Google X continues to focus on beating death. The company has initiated a new project aimed at locating diseases within the body using sophisticated nanotechnology.
The project was revealed by Andrew Conrad, head of the Internet search giant's life science division, at the Wall Street Journal Digital Conference, according to TechCrunch. The idea is to capselize tiny magnetic particles to be sent into the body and can fuse with abnormal cells. Cancer cells would also be easier to detect if they were made to fluoresce via specific materials in the nanoparticles.
The Google X team would then use a wearable device to "call" the particles back to determine if the patient has cancer or other diseases.
"Think of it as sort of like a mini self-driving car," Conrad said. "We can make it park where we want it to."
The project may not be completed for another five years since Google still has several things to work on, such as figuring out the amount of nanoparticles necessary for finding disease markers and creating coatings for the particles so they can bind with targeted cells, The Verge reported.
Google will also need approval from the FDA after the company is ready to demonstrate that the nanoparticles can be used safely and effectively in large, controlled clinical trials.
The project would allow users to upload data – from urine and blood samples – to the cloud to be forwarded doctors, bypassing the need to leave your home for such routine tests, TechCrunch reported.
"So your doctor could say, 'Well, for 312 days of this year everything looks good. But these past couple of months we're detecting disease,' " Conrad said.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company pointed out several potential medical uses for the technology, such as testing enzymes given off by arterial plaques set to fracture and give a person a stroke or heart attack.
"Perhaps someone could develop a diagnostic for post-surgery or post-chemo cancer patients – that's a lot of anxious people right there," Google said.
Google currently has over 100 employees with the necessary expertise working on the nano project, The Verge reported.
"We're trying to stave off death by preventing disease," Conrad said. "Fundamentally, our foe is death. Our foe is unnecessary death. Because we have the technology to intervene, and we should expend more energy and effort on it."
