Calico, Google's new company that wants to cure death, now officially has its own website.
Google's new company launched in September and intends to gain better understanding of the human lifespan through research on illness and aging.
Google CEO Larry Page did not provide much information about the new company or how it would work, but its official website that just launched introduces the team and outlines Calico's mission.
"Calico is a research and development company whose mission is to harness advanced technologies to increase our understanding of the biology that controls lifespan," the site reads. "We will use that knowledge to devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives. Executing on this mission will require an unprecedented level of interdisciplinary effort and a long-term focus for which funding is already in place."
The team that will lead this mission includes Art Levinson, former Genentech CEO and chairman of Apple, Hal Barron, former executive VP and chief medical officer of Hoffman-La Roch; David Botstein, professor of genomics at Princeton; Cynthia Kenyon, researcher and expert on aging; Robert Cohen and Jonathan Lewis, former VP of global biz-dev at UCB Pharma.
Wanting to cure or at least prevent death is an ambitious project for the team, but Page is known for tackling ambitious projects like Google's self-driving cars and Internet-filled floating balloons.
"I'm not proposing that we spend all of our money on those kinds of speculative things, Page says, "But we should be spending a commensurate amount with what normal types of companies spend on research and development, and spend it on things that are a little more long-term and a little more ambitious than people normally would."
The new website also features a career section so that other ambitious professionals can join the team.
"Understanding the fundamental science underlying aging and finding cures for the intractable diseases associated with aging require time, deep technical expertise, research and partnerships," the site reads.
From contacts lenses that detect diabetes to a DNA-mapping project, Google seems to be setting out to revolutionize the health care industry. We're curious to see how Google will tackle these projects amidst growing concerns that the Internet already has too much access to our personal data.
