How Calico, Google-Backed Research Lab for Aging Research, Operates

http://recode.net/2015/12/28/the-stealth-attempt-to-defeat-aging-at-googles-calico/

by jonbaer • 11 years ago

32 8 11 years ago

entee• 11 years ago

They've hired some really heavy hitters in biology, but that's about all this article reveals. Would be nice to know what they're doing, given the extremely strong academic pedigree for some of these guys I wonder if they'll start publishing some of their research.

It would be great if Google/Alphabet's resources could be used to ask biological questions that a hyper conservative organization like the NIH is reluctant to fund, but that's a little less useful if most of that knowledge stays locked up at Google.

Another note, it's not trivial to apply computational tools to biology and come back with meaningful results. The fact that they're hiring people who really know their biology to act as a sanity check and a guide to what we can only assume is a strong computational effort is a very welcome indication that Calico is trying to avoid those pitfalls.

dekhn2• 11 years ago

Google's resources are already being used to ask biological questions that NIH is reluctant to fund (I know, because after NIH was reluctant to fund my research, I went to Google and did it there instead). I felt it was pretty important that the knowledge was diffused, this includes both publications and data dumps.

navi542• 11 years ago

Does Google give away funding for projects?

nicklo• 11 years ago

I'm a bit irked by the article's original title: "What's he building in there?"

The phrase trivializes the work of a large team of various genders and backgrounds working together on a massive research initiative to extend the human lifespan and makes it seem like a whacky project by one hacker dude in his garage. Come on.

Biology is one of the most team-oriented, least male-dominated, best well-balanced STEM fields and science journalists are still writing titles like "What's he building in there?"

trhway• 11 years ago

you probably didn't read the article in its entirety, otherwise you'd see that "What's he building in there?" is a reference to a song.

The phrase trivializes the work of a large team of various genders and backgrounds working together on a massive research initiative to extend the human lifespan

thus it seems that it is your uninformed interpretation that trivializes the work. Pretty typical situation of "the eyes of beholder" i'd say.

reasonattlm• 11 years ago

Some more insight from this, an audio interview with Aubrey de Grey (SENS Research Foundation) and Brian Kennedy (Buck Institute):

http://mendelspod.com/podcasts/brian-kennedy-and-aubrey-de-g...

Which, being nice, I've transcribed some of:

Moderator: What response have both of you had to the entrance of Calico, the Google company, and Human Longevity, Craig Venter's new company?

Aubrey: It's a complicated question. I'll talk about Human Longevity first. In my opinion they are not really working on what we're working on. They are working on personalized medicine, trying to optimize therapies that essentially already exist using analysis of large amounts of genetic data.

Moderator: So a similar company to other companies that are out there, with a fancier name?

Aubrey: I would say that definitely their hearts are in the right place, but they are a regular, perfectly normal company. They want to make profits fairly soon. Calico have set themselves up as a completely unusual company with the goal of doing something very long-term, however long it takes, they want to actually fix aging. They said so - Larry Page was perfectly clear about that. The question is how are they going about it, and that's getting really interesting. The first thing that they've done, which I feel is an absolutely spectacularly good move, is to bifurcate their work into a relatively short-term track and a long-term track. The short term track involves drug discovery for age-related diseases, doing deals with big companies like Abbvie, and so on. That's all very wonderful and all very lucrative in the relatively short term, and has more or less nothing to do with the mission for which Calico was set up - but it is a fabulous way to insulate the stuff that they do that is to do with why Calico was set up from shareholder pressure. It gets a little more complicated though. So then on the long term side, the stuff being led by David Botstein and Cynthia Kenyon, the question is how are they going about their mission. Of course an awful lot of this unknown because they are a secretive company, but from the perspective of whom they are hiring, and what kinds of work those people have done in the past, one can certainly say that they are not just focusing on one approach. They are interested in diversity. My only real concern is that they may be emphasizing a curiosity-driven long term exploratory approach to an unnecessary degree. I'm all for finding out more and more about aging, but I'm also all for using what we've already found out to the best of our ability to try stuff and see what we can do. I should emphasize that this is only my impression from a very limited amount of information available, but my impression is that it is perhaps turning into an excessively curiosity-driven, excessively basic science, inadequately translational outfit. And that's kind of what I feared when Botstein came along in the first place, because he's on record as saying he doesn't have a translational bone in his body. Now Brian could obviously say a lot more if he wants to, as he's done a deal with Calico.

Brian: Let me start by saying that I think its great that these big companies are getting into the game. Almost no matter what happens that is going to help the field get more people, more private sector people involved, maybe get Big Pharma involved, and so I think it is a good thing. I can't say too much about Calico because we have a relationship with them, but I will say that I think it is an interesting challenge when all of a sudden a lot of money is on the table, and very good people are hired to say "go solve this problem," and they haven't been thinking about that problem until a month ago. So I think what we're going to see with Calico is that they're going to continue to evolve as they go forward, and I think it will be very interesting to see the kinds of stuff they choose to do, and it may be very different two years or three years from now.

Moderator: You were saying in the panel we were just at that you thought it was a game-changer.

Brian: I think it adds great momentum, and I think it will be equally important to really get Big Pharma to get into this game too. It is easy to say you've got a ton of money, but what is a ton of money? If you're going to start doing real clinical trials, phase III clinical trials, it takes more than a ton of money; Big Pharma has to come in. Getting Abbvie involved is a good step, but it would also be good if everyone else starts saying this is the place to be.

How Calico, Google-Backed Research Lab for Aging Research, Operates

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