Google launches healthcare company to combat aging, disease

The next Google product: A fountain of youth?

Google announced Wednesday that it is a major investor in a venture that will work to combat aging and disease, but declined to provide further details.

The project is headed by biotechnology pioneer Arthur Levinson, who is a chairman on the boards of both of Apple Inc. and Genentech Inc.

Levinson is the former CEO of Genentech and a Google board member, and has just been named CEO and founding investor of the California Life Co., or Calico.

Google may have the clout to speed medical breakthroughs and affect change in the American healthcare system, said Regina Herzlinger, a professor at Harvard Business School.

"The Google guys and Levinson are geniuses and fabulous business people so they may hit gold where others have not," Herzlinger said.

Calico is the latest in a series of Google projects that use technology to change everyday lfie.