others.[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.[9] Initially, each company will invest $350 million, with an option for each to add an extra $500 million later on.[10] 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.[11]

In 2015, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced a partnership with Calico to "advance research on age-related diseases and therapeutics",[12] a further partnership also was announced with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.[13] Also in 2015, Calico announced a partnership with QB3 based on researching the biology of aging and identifying potential therapeutics for age-related diseases[14] and one with AncestryDNA based on conducting research into the genetics of human lifespan.[15]

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.[16][17]

See also

References
  1. "The brains behind Calico? Bill Maris of Google Ventures". VentureBeat. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  2. Regalado, Antonio. "Can naked mole rats teach us the secrets to living longer?". Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  3. Naughton, John (9 April 2017). "Why Silicon Valley wants to thwart the grim reaper". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  4. 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. Huet, Ellen. "Google's Calico Joins AbbVie In 'Pivotal' Partnership To Develop Anti-Aging Drugs". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  10. "AbbVie and Calico Announce a Novel Collaboration to Accelerate the Discovery, Development, and Commercialization of New Therapies". 3 September 2014.
  11. "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.
  12. "Broad Institute and Calico announce an extensive collaboration focused on the biology of aging and therapeutic approaches to diseases of aging".
  13. "Google's Calico continues its partnering romp on aging R&D with Buck collaboration".
  14. "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.
  15. Brodwin, Erin. "A collaboration between Google's secretive life-extension spinoff and popular genetics company Ancestry has quietly ended". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  16. Al Idrus, Amirah (March 2, 2018). "Calico loses its second executive in 4 months as Daphne Koller quits". FierceBiotech.
  17. Koller, Daphne (1 May 2018). "insitro: Rethinking drug discovery using machine learning".
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