Biotech company Human Longevity buys Cypher Genomics

J Craig Venter's Human Longevity has bought Cypher Genomics, a genome information company. Both companies are based in San Diego. Cypher’s genomic interpretation skills and software will help sift through the vast amount of data that is generated by sequencing genomes in a bid to improve health. Edico, another San Diego company, sells The Dragen, a microprocessor-equipped computer add-on card which interprets the genome. This announcement follows a busy October for the DNA sequencing pioneer, which announced a partnership with Discovery Ltd to offer whole exome sequencing for $250 and opened the first of his Health Nucleus health checkup clinics, offering genomic diagnostic testing for $25,000 to $50,000, marketed at executives.

Cypher Genomics, a genome information company, has been purchased by Human Longevity Inc., another San Diego-based biotech company.

Human Longevity, led by genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter, said Monday that Cypher Genomics’ genomic interpretation skills will add important insight to HLI’s mission of improving health.

Cypher Genomics has 14 employees, who will join HLI. This includes Cypher Genomics’ CEO and co-founder, Ashley Van Zeeland, who now heads HLI’s pediatric business. The companies didn’t disclose financial details.

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Human Longevity was founded by Venter and colleagues in 2013 to synthesize insights from various fields of biology. This includes the human genome, the microbes that live in and on our bodies, cell therapy and others to determine what therapies and preventive measures can extend the healthy lifespan.

Companies like Cypher Genomics tackle a problem created by the success of scientists like Venter, who helped sequence the first human genome. That feat in reading the “book of life” was supposed to quickly yield insights into fighting diseases and promoting health.

But as it turned out, one genome by itself doesn’t tell very much, because there is nothing to compare it to. So Venter and other scientists are now sequencing many genomes, which can be compared to each other, and with the health or disease conditions associated with them, to find answers.

That monumental job involves enormous amounts of data that must be quickly processed. Each individual genome contains about 3 billion “letters” of DNA. So genomics, the study of the whole genome, is a far more data-intensive endeavor than genetics, the study of single genes and their functions.

That need provided an opportunity for companies like Cypher, which makes software that sifts through the gigabytes and terabytes of data to find pertinent differences.

In one high-profile example, Cypher and Scripps Translational Science Institute helped find two mutations involved in the previously mysterious life-threatening illness of Lilly Grossman. The San Diego teenager grew up with constant seizures and muscular disabilities.

Grossman is not cured, but thanks to the Cypher information, she was given a different drug regimen that has greatly reduced her symptoms. Earlier this year, she was accepted at Whittier College.

“Cypher Genomics has created important automated and scalable genome interpretation technology informed by additional expertise in genetics and biology that we believe will be invaluable to HLI’s business,” Venter said in a company statement.

Another San Diego company, Edico Genome, takes a different approach. Edico sells a microprocessor-equipped computer add-on card called the Dragen, specifically designed to interpret the genome. The company has teamed up with researchers to develop a quick genome scan for newborns.