Andrew Conrad, head of Google Lifesciences, has confirmed that the company is working on nanoparticle technology that would be swallowed, and used in combination with an external device to continuously monitor the blood to detect cancer, heart disease, and other health issues. It is known as the “Nanoparticle Platform.”

While the technology is in an early development stage, Conrad said that Google “has been able to “functionalize” the nano particles, using them to find a few cancer cells among a million normal ones.” He continued: “We’ve probably done hundreds of thousands of experiments exploring the parameters of nanoparticle binding, While there is still much work to be done, he said, “we would definitely hope that it’s years, not decades, until this is deployed.”