WONDERFUL WORLD OF SCIENCE#LONGIVITY WITH GOOD HEALTH

(We are living in a world of discoveries and innovations. Google's Calico and Craig Venter's new healthcare companies are trying to tackle aging. A great news. Hope in future humans can live with better health for longer time if the scientists can succeed in their attempt to defeat aging.)New World

Craig Venter sets his sights on aging with Human Longevity

by Jeffrey Clark on March 14, 2014

Synthetic Genomics CEO Dr. J. Craig Venter, in partnership with stem cell pioneer Dr. Robert Hariri and X Prize Foundation CEO Dr. Peter Diamandis, has launched a new company named Human Longevity to develop new genomics and stem cell-based treatments for cancer and age-related conditions. Venter said the firm would create the largest human genome sequencing center in the world using $70 million in series A financing.
Craig Venter is channeling his energy toward the most significant of all healthcare challenges:  aging.
This week, he announced a new company, Human Longevity, which will focus on figuring out how people can live longer and healthier lives.  And, through no surprise, he will attempt to find the answer in sequencing.  The company will build what Dr. Venter says will be the largest human DNA sequencing operation in the world, capable of processing 40,000 human genomes a year.
Through this and existing data, Venter hopes to uncover the molecular causes of aging and age-related illnesses like cancer and heart disease.  According to Venter, slowing aging, if it can be done, could be a way to prevent many diseases, an alternative to treating one disease a time.  “Your age is your No. 1 risk factor for almost every disease, but it’s not a disease itself,” Dr. Venter said in an interview. Still, his company will also work on treating individual diseases of aging.
Funding for Human Longevity comes from a motley crue of sources, including:   KT Lim, a Malaysian billionaire with a fortune amassed in gambling business; and a “not insignificant” part of the funding comes from Illumina, the dominant manufacturer of DNA sequencing machines.  Through no surprise, Venter has ordered two of Illumina’s new top-of-the-line HiSeq X Ten systems, each of which has a list price of $10 million.
Last year, Google’s chief executive, Larry Page, announced that his company was creating an anti-aging company, Calico, which is being run by Arthur D. Levinson, the former chief executive of Genentech. Oracle’s chief executive, Lawrence J. Ellison, has financed anti-aging research through his foundation.
Human Longevity will be based in San Diego, also the location of Synthetic Genomics, which is trying to use sophisticated genetic engineering techniques to create organisms that can produce fuel, chemicals and medicines