--- title: Google: Google X Plans Pill to Detect Cancer and Other Diseases description: Google announced Tuesday a project to design a swallowable pill to detect the presence of malignant cells and other signs of disease. canonical: https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-28T21:20:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:01:56.328Z article:section: Health og:title: This Is Google's Plan to Change How Diseases Are Found og:description: Google's top secret research facility has unveiled its latest project. og:url: https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30deda81f07c08d3/6986884d169ab050d52788b2/google.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: A Google logo is seen at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, California og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is Google's Plan to Change How Diseases Are Found twitter:description: Google's top secret research facility has unveiled its latest project. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30deda81f07c08d3/6986884d169ab050d52788b2/google.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Is Working on a Pill That Can Catch Diseases Earlier > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=c200d1e6-3422-4ab5-87b6-76de6cd97714&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Google Working On Wearable Tech & Pill To Catch Diseases [Watch (HLS stream): Google Working On Wearable Tech & Pill To Catch Diseases](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DPSiDAV1.m3u8) (1:52)  _Published 2014-10-29. Google X — the team behind Google’s self-driving cars and glucose-measuring contact lenses — wants to tackle disease detection and prevention now._  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Oct 28, 2014 9:20 PM UTC  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Oct 28, 2014 9:20 PM UTC Google has [plans](http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-working-pill-search-illnesses-26516500) to design an ingestible pill that detects the presence of malignant cells and other signs of disease, the company said Tuesday. The pill would contain tiny magnetic particles that would travel through a patient’s bloodstream and register the presence of chemicals or cells associated with diseases like cancer on a little device, the [Associated Press](http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-working-pill-search-illnesses-26516500) reports. The goal would be to allow patients to monitor their health in real-time to catch a potential illness before it’s even diagnosable. The project, announced at a tech conference organized by the Wall Street _Journal_, is the latest life sciences innovation from the Google X facility. The secret research center, home of Google Glass, previously revealed a partnership with pharmaceutical company Novartis to create [smart contact lenses that monitor diabetics’ blood sugar levels.](http://time.com/2989049/google-smart-lens/) \[[_AP_](http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-working-pill-search-illnesses-26516500)\] ## Transcript Google X, you know, the team behind Google's self driving cars and contact lenses that measure glucose levels is at it again. This time, the company's looking to tackle disease detection and prevention by pairing tiny, tiny ingestible particles with a wearable device that can monitor those particles. The concept itself isn't too difficult to understand. Certain diseases have specific biomarkers. In cancer, for example, disease cells might have. Proteins not present in normal human cells. Google's nano particles would be crafted to target these bio markers, the proteins and cancer cells, and communicate the information back to the wearable device. It's all an attempt by Google to treat diseases long before symptoms begin manifest. To tackle breast cancer before a screening reveals a tumor. In an interview with Backchannel, Google X Project Manager Andrew Conrad said, this addresses a flaw in modern medicine. Some cancers have a 90 % success rate if you diagnose them in early stage one. But most cancers have a five of 10 % survival rate if you diagnose them in stage four. We're diagnosing cancer at the wrong time. Realistically industry experts say the tech is more than five years off. Off. The Wall Street Journal points out Google still has plenty of technical issues to address. How many nanoparticles need to be ingested? How exactly will they target specific cells? And one major social issue. In a society that's increasingly favoring privacy over almost anything else. How do you convince people to essentially let Google invade their body? Despite it all, a writer for The Verge notes more than 100 Googlers are now working on the project. All working to undermine what Andrew Conrad identifies as their foe, unnecessary death. If you wanna learn more about Google X's attempt at a tricorder, we recommend you check out the entire interview over on back channel. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/"},"headline":"Google Is Working on a Pill That Can Catch Diseases Earlier","datePublished":"2014-10-28T21:20:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:01:56.328Z","description":"A pill that can detect the signs of diseases, including cancer","url":"https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/","keywords":["Research","Tech","medicine","Cancer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30deda81f07c08d3/6986884d169ab050d52788b2/google.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30deda81f07c08d3/6986884d169ab050d52788b2/google.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A Google logo is seen at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, California","caption":"A Google logo is seen at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, California","creditText":"Stephen Lam—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/","name":"Google Is Working on a Pill That Can Catch Diseases Earlier"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Google Working On Wearable Tech & Pill To Catch Diseases","description":"Google X — the team behind Google’s self-driving cars and glucose-measuring contact lenses — wants to tackle disease detection and prevention now.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/DPSiDAV1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-29T14:30:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DPSiDAV1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/","duration":"PT1M52S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3544510/google-x-cancer-pill/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```