Google X exec joins Grail to develop cancer test

SAN FRANCISCO — Grail, which is developing a blood test to detect cancer, has named an executive from Google's X laboratory as its CEO.

"Grail's mission is to detect cancer at an early-stage, when it can be cured," Jeff Huber said in a Google+ post.

The San Francisco company is building gene sequencing and machine learning technology to create a "pan-cancer" screening blood test that can diagnose the disease even in patients who show no symptoms of the disease.

Grail is using San Diego-based Illumina technology to detect genetic material from tumors in patients' blood. Illumina is an investor in Grail, which has raised more than $100 million in funding from the likes of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

Huber, a 12-year Google veteran, joined X, the secretive Google laboratory for so-called "moonshots" in 2013. A few months later, his wife was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.

"My work at Grail is dedicated in remembrance of my wife, Laura. She fought an incredibly brave battle with her cancer, but it was ultimately a losing battle since it was diagnosed so late," he wrote. "If Grail had existed before, and caught her cancer earlier, it's very possible she'd still be with us today."

Follow Paste BN senior technology writer Jessica Guynn @jguynn