Venter launches newco with $70 million

J. Craig Venter launched Human Longevity Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) with $70 million in a series A round to build a database of genotype data along with microbiome and metabolomics data for "diseases associated with aging-related human biological decline." The company said investors include KT Lim, CEO of Genting Group (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); DFJ's Steve Jurvetson; BRJ Investments' Bryan Johnson; and Martine Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ:UTHR). The company said some investors are investing as individuals and some through their firms, but declined to disclose details.

The newco is initially focusing its sequencing efforts on cancer, and also will focus on diabetes and obesity, heart and liver diseases and dementia. Human Longevity purchased two HiSeq X Ten Sequencing Systems from Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) and said it plans to sequence up to 40,000 human genomes per year, with the goal of scaling up to 100,000 genomes annually. The newco plans to out-license its database and said it also plans to develop diagnostics and cell therapies to "address age-related decline in endogenous stem cell function," but did not disclose details. ...