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PROVO — Data from a local genealogy company could help researchers understand the role genetics play in the human lifespan.
AncestryDNA, part of Provo-based Ancestry.com, and Calico, a company funded by Google to research longevity, announced a new partnership Tuesday. Researchers from the two companies plan to analyze millions of public family trees, including over one million genetic samples, in an effort to investigate heredity's connection to lifespan, according to Calico.
"Our common experience suggests that there may be hereditary factors underlying longevity, but finding the genes responsible using standard techniques has proven elusive," Calico's chief scientific officer David Botstein said in a statement. "This is an extraordinary opportunity to address a fundamental unanswered question in longevity research using high quality human pedigrees."
The family trees and genetic samples will be anonymized before researchers analyze the data to identify patterns, according to the two companies. Ultimately, Calico hopes to use the findings to develop and sell treatments, with the goal of extending the human lifespan.
Information about the financial agreement made by the two companies was not released.
