Will take five years to implement.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Google is once again leading from the front to bridge the gap between technology and health sector, as it ventures into developing a nanoparticle that can move inside the bloodstream of patients detecting early signs of cancer.
The announcement came from the head of the Google X research lab’s Life Sciences Team, Andrew Conrad during his speech in The Wall Street Journal’s live conference on Tuesday. He said the nano-magnetic particle can move to different areas in the body of the patient by wearing a magnetic device outside the patient’s body.
The external device can give doctors insights into the extent of infection in the body by counting the particles and give valuable inference about the current condition of the cancer patient.
Conrad said during an interview at the conference that “nanoparticles are the nexus between biology and engineering. We can make these nanoparticles behave in ways that we want them to do.”
According to Conrad, the Nanoparticle from Google comes in the shape of pills covered with “antibodies or molecules that detect other molecules,”
He added that the particles on reaching the body would have a size less than 1/1000 that of the red blood corpuscles and can navigate inside the body by getting attached to molecules, proteins and cells.
These nanoparticles are capable of detecting arterial plaque or high sodium levels and in the future, can replace the current forms of blood test used for diagnosing early symptoms of cancer.
The new technology will be licenced to other companies and the company will not be accountable for managing the data collected by the particle said Conrad. He also said in the interview that the new nano-cancer detection pills will take five years to implement.
This is not the first time that Google has pitched into the medicine sector. Earlier, Google had come up with a statement that their researchers are testing an advanced contact lens to help diabetic’s patients to test their glucose level without pricking their fingers.
This technology was also developed by the Google X research lab by measuring the amount of glucose in the tears of the patient with the help of a wireless chip and glucose sensor inside the contact lens. Google plans to bring this technology soon in the market by joining hands with partners in the medical field.
The Google X division of the tech giant has been engaged in bringing out some of the most talked about technologies of Google including its Google Glass, driverless cars and project loon, which is a balloon experiment for bringing internet access to remote areas of the planet.