Calico

Overview

Calico, formally Calico Life Sciences LLC, from California Life Company, is a research and development company founded in 2013 to study the biology of aging and to develop interventions against age-related disease. Backed by Google, and later its parent company Alphabet, Calico was launched with the unusually long-term mandate of understanding why living things grow old, rather than pursuing a single product on a fixed timeline. The company is led by Arthur D. Levinson, the former chief executive of the biotechnology firm Genentech and a former chairman of Apple. From the start Calico was notable for its scale, its deep-pocketed backing, and a culture of secrecy that has made it one of the most discussed yet least visible players in longevity science.

Founding and culture

Google announced Calico in September 2013, and the venture drew wide attention, including a Time magazine cover story that asked whether the company could solve death. Levinson framed the effort in more measured terms, describing a bet on basic research into the mechanisms of aging that might take a decade or more to bear fruit. The company distinguished itself by focusing on fundamental biology rather than rushing toward drugs. It recruited senior scientists, including David Botstein, a distinguished geneticist who became its chief scientific officer, and Cynthia KenyonPersonCynthia KenyonMolecular biologist whose 1993 discovery that a single daf-2 gene mutation doubles the lifespan of the worm C. elegans reshaped the modern biology of aging.Person →, whose discovery that a single gene mutation could double the lifespan of roundworms helped establish that aging is malleable. Its reticence about its work has been a defining trait, fueling both intrigue and frustration, and Levinson has argued that meaningful advances against aging require patience measured in decades rather than quarters.

Research and partnerships

Calico's researchers investigate the hallmarks of agingArticleHallmarks of AgingA shared framework that organizes aging into interconnected biological processes, giving longevity research a common map of what to measure and target.Read entry → and work to identify reliable biomarkers of aging that could measure whether an intervention is working. One of its most-cited contributions came from its study of the naked mole-rat, a long-lived rodent that resists cancer and shows little of the usual rise in death rate with age; in a 2018 analysis of a large captive colony, Calico researchers reported that the animals' risk of dying did not increase with age in the way that standard mortality models predict, making the species a valuable model for exceptional longevity. In 2014 Calico entered a major partnership with the pharmaceutical company AbbVie to discover and develop treatments for diseases of aging, including neurodegeneration and cancer, with total commitments reported to reach well over a billion dollars over the life of the collaboration.

Reception

Calico is frequently held up as the archetype of a serious, patient, richly funded attempt to understand aging, and it is often compared with newer ventures such as Altos LabsCompanyAltos LabsBiotechnology company launched in 2022 with reportedly around three billion dollars to pursue cellular rejuvenation and reverse aspects of aging through epigenetic reprogramming.Company →. Yet its secrecy and the absence of approved therapies more than a decade after its founding have drawn criticism from those who expected faster, more visible results. The company has generally avoided the language of longevity escape velocity or dramatic radical life extension, presenting itself instead as a long-horizon research organization. Its work sits within a wider field that also studies candidate interventions such as metformin and senolytics.

Links

• Calico

Related pages

What links here

• Altos Labs
• Cynthia Kenyon
• Retro Biosciences