Google Life Sciences, a research group recently spun off from its parent corporation, is teaming with the American Heart Association in a $50 million project to find new ways to fight heart disease. Both organizations will contribute $25 million over the next five years as part of the commitment to search for a cure. The latter one remains the biggest and deadliest global health challenge being faced these days.
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Heart disease is responsible, statistically, for one in three deaths worldwide and current research methods, normally backed by smaller piecemeal capital investments, have been doing quite well, but have so far failed to venture far enough off the reservation to turn up many new developments, instead offshooting or deepening old research. Backed by what has been called the largest single research investment in the AHA’s history, the team will design a program to discover causes and drivers of coronary heart disease. The AHA says this team will also have support from across clinical research, engineering, data analysis, strategic counsel, and more from within its Joint Leadership Group.
But why heart disease?
AHA also mentioned that globally cardiovascular diseases are considered as the most prominent cause of death and seventeen million people die per year due to heart diseases. With the unique opportunity to access such resources, the collaboration will expand research pathways and empower researchers to conceptualize and test new approaches. Of those deaths, coronary heart disease accounts for 7 million.
“This is a fundamentally different kind of model for funding innovation”, said Andy Conrad, CEO of Google Life Sciences in a statment.
“We live in an era today with resources that haven’t been available until now”, said Nancy Brown, chief executive of the heart association. What has continued to confound researchers and health professionals are the root causes.
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The venture will select a project leader in early 2016. This department announced they are joining forces with the American Heart Association to change the direction of heart disease research by backing and directing novel studies. The life sciences team graduated from Google[x] and is now in the process of becoming a standalone Alphabet company.
