Google released a proposal earlier this year for a wristband that detects cancer. The wristband uses moulds created using human skin. Recently, the firm patented the technology that would ‘”automatically modify or destroy targets in the blood that have an adverse health effect.”
Using an external energy source like ultrasound or radio frequencies, the wristband would be able to target these cells. The patent describes how the wristband could detect substances in the blood that could harm the health of the wearer using infrared signals, radio-frequency, acoustic pulse or a magnetic field to transmit energy into the blood vessels.
The Nanoparticle Phoresis patent explains: “A number of scientific methods have been developed to examine physiological conditions of a person by detecting and measuring one or more analytes [chemicals] in a person’s blood.
“Analytes could…be indicative of a medical condition or health of the person’ and could include ‘enzymes, hormones, proteins, cells or other substances.” The energy transmitted would be designed to alter the analyte’s chemical composition.
“In one relevant example, certain proteins have been implicated as a partial cause of Parkinson’s disease; the development of Parkinson’s disease may be prevented or retarded by providing particles functionalized with a bio-receptor that will selectively bind to this target”
“These bound particles may then be used, in combination with a wearable device as described above, to modify or destroy the target protein,” adds the patent.
“As a further example, the target could be cancer cells; by selectively targeting and then modifying or destroying the cancer cells, the spread of cancer may be diminished.”
At the beginning of the year, the head of Google Life Sciences, Andrew Conrad, unveiled plans for the the wristband to work with nanoparticles. The nanoparticles would travel around the body collecting information about cells they encounter. A magnet would collect the nanoparticles and cancer cells that encountered the nanoparticles would then light up.
Google began making skin to test out how light is emitted from the cells that interact with the nanoparticles. Scientists created moulds of human arms using synthetic and real human skin from donors. Conrad stated: “We’re making good progress but the journey is long and hard. So I think we will get there and I hope it’s years, not decades.”
[Image via circanews]
SOURCE: Daily Mail