Google now wants to add a new title to it's portfolio: medical science innovators. We'll just call
them the new body snatchers.
Google is in the early stages of creating tiny, magnetic nanoparticles that will be able
to search the human body for cancer and other diseases. Google's goal is "an early
heads-up" on disease to ultimately facilitate more effective treatment by making medicine
proactive instead of reactive.Google's particles will be less than 1/000 the width of a red
blood cell and will attach themselves to specific cells, proteins, and other molecules inside
the body, depending on what they're "decorated" with. For example, Google could coat
its nanoparticles with a specific antibody that would recognize and attach to a protein on
the surface of a tumor cell.
Google is also working on a small wearable device that would attract and count the
particles. In that way, the system would be used for testing and monitoring health: You
could be alerted through the wearable if a lot of the particles were attaching to tumor cells.
Google admits, however, that it still needs to better understand what constitutes as a
healthy level of disease-carrying molecules in the blood and what would be a cause for
a concern (Google's "Baseline Study" is already trying to define what a healthy human
looks like). The idea is that people would be constantly monitoring their bodies, so they
wouldn't wait until they felt physically sick to go to the doctor.
Google would likely let people consume its nanoparticles through a pill, but is reportedly
at least 5 to 7 years away from a product that would be approved by doctors. “Every test
you ever go to the doctor for will be done through this system,” Andrew Conrad, head of
the Life Sciences team at Google X and the man leading the project, said at The Wall
Street Journal’s "WSJD Live" conference. “That’s our dream.”
Conrad told The Wall Street Journal that Google would not collect or store any medical
data itself, but would license the technology out. More than 100 Googlers with backgrounds
including chemistry, astrophysics, and electrical engineering are working on this nanoparticle
project. The company is also collaborating with MIT, Stanford, and Duke.
Source: Business Insider
them the new body snatchers.
Google is in the early stages of creating tiny, magnetic nanoparticles that will be able
to search the human body for cancer and other diseases. Google's goal is "an early
heads-up" on disease to ultimately facilitate more effective treatment by making medicine
proactive instead of reactive.Google's particles will be less than 1/000 the width of a red
blood cell and will attach themselves to specific cells, proteins, and other molecules inside
the body, depending on what they're "decorated" with. For example, Google could coat
its nanoparticles with a specific antibody that would recognize and attach to a protein on
the surface of a tumor cell.
Google is also working on a small wearable device that would attract and count the
particles. In that way, the system would be used for testing and monitoring health: You
could be alerted through the wearable if a lot of the particles were attaching to tumor cells.
Google admits, however, that it still needs to better understand what constitutes as a
healthy level of disease-carrying molecules in the blood and what would be a cause for
a concern (Google's "Baseline Study" is already trying to define what a healthy human
looks like). The idea is that people would be constantly monitoring their bodies, so they
wouldn't wait until they felt physically sick to go to the doctor.
Google would likely let people consume its nanoparticles through a pill, but is reportedly
at least 5 to 7 years away from a product that would be approved by doctors. “Every test
you ever go to the doctor for will be done through this system,” Andrew Conrad, head of
the Life Sciences team at Google X and the man leading the project, said at The Wall
Street Journal’s "WSJD Live" conference. “That’s our dream.”
Conrad told The Wall Street Journal that Google would not collect or store any medical
data itself, but would license the technology out. More than 100 Googlers with backgrounds
including chemistry, astrophysics, and electrical engineering are working on this nanoparticle
project. The company is also collaborating with MIT, Stanford, and Duke.
Source: Business Insider