Category Archives: Transhuman News

HLIQ Whole Genome, which is ordered by a client's physician, includes comprehensive sequencing and analysis of the individual's whole genome. The report may give insight into health status and risk for disease, details on which pharmaceuticals may work better for individuals, carrier status for family planning decisions, along with ancestry and personal traits. Clients and their doctors will receive an electronic version of the genome report and their entire genome in a printable poster format.

HLI's data security standards are designed to fully protect client data. MassMutual will not receive from HLI any data, including genomic data, on these policy owners, customers, employees or financial professionals. MassMutual does not pay for or otherwise subsidize the cost of the HLIQ Whole Genome. This voluntary program is available to existing MassMutual customers as of March 14, 2017.

Cynthia Collins, HLI Chief Executive Officer stated, "Current practice of medicine is reactive, focused on management of disease and costly. The HLIQ Whole Genome is one of HLI's novel solutions to help make healthcare more predictive, proactive, and preventative. We continue to believe that genomics will play an increasingly important role across a variety of business sectors including insurance and look forward to working with MassMutual."

HLI has developed one of the world's largest databases, which currently has approximately 40,000 genomes and related phenotype (physical trait) data. This distinct database, combined with HLI's proprietary tools and machine learning capabilities, may enable HLI to make new discoveries from the genome, which could lead to more novel insights for customers. Clients also have the added benefit of knowing that their genomic data is helping to enhance the overall understanding of health and disease.

The offer is available through March 14, 2018. To learn more about HLIQ Whole Genome, customers should start by visiting MassMutual's website at http://www.massmutual.com/HLI. More information about HLI and HLIQ Whole Genome can be found at http://www.humanlongevity.com.

About Human Longevity, Inc.

Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI) is the genomics-based, health intelligence company creating the world's largest and most comprehensive database of whole genome, phenotype and clinical data. HLI is developing and applying large scale computing and machine learning to make novel discoveries to revolutionize health. In addition tothe HLIQ Whole Genome and HLIQ Oncology, HLI's business also includes the HLI Health Nucleus, a genomic powered clinical research center which uses whole genome sequence analysis, advanced clinical imaging and innovative machine learning, along with curated personal health information, to deliver the most complete picture of individual health. For more information, please visit http://www.humanlongevity.com or http://www.healthnucleus.com.

About MassMutual

MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policy owners. MassMutual offers a wide range of financial products and services, including life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance, annuities, retirement plans and other employee benefits. For more information, visit http://www.massmutual.com. MassMutual Financial Group is a marketing name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and its affiliated companies and sales representatives.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/human-longevity-inc-and-massmutual-sign-groundbreaking-agreement-to-offer-hliq-whole-genome-sequencing-to-massmutuals-customers-financial-professionals-and-employees-300424133.html

SOURCE Human Longevity, Inc.

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Human Longevity, Inc. and MassMutual Sign Groundbreaking Agreement to Offer HLIQ Whole Genome Sequencing ... - PR Newswire (press release)

Xconomy San Diego

Human Longevity Inc., founded in 2014 by the gene pioneer J. Craig Venter to create a database for interpreting the human genome (and to make healthcare more proactive instead of reactive) said it has signed a partnership deal with MassMutual.

Beginning today, San Diego-based Human Longevity plans to offer its whole genome sequencing service to customers, employees, and affiliated financial professionals of the Springfield, MA-based insurer formally known as the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

In the three years since it was founded, Human Longevity has amassed about 40,000 genomes and related data on physical traits. Through its multi-year initiative with MassMutual, Human Longevity expects to add about 200,000 whole genome sequencing reports to its database, according to a statement from the company.

MassMutual participants get knowledge and insight about themselves, and new insight concerning their health, said Heather Kowalski, a Human Longevity spokeswoman.

Human Longevity said its whole genome sequencing product, to be ordered by a customers doctor, would include comprehensive sequencing and analysis of the customers genome. Customers and their doctors would get an electronic version of the genome report, and their entire genome in a printable poster format.

MassMutual would not receive genomic or related data from Human Longevity on its policy holders, customers, employees, or financial professionals. Human Longevity said it is offering this comprehensive genomic sequencing and analysis at a reduced cost and that MassMutual would not pay for or otherwise subsidize the cost of the service, officially known as HLIQ Whole Genome. Customers would pay $1,400 for the offering, according to a MassMutual website.

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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Human Longevity Offers Genome Sequencing Through MassMutual - Xconomy

"No artificial colors" is listed on many product labels, given that most of us try to avoid unnatural ingredients. When 44,000 animals recently ingested a manmade dye as part of a new study, however, their longevity increased, with some living twice as long as usual.

The catch is that the animals were all various species of roundworms round-bodied, unsegmented worms, some of which are parasitic. Even so, roundworms share surprising genetic similarities to humans, and researchers suggest that the dye Basic Yellow 1, also known as Thioflavin T could someday work as an anti-aging drug for humans and other animals.

The authors of the new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, suspect that the dye extends lifespan by preventing damaged, improperly folded proteins that commonly occur as an individual ages.

"Proteins lose their 3D shape during aging, and as a result cannot function properly," co-senior author Gordon Lithgow of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging explained to Seeker. "This is also a feature of many age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's. Thioflavin T prevents this, at least in worms. It also turns on lots of genes that are the natural defense system to prevent protein misfolding."

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Lithgow, lead author Mark Lucanic, and their colleagues raised multiple species of roundworms on plates of agar, a gelatinous substance. They mixed various compounds into the agar, which the roundworms ate. The researchers then documented the lifespan of the roundworms, which normally live just 15 to 20 days.

Photo: Adult parasitic roundworms coming out of part of an individual's small intestine that was removed. Credit: Department of Pathology, Calicut Medical College; Wikimedia Commons

The roundworms' fast-living ways make them popular for longevity studies, since scientists can monitor the worms over a period of days or months instead of years. Roundworms also feature more genetic diversity than can be found between mice and humans, the researchers say.

The experiments, which were conducted in three separate labs, all came to the same general conclusion: Basic Yellow 1 extended the lives of roundworms.

RELATED: The Average Life Expectancy Will Break the 90-Year Barrier by 2030

"This paper was all about establishing a platform where we could reproducibly test compounds for effect on lifespan," Lithgow said. "I think this is important for the field to find compounds that could go forward to pre-clinical [mouse] and clinical studies."

"Importantly, we tested the compounds in very, very diverse genetic strains," he continued. "A compound that extends lifespan across such diverse strains might be targeting a conserved process. That gives us some confidence that such a compound could have similar effects in mammals, including humans."

The video that follows below shows Basic Yellow 1 experiments on worms as part of a prior study conducted by Lithgow and his team. The footage features a worm after 20 days under standard culture conditions (control) versus a 20-day-old worm treated with Thioflavin T. According to the researchers, the treated worm displays better movement and appearance, both of which are consistent with a delay in the aging process.

Lithgow's postdoc, Silvestre Alavez, came up with the idea to test Basic Yellow 1 for longevity, since he noticed that the dye binds a type of unfolded protein (amyloid), which is a feature of Alzheimer's disease.

Too much of a potentially good thing can pose problems, though.

"At high concentrations, it is clearly toxic and kills the worms, just like most drugs," Lithgow said, referring to the dye.

Extensive future tests on the dye would be needed to better determine its mechanisms, how it might benefit humans and, if so, what the form and dosage should be.

In a statement, co-author Monica Driscoll of Rutgers University said that "the real goal of aging research should not be longevity at all, but rather a person's health span how long they can maintain an active, disease free, high quality of life."

"The greatest risk factor for diseases like diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative disease is age," she added, "so that is why research looking at delaying the onset of age-associated decline is so important."

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Chemical Dye Doubles Roundworm Lifespan, Could Extend Human Longevity - Seeker

Did you detect any common threads among this years winners and shortlisted candidates?

Leo Johnson: The core business principles that shaped the 20th century fossil fuel-driven mass production are undergoing a tectonic change. With the likes of Dong Energy and Air Liquide in the running for the Corporate Responsibility/Environment prize, were seeing an acceleration towards renewables an unstoppable trend, in my view, over the next 20 years. We also had a set of winners whose dominant model involves not costly machines of mass production but the algorithm.

Edward Bonham Carter: Were going from organic forms of intelligence to inorganic. Machine intelligence is being used to solve human problems. I was struck by the enormous variety of candidates, both in terms of the ingenuity of the products and services that they had developed, and the range of markets that they were addressing. I really liked the story, for example, of the tiny satellites manufactured by the Glasgow company Clyde Space in the Smaller Company category. In the running for the Developing Markets prize was Hector Beverages in Bangalore, with its traditional homemade soft drinks. Its now commercialising them on a wider scale and putting two fingers up to giants like Coca-Cola.

LJ: If there is a thread it is that we are we seeing the potential of using technology for good. Take DeepMind in the Drivers of Change category. Here we have AI (artificial intelligence) being used to radically improve cancer detection.

EBC: Thats right. Were in a world these days where complex problems such as disease management or even accurate weather forecasting could be solved by artificial intelligence.

Which companies did you feel were particularly bold?

EBC: Dollar Shave Club, winner of the Entrepreneurship award, struck me as especially bold as it took on the giants of the shaving market through its innovative marketing model. It was a case of the little David taking on the monsters. Its just a shame it sold out to one of them [Unilever bought Dollar Shave in July]. Its that argument again about the long versus the short term. Were all in such a rush, with people taking the greenback rather than aiming for, say, the old Victorian legacy of building something big.

LJ: For me, the bold companies are those that execute [a plan] at speed and scale to attack societys unsolved problems. Dong transformed from being the leading oil and gas company in Denmark to one of the leading renewables companies in the world. Engie in France and one of the companies on the Drivers of Change shortlist is another one. It shifted from fossil fuel power to sustainable energy production.

What were you looking for in the candidates?

LJ: Those that are using the means at our disposal to deliver something valuable for the many: clean water, sanitation, education. Look at Paytm on the Developing Markets shortlist. In India its mobile commerce platform tackles the massive problem of providing access to finance. In the Technology section, the Israeli company CropX is another. It uses big data to create targeted micro irrigation; farmers save water and energy by being able to water crops only in areas of their fields that need it.

EBC: Yes, its a bit of a curates egg this year, but there are hints of that here. Impossible Foods from California and its meat-free products in the Corporate Responsibility/Environment category is an interesting one. It aims to recreate the taste and nutrition of meat without the impact on the environment of animal farming. If we can replace meat, thats a worthy cause.

One test of a successful company is whether others can replicate what it does. Where is the economic moat, as Warren Buffett once put it, that will defend its revenues over the long term? Any of the winners catch your eye?

EBC: Judging enduring barriers to entry is virtually impossible as it involves a series of imaginative leaps into the future. Many, if not all, of the candidates and winners were operating at the frontiers of human ingenuity, so if developing a sustainable advantage will be a particular challenge, you can argue that Empresas Polar, the food and drinks maker based in Caracas, has developed a distinctive barrier to entry. It is competing successfully in the political, economic and social conditions in Venezuela. That in itself is a competitive advantage.

LJ: It brought back memories of Santa Teresa, the Venezuelan distiller that was unlucky not to win the Developing Markets prize a couple of years ago. Part of its economic moat is distinctiveness. Its a unique local rum, some of which, I am happy to say, it brought to the awards ceremony in London.

EBC: Companies that operate under conditions like these, you have to credit with ballsiness as well as boldness.

Was there any candidate slightly off the wall that took your fancy?

EBC: Many of the candidates and winners are focused on how homo sapiens can live sustainably on our small blue marble, though most of the products here are intangibles. I had a soft spot for The Furniture Recycling Group in Blackburn [UK]. It has developed an automated process for taking apart mattresses so that all parts of them can be recycled. You cant get much more tangible than that.

LJ: Youre right. There is yet to be a day on my home street when there isnt an old stained mattress dumped with little immediate hope of it being carted away. This shows what we need not technology substituting for the human, but technology aiding our ingenuity to solve real world problems.

Getting back to the subject of an overall theme for the year, we can see that robots and artificial intelligence, such as automated driving systems, are among activities that are well represented. What problems, or opportunities, is present day boldness in business opening up for future prize winners to address?

EBC: I suspect we will see an increasing number of enterprises focusing on robotic technology and AI, as well as the matter of increasing human longevity. For the first time in human history some forms of human intelligence will be overtaken by machines. How we live in this world will in itself be an exciting challenge.

LJ: We can look forward to some literally incredible things. Look at Human Longevity, the California company in the running for this years Drivers of Change award. With its human genome sequencing work, its looking to double life expectancy in the next 20 years. Some even say that anyone now under 50 has a 50/50 chance of living for ever. What does this mean? A new style of bermensch? I also feel uneasy about the potential impact on society of structural job loss, an automation bomb that could be detonated by AI. Without technological governance, we might be sleepwalking our way into it.

EBC: This is the dystopian view. Many millions of jobs are due to go in the next two decades or so. What are we going to do? There could be the most extraordinary concentration of wealth, with all the rest of us living on the universal basic income. As far as robots and AI are concerned, the genie is already out of the bottle, though of course and heres one for those bold award candidates of the future theres a counter argument that if machines get out of hand we can pull the plug. Im not sure we are clever enough.

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Leo Johnson and Edward Bonham Carter on what makes a bold entrepreneur - Financial Times