Longtime Googler Jeff Huber leaves for CEO role at Illumina’s cancer detecting startup Grail, Inc

Image via Noah Berger for The New York Times

After joining genetics research firm Illumina’s board of directors back in 2014, long-time Google employee and Senior VP Jeff Huber is now leaving Google for a full-time position at the company. Huber noted the change on his LinkedIn profile where he lists his new role as CEO at Illumina’s Grail Inc as of this month, a startup developing cancer detecting technologies, and the company made an official announcement today via Bloomberg:

“Around my 10-year anniversary was a good time to pause and reflect on what I want to do with the next decade in my career,” Huber, 47, said in a telephone interview. Technology is changing biology research and cancer care, he said, and that attracted him to the move, which Illumina announced Wednesday.

On its website, Grail describes its goal as “the early detection of cancer in asymptomatic individuals through a blood screen – with the goal of massively decreasing global cancer mortality by detection at a curable stage.” It also lists notable investors including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ and Bill Gates.

Pinpointing them “is a dimension we need to push on,” Huber told Bloomberg. “We’re still investigating the science, and we’re optimistic we will be able to say, ‘Statistically, this looks like a breast cancer or colon cancer.’”

Huber joined Google back in 2003 and has worked on various products including Maps, apps, ads, and projects within the company’s secretive Google X lab where it’s reportedly developing its own cancer sniffing blood bots.