Calico Labs, LLC

Calico LLC, often called Google Calico, is a US-based biotech company founded on September 18, 2013 by Bill Maris and backed by Google. According to their 2013 launch press release, the company “will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases.” Additionally, in Google’s 2013 Founders Letter, Larry Page described Calico said the company would be focused on “health, well-being, and longevity”. The company’s name is an acronym for “California Life Company”.

In 2018, Calico published an interesting research paper that announced that the naked mole rat was essentially a “non-aging mammal” and that this animal did not suffer the detrimental effects of aging as we and most other species do. This is known as Negligible senescence, a term first coined by biogerontologist Caleb Finch to indicate organisms that do not exhibit evidence of biological aging.  This includes measurable criteria such as a reduction in reproductive capability, functional decline, or an increasing mortality rate with advancing age.

Calico Labs have published a number of studies in recent years, most of which appear to focus either on AI and foundational biology of aging work rather than appearing to be developing any direct interventions against aging. Some speculate that this is simply laying the groundwork for something grand in the future, we will have to wait and see.