Google recently sent several of its employees to meet with staff from FDA’s medical device branch. Bloomberg speculates that the new product could be tied to biosensors.
The employees in question hail from the company’s Google X division, a secretive product-development branch managed by Google cofounder Sergey Brin. The division is said to be responsible for Google Glass and the company’s self-driving cars. Google employees in the meeting had worked on health-data–tracking contact lenses, according to Bloomberg.
Among the Google employees present in the meeting was Andrew Conrad, who was previously a chief scientist at Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings and co-founder of the National Genetics Institute.
Also in the meeting was Google researcher Zenghe (Zach) Liu and Brian Otis, an associate professor at the University of Washington who specializes in low-power chip design and wireless biosensors. Otis is currently is on leave with the University and is working for Google. Liu previously worked for Abbott Laboratories and has received a patent for technology that monitors bodily fluids to determine levels of compounds like glucose and cholesterol. Before that, Liu worked for TheraSense, which developed the FreeStyle blood glucose monitoring system now owned by Abbott.
A University of Washington colleague of Otis is Babak Parviz, who is the Google Glass project lead who has also worked on research related to contact lenses, neural implants, and smart bandages. The video below details Parviz' work on smart contact lenses:
It’s no secret that Google has been increasingly focusing on physical products. Last year, the company’s Google Glass platform received significant media attention and has given rise to a number of efforts to harness the technology for medical applications. Google, however, hasn’t dabbled significantly in healthcare after discontinuing its Google Health business, which aimed to help patients track their health online.
Last year, Google acquired anti-aging firm Calico, which has ties with Genentech. In addition, the company is one of the backers of consumer genomics firm 23andme. Late last year, FDA asked 23andMe to stop selling its personal gene test stating it lacked the requisite approval to do so.
