Google X, the technology giant Google's research arm has appointed Dr Jessica Mega to head its Baseline Study, as per reports. Dr Mega is associated with the Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital.

Baseline is one of the important projects undertaken by the lifesciences division of Google X. The project, announced last year, "is designed to understand what it means to be healthy, down to the molecular and cellular level," according to a Google press statement.

In its first small pilot phase, the study is collecting genetic and molecular information on 175 people. The researchers aim to employ powerful software algorithms and large amounts of computing power to query enormous and complex data sets to find connections. Google X has teamed up with researchers at Stanford and Duke universities to design and conduct a larger study which will enroll thousands of patients and involve an unprecedented quantity of data.

According to Google X, "The study is intended as a contribution to science; it's not intended to generate a new product at Google. It may unlock lots of ideas for future projects, not just at Google but across the health and technology industries."