
How Calico, Google-Backed Research Lab for Aging Research, Operates - jonbaer
http://recode.net/2015/12/28/the-stealth-attempt-to-defeat-aging-at-googles-calico/
======
entee
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.

~~~
dekhn
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.

~~~
navi54
Does Google give away funding for projects?

~~~
dekhn
Sorry for the late reply. Yes, Google has several research awards, including
this one: [https://research.google.com/research-
outreach.html#/research...](https://research.google.com/research-
outreach.html#/research-outreach/faculty-engagement/faculty-research-awards)

and previously I helped run the Exacycle Visiting Faculty program where we
brought in postdocs and professors to use our computational resources.

~~~
navi54
Thats great to know. I thought Google stayed out from academia.

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reasonattlm
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...](http://mendelspod.com/podcasts/brian-kennedy-and-aubrey-de-grey-
their-converging-approaches-aging-research)

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.

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nicklo
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
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.

