Google's New Wristband Could Treat Parkinson's and Cancer

Earlier this year, Google unveiled plans for a cancer-detecting wristband that it was testing on moulds of human skin.

Now, the tech giant has been awarded a patent for the technology that will “automatically modify or destroy targets in the blood that have an adverse health effect.”

The wearable could target these cells using an “external energy source” such as ultrasound or radio frequencies.

“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,” explained the Nanoparticle Phoresis patent. “Analytes could...be indicative of a medical condition or health of the person' and could include 'enzymes, hormones, proteins, cells or other substances.”

"In one relevant example, certain proteins have been implicated as a partial cause of Parkinson's disease," the patent states. "The development of Parkinson's disease may be prevented or retarded by providing particles functionalised with a bioreceptor that will selectively bind to this target.

"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."

The patent filing follows recent news that Google executive Bill Maris claimed that scientific advances will mean that in the future humans could live to be 500-years-old.

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