Wanted: Life science partners for the world’s biggest tech firm

Google is looking for partners to aid R&D into nanoparticle technology – which the tech giant is developing for use in preventative drugs and devices to help spot cancer and heart attacks.

Here’s the theory: the user swallows a pill containing nanoparticles, engineered by Google, which spots cancerous cells and DNA. The particles are scanned, once a day, by a wristband device using light and radio waves – this device alerts the user to any appearance of cancerous cells long before symptoms appear, allowing an early treatment.

It seems space-age, and Google is making no claims that its vision will ‘eliminate cancer’. However, the firm has a strong history in the life science sector, and is working on several projects of similar scope.

It’s opening up on the activities at the notoriously private R&D centre, ‘Google X’, in order to attract life science industry partners.

In previous and on-going collaborations and acquisitions, Google has linked up with the likes of  start-up ‘Lift-Labs’ -  the developer of a spoon which eases tremors in Parkinson’s patients, and Calico – an anti-ageing R&D firm, among others.

However, while the world’s biggest tech firm continues to search for partners in the drugs and devices sectors, commentators have warned that the any practical application using nantechnology would need to be monitored carefully.

Prof Paul Workman, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research in London is an advocate of the research, but he told the BBC that the technology needs “very careful and rigorous analysis". Some have pointed out that there is a risk of over-diagnosis if such devices are mis-used — for example, the presence of cancerous cells is not necessarily a guarantee that a fatal cancer will develop.