Google X life sciences team spins out and becomes its own company under Alphabet

Google X is spinning out its life sciences group and making it a standalone company within new Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, Google cofounder Sergey Brin wrote in a Google+ post today.

Andy Conrad, who has been the head of Google Life Sciences until now, will be the new chief executive, Brin wrote.

“While the reporting structure will be different, their goal remains the same,” Brin wrote in the Google+ post. “They’ll continue to work with other life sciences companies to move new technologies from early stage R&D to clinical testing — and, hopefully — transform the way we detect, prevent, and manage disease.”

This announcement could well have been part of the initial unveiling of Alphabet last week. But it wasn’t. Steven Levy did report on Backchannel last week that this was happening, but there was no official announcement about this until now. This is an adjustment in the way the new Alphabet will be doing research and development, and specifically indicates a greater investment in health technology on the part of Google Alphabet.

The new life sciences company includes programmers, as well as people skilled in optics and oncology, Brin wrote.

“This is the type of company we hope will thrive as part of Alphabet, and I can’t wait to see what they do next,” Brin wrote.

The Google X life sciences team is probably best known for its contact lens for monitoring blood glucose levels. Now many more projects could be on the way.