Free food, bright bikes, and high salaries – these are the well-known imprints of Googleplex, the famous Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. However, the cardiologist Jessica Mega gave up his academic career at Harvard Medical School and became the chief medical officer of the Google Life Sciences team. What attracted her was the company's research ideals, and the team will soon be merged into Google's new parent company, Alphabet.
Google headquarters Googleplex
While enjoying Google's professional data analysis and engineering design training, this biological team also shoulders the responsibility of developing microelectronic devices. These electronic devices will work with other means to continuously collect health data to enable innovations in the state of the art.
“Contacting a computer hardware and software expert with a strong technical background is like immersing myself in the same kind of people – this unique advantage has given me a strong interest.†Mega admits, “This has a profound impact on me.†table."
Mega finally decided to go to Google in March, and this is just a microcosm of the transformation of top scientists and medical workers. They have joined the team one after another, and at the same time they have opened up new careers. Although researchers in the fields of computer science and engineering led the mainstream of previous Google project innovations (such as Google Project Glass), Google and other technology companies accelerated their recruitment as Silicon Valley ventured into the health arena. The process of life scientists.
“I feel that we will witness a large number of heavyweights joining here.†Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, California, said with a smile.
In September, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, announced that he is about to join Google Life Sciences to help expand the reach of technology applications in mental health. Coincidentally, molecular biologist Cynthia Kenyon joined Google’s San Francisco biotech company Calico last year, and previously he was the head of a aging research project at the University of California, San Francisco.
Euan Ashley, a cardiologist at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley, said that the data scientists on campus are often tempted by such companies, and companies are always ready to wait for them to jump out of the campus. “They are often dug away,†he admitted. “We compete with technology companies like Google, and in fact, they often pay more than Stanford.â€
However, temptation is much more than just money. Topol said that Silicon Valley provides these technology talents with ample technical resources that are difficult for colleges and universities to achieve, and the opportunity to achieve their goals in life is also within reach. In the environment of colleges and universities, science and technology personnel are often unable to witness the transformation from technology to reality. “Compared to these resources, what you can reach in the academic circle is completely incomparable, and the measurement standards are also significantly different: it is not the pursuit of publishing, but the hope to 'make the product sounds',†he explained.
"Let the product come to the ground" - this is also the most determined voice of electronic engineer Brian Otis in the 2012 tenure of the University of Washington, and turned to Google. He is working on a "smart" contact lens in Google to monitor diabetes patients in real time by measuring the amount of glucose in the tears.
However, the project faced two major problems: First, does the electronic device need to embed a functional glucose sensor in the wearable contact lens? Second, is it sufficient to provide relevant standards for blood sugar levels? Otis said that both the motivation of the project itself and the exploration of the answers to these unknown questions have inspired him to move forward. He recalled, "If I join Google's life sciences team with these questions, then I have already laid out the platform and resources to answer them."
It turns out that this project was a success. Pharmaceutical giant Novartis registered the contact lens technology last year, and Otis has now been promoted to the head of the Google Life Sciences team hardware and medical device research and development center. "From the basic science of the most important source to the development of products that can be put into practical use, 'Let the product fall to the ground', this is my original intention, and it has also made me the present, so that I can continue to devote myself to this." He expressed emotion.
Apple is also close behind, joining the competition in the health field. In March of this year, Apple launched a software infrastructure ResearchKit for medical researchers. Through this architecture, researchers can collect health data from patient phones and write their own applications; in April, Microsoft also launched a medical alliance program called Watson Health and Watson Health Cloud ( Watson Health Cloud) uses Microsoft's own cognitive computer technology to process large volumes of health information from different sources. The service will help doctors manage patient health by grooming information in patients' personal electronic devices or helping pharmaceutical companies manage clinical trial data in the computer cloud more effectively.
At the same time, Intel is stepping up research and development of computer cloud service technology, thereby providing more personalized customized treatment programs for cancer patients; Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon have also thrown olive branches into the field of biomedical and health.
However, Google's approach to entry is different: it invests more resources in potential health applications, and it is more diversified than other participating companies. Observers have valued that although Google claims that capital spending is not enough, the amount invested in life science research each year is still more than one billion dollars.
Google's life sciences team is working on a range of projects including the development of new health monitoring pathways. Similar to smart contact lenses, Baseline Study can better match the health status by collecting the big data information of the audience, and also provide more effective preventive treatment measures as soon as possible.
At the same time, Google also funded academic talents and fully accumulated external cooperation resources. For example, Google's genome is investigating the possibilities of computer cloud technology in the field of genomics, and its anti-aging research company Calico has signed a number of cooperation agreements with technology companies and academic institutions.
“Unlike other biotech companies, they are throwing olive branches into the academic world,†said Judith Campisi, a molecular cell biologist at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California. The move also opens the door for researchers to collaborate with Google rather than massive influx.
"For some university researchers, joining a technology company will also be an exciting new opportunity." Harvard University and MIT physicist Steven Hyman expressed emotion. However, he also said frankly, "If you want to avoid risks, this is not a good destination. In the short run, the world of Google, Apple, and Microsoft is more likely to change. After all, these companies are exploring. The field is still unknown to them."
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