BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Google Expands Further Into Biotech, Hardware With Lift Labs Acquisition

This article is more than 9 years old.

Google's distant past as simply an Internet company is one step further away.

The search company expanded further into its hardware and biotech realms Wednesday when it said it was acquiring Lift Labs, a small company that has built a high-tech spoon that stabilizes food for people with essential tremor or Parkinson's disease. No price was disclosed.

Liftware, as the tremor-canceling device is called, works by distinguishing which movements are essential -- the user bringing the spoon up to his or her mouth -- and cancelling out the movements which are tremors. The spoon lets users focus on the social aspects of eating instead of worrying about spilling, greatly adding to their independence and quality of life.

The Lift Labs team will join Google [x]'s Life Sciences team and continue to sell the Liftware, which retails for $295 and was developed with help from a National Institutes of Health grant.

Neither company said much about the technology's future at Google. Lift Labs said the acquisition would let it do more of what it's already doing -- "Google will enable us to reach even more people living with Parkinson’s or essential tremor who could benefit from using tremor-canceling devices."

Google hinted in a statement at other unspecified applications of the technology: "We’re also going to explore how their technology could be used in other ways to improve the understanding and management of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor."

Unlike Google's Calico company, which will develop therapies to combat age-related diseases in its soon-to-be-built research center, the Lift Labs acquisition is focused on biotech hardware, not drugs. It's more similar to Google' smart contact lenses, which measure blood glucose levels through a person's tears.

The connection to Parkinson's disease also makes the acquisition a personal one for Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose family's history of the disease inspired him to fund related research and who has said he has a 50 percent chance of developing the disease in the next 20 years.

Follow me on TwitterSend me a secure tip