Google Lab Quietly Working On Fitbit-Like Wristband To Detect Cancer, Creating Synthetic Skin
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) – While recent Google innovations such as driverless cars and Google Glass wearable computers make headlines, the tech giant has been quietly working on health related-technologies cancer detectors and making synthetic human skin.
A video posted on The Atlantic is the first to look inside Google's life science lab at their Mountain View headquarters. One of the projects they are working on is a Fitbit-like wristband that detects cancer cells in a person's blood when they first appear.
"So imagine you swallow a pill. And that pill has small things called nanoparticles…decorated on their surface with markers that attach to cancer cells," said Andrew Conrad, the lab's director. The nanoparticles would "light up" if cancer is found, which would be detected by the wristband.
Google has also developed synthetic skin to figure out how detecting light from the nanoparticles would work.
The lab is also testing the data of more than 100 volunteers to determine what makes up a healthy person.