Machine Learning Visionary, David Heckerman, Joins Human Longevity, Inc. as Chief Data Scientist

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Mar 21, 2017, 13:00 ET

SAN DIEGO, March 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Human Longevity, Inc., the genomics–powered, health intelligence company, announced today that David Heckerman, M.D., PhD., a 25-year veteran of Microsoft, has joined the company as the Chief Data Scientist. Dr. Heckerman, who will report to J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., HLI Co-founder, Executive Chairman and head of scientific strategy, will lead an advanced analytics team at HLI's Mountain View, CA, office to continue to tackle some of the most important challenges in the analysis of large-scale medical and genomic data.

Dr. Heckerman's many accomplishments as a Microsoft researcher include leading the company's first research team to focus on machine learning and produce tools such as the first content-based spam filter. Later, he led the first research team to focus on computational biology, designing a vaccine for HIV as well as many algorithms for biology and health, with increasing emphasis over time on genomics. For the last several years, Heckerman has led the Microsoft Genomics team, advancing research in genomics and computational biology and supporting Microsoft cloud services for genomics.

"We are thrilled to have David onboard because his unparalleled expertise in machine learning, technical expertise in cloud computing, and extensive applications in genomics are going to be invaluable to HLI," said Dr. Craig Venter, HLI Co-Founder and Executive Chairman. "David encompasses all the fields that are needed for success in the new landscape of data computing for medicine."

Throughout his roles at Microsoft, Dr. Heckerman served in a series of academic positions, including Visiting Senior Research Scientist at the Data Science Institute of Columbia University, Affiliate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Health Education at University of Washington, and Adjunct Professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He holds several degrees from Stanford University and UCLA, including M.D., Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford, and M.S. and B.S. in Physics, and B.S in Mathematics, from UCLA. He is an ACM and AAAI fellow.

"I am excited to join HLI as I believe my experiences in machine learning, genomics, and healthcare are ideal to help HLI in its next phases of growth and commercialization," said Dr. Heckerman. "I look forward to leading and expanding the dynamic and expert team in our Mountain View office."

HLI is building the world's largest database of clinical, biological and behavioral information, including comprehensive genome and phenotype content curated with our proprietary computational tools by the leading experts in the field. As part of this effort, HLI is making data from over 10,000 genomes available to researchers through our Open Search tool, generating more insight into individual genomes through their comparison with many. HLI Open Search is an efficient, rapid, interactive way to explore genomic data and subsequent variant knowledge, created by HLI via a web-based search engine.

HLI is hiring experts in computational biology, quantitative genomics, biostatistics, bioinformatics, natural language processing, and machine learning to join the team in Mountain View and engage in genomics-powered, technology-driven innovations to generate health intelligence, including our HLI database and HLI Search data analysis services. Please visit our website to find out more about these positions.

About Human Longevity, Inc.™
Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI) is the genomics-based, health intelligence company creating the world's largest and most comprehensive database of whole genome, phenotype and clinical data. HLI is developing and applying large scale computing and machine learning to make novel discoveries to revolutionize health. In addition to the HLIQ™ Whole Genome and HLIQ Oncology, HLI's business also includes the HLI Health Nucleus, a genomic powered clinical research center which uses whole genome sequence analysis, advanced clinical imaging and innovative machine learning, along with curated personal health information, to deliver the most complete picture of individual health. For more information, please visit http://www.humanlongevity.com or http://www.healthnucleus.com.

SOURCE Human Longevity, Inc.