A couple weeks ago, Google announced the formation of Alphabet, a new parent holding company that will oversee Google and its affiliates. Shortly thereafter, the life sciences division, which now falls under the purview of Alphabet, announced a collaboration with DexCom to develop diabetes management tools. Now, the Life Sciences team has announced another move, which will establish the division as its own standalone company.
Sergey Brin, a cofounder of Google, wrote in a post that the move to make Life Sciences its own company stems from its unprecedented growth over the past three years. "While I am delighted at the progress that project has made, I could not have imagined the potential of the initiative it has grown into — a life sciences team with the mission to develop new technologies to make healthcare more proactive," he writes.
These technologies and developments include a smart contact lens that measures blood sugar levels through tear fluid on the eyeball and the Baseline Study, a project focused on pulling genetic data and biomarkers to understand human health on a molecular and genetic level.
Andy Conrad, PhD, currently serves as the head of Google Life Sciences, and he will continue to lead the new standalone company as CEO.
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