Google is developing tiny magnetic particles that could help detect cancer and other health problems by coursing through a patient’s bloodstream.

Andrew Conrad, head of the Google X research lab’s Life Sciences Team, told the WSJ.D Live conference Tuesday that the particles can be directed toward different parts of the body by applying wearable magnetic devices to the skin.

The wearable would be able to count the particles and possibly compile information about what potential medical conditions they detected.

“Nanoparticles are the nexus between biology and engineering,” Conrad said in an interview at the conference, which was excerpted in a video. “We can make these nanoparticles behave in ways that we want them to do.”

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