science

Verily

Verily is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Verily rather than just read about it. In short: Verily Life Sciences LLC also known as Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), is Alphabet Inc.'s research organization devoted to the study of life sciences. The organization was formerly a division of Google X, and as of December 2024, is operating as a standalone company under Alphabet.

Key takeaways

Verily belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Verily to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Verily from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Verily Life Sciences LLC also known as Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), is Alphabet Inc.'s research organization devoted to the study of life sciences. The organization was formerly a division of Google X, and as of December 2024, is operating as a standalone company under Alphabet.

History On 9 September 2014, the then-Google X division Google Life Sciences acquired Lift Labs, the makers of Liftware. On August 10, 2015, Sergey Brin announced that the organization would become an independent subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. On December 7, 2015, Google Life Sciences was renamed Verily. Verily Life Sciences in January 2019 raised $1 billion in funding. At the end of 2019, Verily sold its stake in robot-assisted surgery joint venture Verb Surgical to development partner Johnson & Johnson. In August 2020, Verily announced that it is entering into the insurance market with the launch of Coefficient Insurance Company. The new subsidiary will be backed by Swiss Re Group's commercial insurance unit. In August 2021, Verily acquired SignalPath. In October 2022, the first patient was screened for diabetic retinopathy at the Baton Rouge Clinic using Verily Retinal Service. In September 2022, Verily announced longtime CEO Andy Conrad would step down as CEO in January 2023, to be replaced by Stephen Gillett who became CEO on January 3, 2023. In January 2023, fifteen percent of Verily's workforce was laid off as part of a broader restructuring by parent company, Alphabet. The Information reported in August that Gillett had told employees they would stop relying on Alphabet on "a wide range of corporate services", signaling a potential spin-out as an independent company. In October 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention selected Verily to support the agency's National Wastewater Surveillance System. In June 2024, Verily decided to close its operations in Israel three years after opening a research and development center in the country. Verily staff in Israel are expected to leave by the third quarter of 2024. The company cited an effort to refocus its strategy on core products and projects as the reason for the closure. In August 2024, Verily moved its headquarters from South San Francisco to Dallas citing significant investment and involvement in the Texas healthcare and technology sectors. As of December 2024, Verily is acting as a standalone company under Alphabet. In September 2024, Verily expanded its wastewater testing services to Europe through a partnership with Bangor University in Wales. In October 2024, a Verily-led data and technology consortium received a $4.8M award from the National Institutes of Health. In January 2025, Verily signed an agreement to sell its stop-loss insurance unit, Granular (formerly known as Coefficient), to Elevance.

Potential spinoff Reuters reported in August 2023 that Alphabet spinning off Verily was seen as possible after Verily CEO Stephen Gillett announced it would end ties to several of Alphabet's services. In October 2025, Google executive Heather Adkins stated that the company is in the process of selling or spinning off Verily.

Projects The Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitors (CGM), developed in partnership with Dexcom, was FDA approved and launched worldwide in 2022. Galvani Bioelectronics, treating chronic conditions, including Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), through targeted neuromodulation therapies, a joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline Verb Surgical, for advancements in surgical robotics, a joint venture with Johnson & Johnson. A spoon for people with tremors as part of Lift Labs acquisition. The Baseline Study, a project to collect genetic, molecular, and wearable device information from enough people to create a picture of what a healthy human should be. Onduo, a chronic disease management platform for patient with Diabetes, developed in partnership with Sanofi. Study Watch, a health-tracking watch for clinical trials.

Discontinued Contact lenses that allow people with diabetes to continually check their glucose levels using a non-intrusive method. On November 16, 2018, Verily announced it discontinued this project. Smart shoes for health tracking and fall detection Skin research with L’Oréal A disease-detecting nanoparticle platform working with the wristband, a project called Tricorder.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Verily

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Verily claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Verily before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Verily ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Verily

In research: Verily appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Verily in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Verily is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2015 establishments in California, Alphabet Inc., Alphabet Inc. subsidiaries, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Verily outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Verily in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Verily means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Verily out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Verily in simple terms?

Why does Verily matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Verily?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Verily.