Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos pour millions into new cancer test

Meet the computer diagnosing cancer



Grail's new test uses a technique called a "liquid biopsy." It scans patients' blood streams for signs of cancer DNA, which can indicate that a tumor is forming -- even if a doctor can't see it on a scan and the patient hasn't experienced any symptoms.

Many cancers don't show up on CT scans or blood tests until they're more developed and spreading. Some patients don't feel any pain or are unaware that they have cancer until it's too late. Grail hopes that earlier diagnoses will help doctors remove tumors before they spread, and potentially save patients the trauma of chemotherapy.

Related: The 30 rich and powerful people Bill Gates signed on to save the world

Liquid biopsies aren't a new idea, but only recently has gene-sequencing become affordable enough to make it a viable option to screen at-risk patients, the company says. They're also controversial: Previous attempts to use liquid biopsies as diagnostic tools have not passed the FDA's scrutiny.


The company is a spinoff of Illumina, the world's leading DNA sequencing company. Illumina, along with another venture capital fund called Arch, has also invested in Grail.

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