Human Longevity Offers Genome Sequencing Through MassMutual

[Note - This is a left-handed helix, don't use - SdC] DNA Double Helix

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 customer’s doctor, would include comprehensive sequencing and analysis of the customer’s 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.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.