Calico (company)

Calico (company)
Calico Life Sciences LLC is an Alphabet subsidiary whose mission is to harness advanced technologies and model systems to increase the understanding of the biology that controls human aging. Calico uses that knowledge to devise interventions that may enable people to lead longer and healthier lives.
History
The company was announced on September 18, 2013 prior to the Google restructuring and was co-founded by former Genentech Chairman and CEO Arthur D. Levinson, PhD. It was incorporated into Alphabet with Google's other sister divisions in 2015.
In Google's 2013 Founders Letter, Larry Page described Calico as a company focused on "health, well-being, and longevity" and the company's name additionally as a play on "California Life Company."
Partnerships
In September 2014, Calico and AbbVie announced an R&D collaboration focused on aging and age-related diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer. Working together with AbbVie, Calico pursues discovery-stage research and development utilizing state-of-the-art technology and advanced computing capabilities. AbbVie provides scientific and clinical development support and lends its expertise to commercialization activities. To date, the companies have committed to invest more than $1 Billion into the collaboration.
As of July 2021, the collaboration has produced more than 20 early-stage programs addressing disease states across immuno-oncology and neurodegeneration and has yielded new insights into the biology of aging. Together, AbbVie and Calico are working to advance a number of new investigational drugs through global clinical trials for diseases that include cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Vanishing White Matter (VWM disease)
In October 2023, Nature (journal) published preclinical research findings that showed ABBV-CLS-484, a PTPN2/N1 phosphatase inhibitor being co-developed by AbbVie and Calico, provokes a potent dual response in cancer and immune cells.
Calico seeks and maintains many different types of partnerships to help advance its scientific pursuits and the development of new clinical interventions. In 2015, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced a partnership with Calico to "advance research on age-related diseases and therapeutics". Partnerships with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, QB3, AncestryDNA, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and 2M Companies have also been announced.
Staff
The Calico team has included a number of pioneering researchers in the field of aging research, including members of the National Academy of Sciences, Cynthia Kenyon, PhD and Daniel E. Gottschling, PhD. Some of the company’s earliest employees included the geneticist David Botstein, PhD, and cancer drug developer Robert L. Cohen, MD.
At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Calico lost two top scientists; in December 2017 Hal Barron, MD, 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.
Reception
Aubrey de Grey has criticized Calico in an interview in 2017, calling it a "massive disappointment". De Grey claimed that Calico is ignoring existing research on longevity, and instead focuses on understanding aging better. De Grey asserted that, among other people at the top, CSO David Botstein is responsible for this approach, being "a basic scientist through and through" who would therefore "never feel that we have enough knowledge".
The company was criticized for its secrecy, contrary to Google's "open culture" politics, and ineffectiveness given its huge budget.
See also
Verily
Altos Labs
SENS Research Foundation
Human Longevity
Life extension
References
External links
GV companies
Biogerontology organizations
Health care companies based in California
Biotechnology companies of the United States
Life sciences industry
Life extension organizations
American companies established in 2013
Biotechnology companies established in 2013
Alphabet Inc.
2013 establishments in California
Companies based in South San Francisco, California
Alphabet Inc. subsidiaries