Google X, the company’s “moon shot” research lab, is known to be involved in a lot of projects in a wide variety of fields. Last fall one of those projects was revealed to be a pill that could be used to detect cancer and other diseases. Now the company is back with a patent application for a wearable device that may be able to capitalize on that pill research to do something about the bad cells that it finds in a person’s body.
The pill that was developed uses iron-oxide nanoparticles that can identify cancer cells based on biochemical signals. The nanoparticles will then “paint” the cells and travel through the body with them.
The new device described in the patent application is called a “nanoparticle phoresis” and is described a wrist band wearable device that can transmit energy into a person’s body. The energy could be a variety of forms like radio frequencies, magnetic fields, acoustic pulses, or even infrared or visible light.
The idea is that the energy transmitted into a person’s body can target cells or other molecules in the blood stream that pass within the path of the wearable. One obvious target would be those cells “painted” with nanoparticles. Since they are iron, a magnetic field could be used to draw them out of the bloodstream.
The target would not have to be limited to those painted with nanoparticles though if medical professionals can figure out ways to identify other target cells. As an example, Google describes certain proteins known to be involved in Parkinson’s disease. Energy that targets just those proteins could be used to destroy them, slowing the development of Parkinson’s disease.
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