Google restructuring puts Life Sciences & Calico group under new umbrella

Google (NSDQ:GOOG) announced today a corporate restructuring that places it under the new parent company Alphabet.

The company highlighted the separation of its med-device developer Life Sciences business and human-longevity focused Calico division.

The new Google will be slimmed down, former Google CEO and now-Alphabet CEO Larry Page said, and separated from companies that run “far afield” of its main internet products, such as its medical and health focused groups.

Last year, the company’s Life Sciences business announced it partnered with Novartis‘ (NYSE:NVS) Alcon subsidiary to develop a “smart” contact lenses that can measure blood glucose levels and transmit reports wirelessly.

The smart lens project was developed by Google’s clandestine “X” research team and aims to revolutionize the way that diabetics measure and monitor their blood glucose levels.

The smart lenses are fitted with wireless microchips, tiny glucose sensors and hair-thin antennae that can detect blood glucose levels in tears and transmit that data to another device. Google said last year that the prototypes were generating 1 reading per second, and researchers were considering adding a tiny LED warning system that would light up to alert the wearer that blood glucose levels are nearing unhealthy highs or lows.

Google’s X team unveiled the smart lenses last January, saying at the time that it was looking for partners to take the project from the bench to the market. The company built the lens from scratch, developing new chips and sensors and transmitters small enough to sit on the eye.

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