The Burrill Report

A grand idea—extending the human lifespan by adding more healthy years to life—is what Craig Venter wants to accomplish with his newly launched startup Human Longevity, a genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company. His co-founders in the new venture are Robert Hariri and Peter Diamandis.

The startup has received $70 million in initial funding that will be used to build what it says will be the largest human sequencing operation in the world. It will be used to compile a comprehensive and compete human genotype, microbiome, and phenotype database to tackle diseases associated with aging-related human biological decline.

The San Diego-based biotech will also develop cell-based therapies to address age-related decline in endogenous stem cell function. Under its business model, the company will derive revenue from licensing its database to biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions, sequencing, and the development of diagnostics and drugs.

“Using the combined power of our core areas of expertise—genomics, informatics, and stem cell therapies, we are tackling one of the greatest medical/scientific and societal challenges—aging and aging related diseases,” says Venter. “HLI is going to change the way medicine is practiced by helping to shift to a more preventive, genomic-based medicine model which we believe will lower healthcare costs. Our goal is not necessarily lengthening life, but extending a healthier, high performing, more productive life span.”

Venter’s Celera Genomics was one of the first to sequence the human genome in 2000. More recently, he and a team of researchers at his J. Craig Venter Institute created the first synthetic genome. Venter will be chairman and CEO of Human Longevity. Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation, will be co-vice chairman along with Hariri, who formerly headed the cell therapy division at Celgene.

Human Longevity has bought two Illumina HiSeq X Ten Sequencing Systems to sequence up to 40,000 human genomes per year, and plans to scale that up to 100,000 human genomes per year. The company will sequence both healthy and diseased people of all ages, including centenarians. It plans to tackle cancer, diabetes and obesity, heart and liver diseases, and dementia. Initial clinical sequencing efforts will focus on cancer. While many are tackling this area using gene sequencing and other advanced technologies, HLI says there has not been a comprehensive clinical effort to combine germ line, human genome and tumor genome sequencing along with comprehensive biochemical information from each patient.

The company has established collaborations with UC San Diego for the development of protocols and procedures to enable whole human genome, microbiome, and tumor sequencing and analysis of consenting UC San Diego research patients; with Metabolon for metabolomics services; and with the J. Craig Venter Institute for research services covering proteomics, infectious disease diagnostics, and the human microbiome.

HLI plans to eventually extend the agreement it has with UC San Diego to other clinical centers worldwide.

Human Longevity also aims to use advances in stem cell therapy to find ways to improve healthy aging. “The global market for healthy human longevity is enormous with total healthcare expenditures in those 65 and older running well over $7 trillion,” says Hariri.

Venter’s startup comes six months after Google launched Calico to tackle aging with ex-Genentech CEO Art Levinson at the helm. While little has been divulged on how Calico will go about addressing age-related diseases, sequencing human genomes is likely to play a key role. In January, the biotech Regeneron teamed up with Geisinger Health System in an effort to sequence 100,000 human genomes to better understand the underlying mechanisms of disease.

The average lifespan has increased by 50 percent over the past 100 years through improved public health measures, sanitation, and medicine. Human Longevity and companies like it think they can employ the new genomic technologies and advances in biology not only to extend the number of years humans live on average, but also to extend the quality of life of those later years.


March 09, 2014
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-venter_launches_human_longevity_with_70m.html