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Calico (company)

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For other uses, see Calico (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Coleco.
Calico Life Sciences LLC
Company typeSubsidiary
Industry
FoundedSeptember 18, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-09-18)
FounderBill Maris
HeadquartersU.S,
South San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Arthur D. Levinson (CEO)
ParentGoogle (2013–2015)
Alphabet Inc. (2015–present)
Websitecalicolabs.com

Calico Life Sciences LLC is an American biotechnology company with a focus on the biology of aging, attempting to devise interventions that may enable people to lead longer and healthier lives. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

History

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Calico, short for the California Life Company,[1][2] was announced on September 18, 2013, prior to Google's restructuring and was founded by former GV CEO Bill Maris.[3][4] In Google's 2013 Founders Letter, Larry Page described Calico as a company focused on "health, well-being, and longevity."[5] It was incorporated into Alphabet with Google's other sister divisions in 2015.[6][7]

The Calico team has included a number of pioneering researchers in the field of ageing research, including members of the National Academy of Sciences, Cynthia Kenyon and Daniel E. Gottschling.[8] Some of the company’s earliest employees included the geneticist David Botstein, and cancer drug developer Robert L. Cohen, MD.,[9] Eric Verdin, CEO of The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, served as a consultant to the Calico team.[10]

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 chief computing officer Daphne Koller, who was leading their computational biology efforts, left to pursue a venture in applying machine learning techniques to drug design.[11][12][13]

Partnerships

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In September 2014, Calico and AbbVie announced an R&D collaboration focused on aging and age-related diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer.[14] Working together with AbbVie, Calico pursues discovery-stage research and development utilizing state-of-the-art technology and advanced computing capabilities.[15] AbbVie provides scientific and clinical development support and lends its expertise to commercialization activities.[15] To date, the companies have committed to invest more than $1 billion into the collaboration.[16][citation needed]

In 2015, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced a partnership with Calico to "advance research on age-related diseases and therapeutics",[17] a further partnership also was announced with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.[18] Also in 2015, Calico announced a partnership with QB3 based on researching the biology of aging and identifying potential therapeutics for age-related diseases[19] and one with AncestryDNA based on conducting research into the genetics of human lifespan.[20]

In October 2023, Nature, a weekly British scientific 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.[21] [22] [23]

Reception

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When Calico was formed, Google did not disclose many details, such as whether the company would focus on biology or information technology.[24] The company issued press releases about research partnerships, but not details regarding the results of its research or the specifics of what it was working on.[2][25] This led to frustration by researchers regarding Calico's secrecy[25] and questions as to whether Calico had produced any useful scientific advancements.[26] Calico said the business' purpose was to focus on long-term science not expected to garner results for 10 or more years, leaving nothing to report on in its first five years.[26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Pollack, Andrew; Miller, Claire Cain (18 September 2013). "Tech Titans Form Biotechnology Company". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  2. ^ a b Molteni, Megan (November 6, 2018). "The Key to a Long Life Has Little to Do With 'Good Genes'". Wired. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  3. ^ "The brains behind Calico? Bill Maris of Google Ventures". VentureBeat. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  4. ^ "News announcements: Google announces Calico, a new company focused on health and well-being". News announcements. 2013-09-18. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
  5. ^ Page, Larry. "2013 Founders' Letter". Archived from the original on 2014-07-07.
  6. ^ "Google Rises After Creating Holding Company Called Alphabet". Bloomberg.com. 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
  7. ^ Dougherty, Conor (10 August 2015). "Google to Reorganize as Alphabet to Keep Its Lead as an Innovator". The New York Times.
  8. ^ "National Academy of Sciences Member Directory".
  9. ^ Leuty, Ron. "Art Levinson's Calico taps former Genentech execs, other top scientists as first 4 hires". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
  10. ^ "Dr. Eric Verdin—The Effect of Food on Longevity". blog.insidetracker.com. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  11. ^ Al Idrus, Amirah (March 2, 2018). "Calico loses its second executive in 4 months as Daphne Koller quits". FierceBiotech.
  12. ^ Bergen, Mark (1 March 2018). "Alphabet Loses Top AI Researcher at Anti-Aging Unit Calico". Bloomberg News.
  13. ^ Koller, Daphne (1 May 2018). "insitro: Rethinking drug discovery using machine learning".
  14. ^ Huet, Ellen. "Google's Calico Joins AbbVie In 'Pivotal' Partnership To Develop Anti-Aging Drugs". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  15. ^ a b "AbbVie and Calico extend partnership on drugs for age-related diseases". Pharmaceutical Technology. 28 July 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  16. ^ Adams, Ben. "AbbVie hits go on $1B re-upped Calico deal as the Google life science spinout continues I-O, neuro push". FierceBiotech. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  17. ^ "Broad Institute and Calico announce an extensive collaboration focused on the biology of aging and therapeutic approaches to diseases of aging". Broad Institute. 2015-03-17. Archived from the original on 2017-08-25.
  18. ^ Carroll, John (2015-04-28). "Google's Calico continues its partnering romp on aging R&D with Buck collaboration". FierceBiotechResearch.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-01.
  19. ^ "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. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Baumgartner, Christina K.; et al. (2023). "The PTPN2/PTPN1 inhibitor ABBV-CLS-484 unleashes potent anti-tumour immunity". Nature. 622 (7984): 850–862. Bibcode:2023Natur.622..850B. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06575-7. PMC 10599993. PMID 37794185.
  22. ^ Floersh, Helen. "AbbVie and Calico immunotherapy boosts PD-1 response and tackles T cell exhaustion in mice". FierceBiotech. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  23. ^ DiCorato, Allessandra (4 October 2023). "Cancer immunotherapy candidate provokes powerful dual response in cancer and immune cells". Broad Institute. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  24. ^ Regalado, Antonio (September 18, 2013). "Google to Try to Solve Death, LOL". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  25. ^ a b Belluz, Julia (April 27, 2017). "Google is super secretive about its anti-aging research. No one knows why". Vox. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  26. ^ a b Langley, Hugh; Dodge, Blake (January 22, 2021). "Alphabet's age-fighting bet Calico has been quiet for years, but it's hiring. Here are all the jobs open at the secretive biotech firm". Business Insider. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
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