CAMBRIDGE, MA and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 17, 2015 – The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has entered into a partnership with Calico around the biology and genetics of aging and early-stage drug discovery. The partnership will support several efforts at the Broad to advance the understanding of age-related diseases and to propel the translation of these findings into new therapeutics.
Calico is the Google-backed life sciences company led by Arthur D. Levinson, Ph.D. (former Chairman and CEO of Genentech) and Hal V. Barron, M.D. (former Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Genentech). As part of the collaboration, the Broad Institute will pursue shared goals with Calico by leveraging the Institute’s deep genetics and biology expertise and novel drug-discovery tools.
“We are thrilled to be partnering on discovery and therapeutics projects with the extraordinary scientific team at Calico,” said Eric Lander, President and Director of the Broad Institute. “The combination of our genetics, biology and chemistry expertise with Calico’s therapeutics expertise will accelerate progress on important problems.”
“This alliance is a key part of Calico’s strategy to bring the best cutting-edge science to bear on problems of aging. The Broad Institute is one of the nation’s preeminent research organizations whose outstanding research has repeatedly revealed fundamental mechanisms of the biology and genetics of disease,” said Art Levinson, Chief Executive Officer of Calico.
“Broad scientists have led the way in describing the genetics underlying many of the common diseases of aging, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, and we look forward to collaborating with them. We are very excited by the opportunity to apply their insights to develop new medicines for patients with these devastating diseases,” commented Hal Barron, President of Research and Development at Calico.
About the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was launched in 2004 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform medicine. The Broad Institute seeks to describe all the molecular components of life and their connections; discover the molecular basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods and data openly to the entire scientific community.
Founded by MIT, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals, and the visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. For further information about the Broad Institute, go to broadinstitute.org.
About Calico
Calico (Calico Life Sciences LLC) is a Google-founded research and development company whose mission is to harness advanced technologies to increase our understanding of the biology that controls lifespan. We will use that knowledge to devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives. Visit calicolabs.com.
For more information, contact:
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Paul Goldsmith
617.714.8600
paulg@broadinstitute.org
Calico
press@calicolabs.com