Category Archives: Human Longevity

(EDITORS NOTE: Abundant Living is a weekly column about health and wellness. It will include topics ranging from health and medicine to exercising at home and making wise food choices. The intention is to shed light on topics that affect the choices we make, explore topics that affect the quality of our lives, and have a few laughs along the way.)

In 1997 a science fiction movie starring Ethan Hawke called Gattaca was released in theaters. It was set in the near future where every major decision people made was based on genetic profiling. Common things such as naming your child or deciding if your boyfriend was marriage material were strongly influenced by what was in their genetic makeup. People were even promoted, or not, based on their genetic potential.

For pocket change a person could bring a hair sample to a kiosk and within 60 seconds know everything from how likely the owner of the sample was to die from heart disease to the potential intellect of their future offspring. Genetic discrimination was commonplace. Sounds like something out of a Michael Crichton novel doesnt it?

Well, much of this actually does exist. Except in this case, at least for now, the idea is to customize health care based on ones genetic make up.

Its called Genomic Medicine. The idea is that by mapping an individuals genome, their health plan can be preventative and potentially more effective.

If they show a high risk for a certain type of cancer, for example, their physician might be forewarned and thus more prepared. In San Diego, California, Human Longevity Inc. is doing this very thing. Led by Dr. Craig Ventor, HLI, is offering services such as whole genome mapping and the health nucleus whereby advanced body and brain imaging scans are added to the information their physicians use to create a proactive health care strategy.

If Ventor sounds familiar you might recognize his name in connection with the Human Genome Project, where the goal was to identify and map all of the genes of human DNA from physical and functional perspectives. Arguably one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time.

At this point in time, however, the costs of such testing still are only available to the wealthy.

As with most technology there is always the potential for discrimination and abuse.

For example, if this information were to be abused, a person who has a greater potential for cancer or heart disease might pay higher insurance premiums for health insurance than someone with a more favorable genetic profile.

Why stop there? What about car insurance due to the increased potential for an accident or a mortgage because sick people might not be able to work to make their monthly payments?

Ill admit, I am a little scared but also fascinated. The potential to do positive, wonderful things also exists. Cancer might be treated before it was even noticeable by standard testing or even prevented all together. Heart disease and other usually preventable diseases could become things of the past.

Regardless of your position of the use of such technology there is no debating that humans are on the verge of a major technological advancement and it is coming sooner rather than later.

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ABUNDANT LIVING: The future of health care is now | News, Sports ... - Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Recent studies suggest that the rapid pace of improvement in British longevity is now slowing, according to a global media report Monday. The Continuous Mortality Investigations group, which produces longevity projections based on the experience of insured and pensioned lives, found that longevity for men at age 65 fell by six months to 22.2 years while that of women fell by eight months to 24.1 years.

While longevity is still expected to be higher than it is today, it is by a smaller margin than earlier forecasts. PwC, the professional services firm, recently produced a study concluding that as much as 310 billion could be wiped from the liabilities of UK defined benefit schemes. Although a respected group of actuaries hit back, describing the assumption as extreme, the entire debate has escalated to the political arena.

A backdrop to the discussion is the fact that increases in the age at which state pensions are payable is open for debate. In thinking about the rate at which state pension ages rise, the UK Government Actuarys Department assumes as does the Office for National Statistics that, in future, longevity will rise at the same pace it has for the past century; that is, 1.2 per cent each year. That could change with new data to be released in the autumn.

-SZ-

Continued here:
Human longevity slows in UK - Financial Express Bangladesh

June 4, 2017 8:35 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) Elena Flowers and her two daughters are in the middle of a science project.

The girls are making models of the famous DNA double helix out of pipe cleaner and beads. But mom, who is an assistant professor at UCSFs School of Nursing, is also in the middle of her own science project, involving DNA.

In this case, its her DNA all roughly 6 billion bits of it.

It was an adventure, it was an experience, said Flowers.

It began when she noticed a trend: an explosion of do-it-yourself genetic tests that you can order online without a doctor or genetic counselors prescription. The market for such tests is growing and projected to reach more than $10 billion by 2024.

She wondered if her nursing students are prepared to help patients navigate the technology when patients come in, armed with their results.

Direct-to-consumer genetic tests, and whole genome sequencing is about to be in their clinical practice, remarked Flowers.

So the professor took a leap to understand more and went online

I thought what better way to prepare these providers for having patients come in with genetic test results than by going thru the experience myself, commented Flowers.

She applied for a grant, and got funded. She then chose to undergo whole genome sequencing.

We just took a blood collection and sent it off to their lab, said Flowers.

The technique maps out a persons entire genome in detail, and detects whats unique or different about the persons DNA. Out of all the billions of bits of DNA, humans appear to be the same. But 3% of our DNA differs.

The idea: that those differences or variants may pinpoint our risk of disease, and predict our future health and well-being.

We really can see the future, said Dr. Craig Venter, a pioneer human genome scientist.

Venter is founder of Human Longevity Inc. The company now offers the most comprehensive physical exam on the planet. Part of that exam includes whole genome sequencing.

We sequence the entire genome, we sequence the microbiome, we sequence the chemicals in your blood. said Dr. Venter.

Venter explained the exam, called Health Nucleus, is focused on detecting problems before they manifest and become malignant. And knowing your DNA is key.

We want to find things early when they are treatable and preventable, he said.

Venters company plans to sequence a 100,000 genomes a year, and is building the worlds largest health database.

Powerful machine learning computers scour the data in seconds or minutes. DNA data is compared to all the other sophisticated imaging results and lab tests that are done with Health Nucleus protocol.

A human being cant do that on their own they need the aid of a computer and machine learning just helps that process go very smoothly, said Dr. David Heckerman, Chief Data Scientist for Human Longevity Inc.

Other companies also offer either genetic testing or whole genome sequencing.

Flowers used one of these services, and experienced firsthand what many patients feel.

I was anxiously awaiting getting the results, said Flowers.

Her results found no known disease causing problems But even for this professor, the report was confusing

Diseases are complex. very single disease is complex, noted Flowers. Not only that, but there is so much left that is unknown about our genome and disease-causing genes.

Flowers knows DNA plays a role in your health. But so too do lifestyle, environment, even socio-economic status.

Except for some very rare conditions, a positive genetic test may increase your risk of a condition. That doesnt mean you will develop the disease. Take for example, a positive test for a mutated BRCA gene.

They tell us about the risk for disease, but they dont give us the diagnosis and they dont guarantee that a patient is going to develop a disease, said Flowers

Genetic testing may also hold implications for the rest of your biological family. If you test positive for a higher risk of serious condition, could you then pass it on to your children? Or might your siblings carry the mutation or higher risk as well?

Now we are making decisions that may have implications for other family members without always understanding what those implications might be, commented Flowers.

It cost billions of dollars to map the first human genome. Now, thanks to technology, it costs as little as $1000. By the end of the year, one company vows to offer a $100 test.

UCSF SCHOOL OF NURSING https://nursing.ucsf.edu/

HUMAN LONGEVITY INC http://www.humanlongevity.com/

HEALTH NUCLEUS https://www.healthnucleus.com/

WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING http://www.humanlongevity.com/products/hliq-whole-genome/

More here:
'Do It Youself' Genetic Tests Create Challenge For Doctors - CBS San Francisco Bay Area

Financial Times

How long can humans live? It's a pricey question Financial Times How long can human beings live, anyway? It is no pun intended an age-old question. But the answer has posed acute challenges for governments in recent years. Sharp extensions in longevity are straining social safety nets that were created to ... and more »

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How long can humans live? It's a pricey question - Financial Times

You think we have a retirement crisis now? Just wait. The worst impact will be to the 20 somethings and 30 somethings, and it has nothing to do with the funding of Social Security (at least not directly). I can't even comprehend my granddaughter's (age 5) generation.

Consider the fact that for more than 200 years life expectancy in developed countries (you can argue that's us) has increased 2 or 3 years every decade. Research complied by London School of Business professors Lynda Gratton (Management Practice) and Andrew Scott (Economics) show that most children born in the West (us) will live past their 100th birthday. This is not climate change, folks: there is no debate allowed here.

While human longevity has been happening all along, we build our life stages and plan our retirements around the same assumptions our parents and grandparents did. Consider Social Security, conceived in 1935 when folks were expected to work until they retired at 65 years old, and died at age 67. Forget about anything like funding shortfalls in 2038. It was and is not equipped to deal with a 40 year retirement. NOTE: LIFE EXPECTANCY FOR CHILDREN BORN IN 1930 WAS 58 FOR MEN AND 62 FOR WOMEN. Chew on that in the context of the creation of the Social Security System.

Professors Scott and Gratton wrote a dramatic book (best book I ever read not written by Kurt Vonnegut), THE 100 YEAR LIFE, published June 2, 2016. Everyone should read it.

They state that the gift of longevity carries with it the curse of having to cope with it financially and socially. They call for "deep seated social change" to occur at the economic, social, political, business and individual level. From the book: "We either can't afford to retire at the age our parents did or will have to work for so long that our mental and physical fitness as well as our enthusiasm for life could suffer. Individuals, companies and governments all have a role to play in ensuring we structure our lives differently so we can make the most of a longer life."

For those in their 40s-60s they advise, "Failure to innovate in response to a longer life will mean stresses and strains in your life as existing models are stretched uncomfortably over a 100 years."

Most of us over 50 have been and are ingrained in a three stage life: Education/training, career/work to accumulate, and retirement. This model will not and cannot hold. Professors Scott and Gratton predict we will have to move to a multi stage life, with perhaps several different career paths combined with pauses in between. They call it "individualized sequencing." Retirement will be in your 80s, if at all.

For those in their 20s, think in terms of delayed saving for retirement, delayed accumulation careers, life experience enjoyment earlier and periodically along the way. This is not a rose-colored glasses wish; it is happening now. The 20 and 30 year olds currently are saving little now and enjoying life more. Now. They are embracing the multi stage life, maybe without even knowing it. While we old folks may cringe at this and say "how frivolous," we are wrong. They are right.

Think of the business impacts. Human Resources needs to be refocused, careers have to be redefined, and the work-life balance made more flexible. Established corporations are built around the three stage life. Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk businesses, maybe not. After all, they're innovators.

Governments need to move toward "lifetime measures rather than age specific policies. It has to address "pensions, education, relationships, families, households and career breaks."

Think of the impact on financial firms, insurance companies (think what Long Term Care insurance will have to look like), healthcare systems (do you think your premiums will go down?), education institutions, recreation, retirement communities. The list is almost unending. It will have to be a massive total overhaul of the entire social infrastructure.

And what about personal finance in the days of the 100 Year Life?

My learned friend and colleague, Steve Barger says, "No one is preparing today's children or young adults for the probability that they will live to 100 or beyond. Living longer changes everything we do -early education, extended work, recreation, health care, financial responsibilities, retirement targets, re-training for new skills and learning new information possibly at age 75.

The primary source for life preparedness (our educational institutions K - 16+) are so blinded by political correctness that they have completely ignored one of life's critical survival skills: managing one's wealth.

There is not one college or university in this country that requires 'personal financial proficiency' in order to graduate. Where are our educational leaders? Nowhere to be found. How selfish and thoughtless. You should be ashamed."

What does it mean for me? I won't be around to see the upheaval.

What does it mean for my kids (38-42)? They're thinking and saving and have already foregone traditional careers for more creative, holistic ones.

What does it mean for my grandchildren (5-14-16)? They WILL live that multi stage life, starting with "do it now" (whatever "it" is).

What does it mean for you? Our ancestors were artisans. Think about learning a trade, no matter what age.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: Quotes from THE HUNDRED YEAR LIFE by London School of Business Professors Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton, Published June 2, 2016, and Steve Barger.

Link:
American Horror Story: The 100-Year Life - Seeking Alpha

SAN DIEGO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Front Line Genomics announced today that the Festival of Genomics will return to San Diego June 26-27, 2017 at the San Diego Convention Center.

The Festival of Genomics is a global experience, taking place throughout the year in London, San Diego and Boston. Now in its third year, the series has quickly earned a reputation in the industry for innovative experiences, field-defining discussions, and bringing together leading genomic stakeholders to drive academia, biopharma, and healthcare sectors forward.

The Festival of Genomics San Diego will present the very best insights and perspectives from those in West Coast genomics, with headline talks from Genentech Inc., Google, Human Longevity, Inc., J. Craig Venter Institute, Rady Children's Hospital, Stanford University, and University of California, San Diego.

As an innovation hub, San Diego is a natural home for the Festival of Genomics, said Helen Curl, Group Event Director at Front Line Genomics. Stephen Kingsmores group is revolutionizing the use of whole genome sequencing at Rady Childrens Hospital. There is phenomenal sequencing and data work being done at Human Longevity. There is the relentless chase for scientific excellence at JCVI. Meanwhile, so many fantastic research institutes and tech companies in the area are pushing the ball forward. Our goal is to provide the best platform and forum to let the genomics community do what it does best learn from each other, collaborate, and innovate.

This years visit to San Diego will be covering four main themes across two days: Precision Therapies; Research and Development; Enabling Data and Personalizing Medicine.

We welcome the Festival of Genomics back to our home town of San Diego, said Joe Panetta, president and CEO of San Diego-headquartered Biocom, Californias largest state-wide life science trade association. San Diego is at the epicenter of todays fast-growing genomics industry. We are a city where the global pioneers of genetic research have converged with top academic institutions and a culture of entrepreneurship to push boundaries of DNA-driven medicines, diagnostics, and technologies.

It all sprang from talent, added Panetta. San Diego is known for having more molecular biology Ph.D.s per capita than any city in the country. From the University of California, San Diego, to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Scripps Research Institute, we have developed a large, scientifically trained workforce focused on DNA sequencing and DNA-related activities.

Theres an impressive amount of research related to computational biology, CRISPR, synthetic biology, and single cell sequencing happening in this region, said Sara Radcliffe, President and Chief Executive Officer of California Life Sciences Association, a public policy advocacy and business leadership trade association representing the life sciences sector. This gathering is a great opportunity to draw attention to San Diego as the dominant center of personalized medicine and genomics research, and highlight the trailblazing achievements in healthcare innovation out here on the West Coast; from understanding how genomics can best be used to develop better drugs and diagnostics, through to leveraging those advances to make precision medicine a reality and transform clinical care.

New to the 2017 Festival is the Launch Pad Zone dedicated to up-and-coming start-up companies offering potentially disruptive technologies. As well as having the opportunity to talk face to face with new and established tech companies, attendees can also take part in Lunch & Learn sessions this year. These are a series of ten minute presentations given by leading genomic organizations in the field.

To register for Festival of Genomics 2017 San Diego, book a booth, or learn about the various meeting access options, please visit: Festivalofgenomicssandiego.com/register

To learn about available sponsorship opportunities, please visit: Festivalofgenomicssandiego.com/exhibit-sponsor

For media registration, please visit: Festivalofgenomicssandiego.com/media-hub/press-registration

About Front Line Genomics

At Front Line Genomics our mission is to help deliver the benefits of genomics faster. Through our website, our magazine and the Festivals of Genomics, we support scientists, clinicians, business/research leaders and officials, from academia, research institutes, industry, healthcare and government organizations to realize the true potential of genomic medicine.

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Festival of Genomics Returns to San DiegoGenomics Wonderland ... - Business Wire (press release)

Anotherone of the co-founders of online lending startup SoFi is leaving the company, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch. Dan Macklin, who served as VP of Community and Member Success at SoFi, announced internally that hell be stepping down from his position on June 6th.

First of all, I would say its been a very difficult decision To step away from SoFi its a hard decision. I feel comfortable making that decision now giventhe shape were in, Macklin told me by phone. The company is in really great shape, so for me it feels like the right time to make the switch.

Macklinwill be staying on in anadvisory role onthe companys SoFi at Work efforts. Were working with more than 700 employers to help their employees with all aspects of their financial health, but especially dealing with student debt, he said. Other than that, well be watching out to see where he lands next.

Along with SoFi CEO Mike Cagney,Macklin was one of four MBA students at Stanfords Graduate School of Business who teamed up in 2011 to disrupt the way student loan refinancing was done at the time. Since then, the company has grown to offer a wider range of lending products, including mortgages and personal loans, and is expanding its financial services suite to include wealth management and traditional banking services.

Its also grown pretty substantially as a business. After sixyears, SoFi now has more than 300,000 members and has underwritten more than $20 billion in loans, according to a person familiar with the business. Its also raised nearly $2 billion in outside funding and has about 1,000 employees.

Most recently, Macklin was charged with managing the community and customer success at SoFi, which seesits member meetups and community events as a key differentiator against more traditional financial services businesses. Prior to that, he served as the companys first VP of Business Development.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Cagney wrote:Im immensely grateful for everything Dan has contributed to SoFi since we founded the company together at Stanford, and hell continue to have a hand in helping us succeed in the future including as a permanent ringer on the company soccer team.

Of course, its not unusual for founders to leaveafter a period ofseveral years, but Macklins departure leaves Cagney as the last remaining co-founder at the company. It also comes not long after SoFi lost Nino Fanlo, its longtime president and CFO. Fanlo left to take over the chief finance position at biotech firm Human Longevity, butMacklin is mostly just looking forward to some time off.

He told usthat for the time being he would be taking the summer off. Its not coincidental that my kids are done with school a few days after I leave SoFi, he said.

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SoFi co-founder Dan Macklin is leaving the company | TechCrunch - TechCrunch

In October 2013, DNAnexus and Baylor College of Medicine announced an ambitious ultra large-scalecollaboration to sequence and interpret3,751 whole genomes and 10,771 exomes. Some thought it was an impossible task.

Fast forward less than four years and DNAnexus is partnering on a new project with AstraZeneca to analyze two million genomes, with phenotypic data to boot.

The thing thats difficult to grasp from the outside is the velocity of knowledge gain in genomics. It is just amazing, marveled Richard Daly, CEO of DNAnexus. What people were doing two years ago is completely obsolete. And the tools they were using two years ago are obsolete.

Based in Mountain View, California, DNAnexus offers secure cloud-based platforms for research institutes, industry partners,andeven the U.S. government to massively increase their computing power. This, in turn, allows scientists to manage, access, and analyze sequencing data while collaborating with other groups around the world.

DNAnexus platform has scaled alongside the major genomics projects. But its not justthe volume of genomes sequenced that has risen dramatically over time. Daly noted by phone that the breadth of data being collected has also grown, as shown in AstraZenecas new undertaking.

The U.K.-based pharma companylaunched the initiative as well as an in-house Centre for Genomics Research in April 2016. Its aimis to build a bespoke database of genomic sequences using samples donated by patients in its global clinical trials. AstraZeneca has data from 500,000 participants amassed over the past 15 years and will add to that during the course of the 10-year study.

Importantly, the samples will also be matched with clinical notes and drug response data, meticulously collected through the course of its clinical trials. Merging genomic and phenotypic information is increasingly seen as the key to break into new layers of genomic complexity.

Even the basic sequencing techniques have advanced, Daly explained. Bioinformaticians have historically used reference genomes to do their base calling. In other words, genomes were interpreted in relation to a standard genome. Scientists soon realized that this approach was heavily biased in terms of ethnic diversity and error prone. Nowadays, scientists can draw on public databases of hundreds of thousands of genomes when they interpret the new results theyve obtained. Its another huge advance, which again requires huge technology gains.

As with Baylors 15,000-gemome project in 2013, AstraZenecas new initiative feels like a giant undertaking. But it will have help. Along with DNAnexus, collaborations withHuman Longevity, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland have also been announced.

Who knows where well be in ten years when this project wraps up.

Photo: farakos, Getty Images

Excerpt from:
How about 2 million? DNAnexus joins AstraZeneca's new genomics initiative - MedCity News

In 2018, AIER will celebrate its 85th anniversary. While the institute has evolved with changing times and technology, there are certain bedrock principles on which we rest that date as far back as our founding by Colonel E.C. Harwood in 1933. AIER After 75 Years, published almost a decade ago at the 75th anniversary, contains a clear statement of many of those principles.

One of Harwoods core principles was adherence to the scientific method, which much of the field of economics has neglected. Scientific economists should begin with observation, not predetermined opinions:

Scientific economists seek to ascertain and describe a wide variety of relationships, including socio-political relationships, that influence economic events. While doing so, they also seek to identify those human arrangements that tend to foster progress or regress in social welfare, where progress is described broadly by increases in standards of living, human longevity, and the increased satisfaction of human wants and needs.

These observations have led to the conclusion that free markets and strong legal protection of property rights are the best way to promote social progress:

Rather, what seem chiefly to have distinguished the experience of the United States were greater individual freedom and a legal structure that preserved individual property rights, both of which evidently promote rapid economic progress in a number of ways.

Increased productivity is encouraged, offering greater reward to those who better serve their fellows. This benefits society by making available to everyone, in proportion to their like contributions to output, more of the things that their fellow humans indicate they want.

In order to reap the full benefits of such a system, government must have a well-defined but limited role:

A society based on property rights and open markets implies a limited role for government, inasmuch as history records that more people have been oppressed through the mechanism of government than through any other device. This is not to say that government has no legitimate role; quite the contrary. Our Constitution sets forth clear tasks for government, which can be summarized as the protection of freedom and justice from thosedomestic or foreignwho would deny them.

In summary, the system should work toward providing and protecting a fair field with no favor in which each individuals freedom is restricted only as necessary to protect the equal freedom of others. This would appear to be a useful gauge by which to assess the probability that specific laws will foster progress or regress of the social order.

The essay goes on to describe the ways that governments, even when well-intentioned, act to restrict markets and impede competition. The whole piece is well worth reading, as a document of the institutes past work and ongoing positions, as well as useful information about our history and bylaws. As we move into our anniversary year, we will keep working to produce research that both reflects current issues and adheres to the core principles of our history.

You can find "AIER After 75 Years" here.

Link:
Colonel Harwood's Principles Ring True Today - American Institute for Economic Research (blog)

Xconomy San Diego

Preliminary findings from an economic impact study show that genomics is emerging as a distinct innovation cluster in San Diego.

The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. began collecting data for the report earlier this year in a bid to assess how genomics fits into San Diegos innovation economy. Final results of the EDC study wont be released until June 19, the first day of the Bio International Convention, as part of a panel discussion on the local genomics cluster.

But some details were offered yesterday by Kirby Brady, the EDCs director of research, following a press conference intended to promote the annual conference and the bio industrys economic impact in San Diego.

Of more than 1,200 life sciences companies and institutes in San Diego County, Brady said a survey completed last week as part of the study found over 100 local entities with a core focus on genomics. That includes two industry giants: Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) and the Carlsbad, CA-based Life Science Solutions Group of Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO), both of which make genome sequencing technology. Local genomics startups include Agena Bioscience, Edico Genome, Helix, and two companies founded by the human genome pioneer J. Craig VenterHuman Longevity Inc. and Synthetic Genomics.

Using data from Seattle-based PitchBook, Brady said the EDC also found that venture capital firms invested $292 million in San Diego genomics companies in 2016. That amounted to roughly 22 percent of the $1.3 billion that VCs invested nationwide last year in genomics deals. Of course, a single deal accounted for much of San Diegos total. Human Longevity raised $220 million in a Series B round early last year.

The discussion, billed as a case study of San Diegos genomics cluster, is intended to better understand and quantify San Diegos genomics industry, including employment, the number of companies, and the available talent pool of genomics professionals. How San Diegos genomics sector ranks against similar clusters in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, and other life sciences hubs is unknown, and may not be easily determined, Brady said. The EDCs research team could find no comparable regional study on the economic impact of genomics, except in Cambridge, England.

This is all preliminary at this point, Brady said. Were now in the process of writing the study.

A separate report released this week from Biocom, the San Diego-based life sciences industry group, estimates the overall economic impact of the life sciences industry on San Diego at $33.6 billion a year. The Biocom study counted a total of 1,225 companies, research institutes, and other entities in San Diego County, and reported that they directly employ almost 50,000 people here.

According to the Biocom report, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded roughly $833 million in research grants in 2016 to both private and public research labs throughout San Diego County. That was about 23 percent of the $3.6 billion in NIH funding that flowed to the state of California.

About $1.7 billion in NIH funding went to the San Francisco Bay Area, Biocom CEO Joe Panetta said. NIH funding is a frequently used metric for measuring life sciences R&D, and a key reason why San Diego is a recognized center of innovation, Panetta said.

The Biocom report, prepared by the economic and public policy firm TClower & Associates, shows that California is home to over 12,000 life sciences companies and other entities that together generate nearly $317 billion in annual economic activityand directly employs more than 360,486 people statewide.

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788

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Study Stakes San Diego's Claim in Genomics: $292M in 2016 VC ... - Xconomy