Google Is Working On A Pill That Could Detect Early Signs Of Cancer Inside The Body

John Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Google is in the initial phase of a project that may help us to detect cancer earlier, and we could depend on wearable technology to flag up problems rather than taking regular trips to the doctor.

The system involves swallowing a pill containing tiny magnetic particles that move around the bloodstream searching for and attaching themselves to abnormal cells. The findings would then be relayed to a sensor on a wearable device. Data from these nanoparticles, which could number as many as 2,000 inside a single red blood cell, could also be uploaded and sent to doctors via the cloud, giving a comprehensive picture of a patient’s health. The information available to doctors would go beyond the scope of blood tests.

The project from the secretive yet much discussed Google X lab is part of Google’s broader efforts on healthcare, in which it claims to be focusing on the early prevention side of medicine rather than cures. The latest development follows work on contact lenses that are able to monitor glucose in tears for diabetics, and the acquisition in September of Lift Labs, who makes ‘shake-canceling’ eating utensils for people with Parkinson’s disease.

As well as detecting cancers during their early stages, including some such as pancreatic cancer which at the moment are often detected too late to cure, the nanotechnology could also be useful in early detection of other life-threatening conditions. Potential heart attacks and strokes could be prevented by identifying fatty plaques about to break free from the lining of blood vessels, which can stop blood flow, while porous nanoparticles that change color as potassium passes through could warn of the high levels of potassium that cause kidney disease.

Google’s head of life sciences Dr. Andrew Conrad, a molecular biologist who developed a cheap and now widely employed HIV test, told the BBC News reporters Leo Kelion & James Gallagher that, “Nanoparticles… give you the ability to explore the body at a molecular and cellular level,” explaining that, “What we are trying to do is change medicine from reactive and transactional to proactive and preventative.”

TechCrunch’s Sarah Buhr also quoted Dr. Conrad from a speech given to the Wall Street Journal Digital conference in which he appeared to compare the nanoparticle pill to Google’s self-driving car project. We could, “Think of it as sort of like a mini self-driving car. We can make it park where we want it to.” He made the analogy that current healthcare systems are guilty of trying to change oil after we have broken down.

Concerns about Google’s venture relate to the security of the huge amounts of data that would be collected, along with the possibility that being able to constantly monitor ourselves would lead to obsessive worry about the readings. The BBC’s health editor James Gallagher suggests that, “Screening the body for disease is littered with dangers, and if it is not done carefully, it could make hypochondriacs out of all of us.”

On the subject of privacy, Dr. Conrad said that a partner rather than Google would be responsible for individual data. “It’d be like saying GE (Healthcare) is in control of your x-ray. We are the creators of the tech and they are the disseminators,” he clarified.

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FOR THE KINDLE: The History of Wearable Technology: redOrbit Press

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