Silicon Valley still believes it can build a computer that can diagnose medical problems from drops of blood, even as the founder of failed start-up Theranos appeared in court this week on charges of defrauding investors with such a vision.
In the past 12 months alone, investors have poured more than $200m into three start-ups that are trying to build small blood-testing devices, in a sign that the Theranos scandal has not harmed the rapidly growing market for medical diagnostics.
Verily, the life sciences division of Google’s parent company Alphabet, led a $50m round of financing in January for Genalyte, which has created a benchtop machine that promises to perform multiple rapid tests on small amounts of blood. Andy Conrad, the chief executive of Verily and a former chief scientific officer of LabCorp, joined the company’s board.