15-Year-Old Creates New Method To Diagnose Cancer

            In 2011, a 15-year-old boy named Jack Andraka was deeply affected by a family friend who died of pancreatic cancer, and in turn, developed a much more efficient method to detect this disease in its early stages.

            Because pancreatic cancer can go undetected until its advanced stages, 85% of patients are diagnosed too late and of those numbers, only 2% survive. Jack learned that mesothelin is a protein in the blood that is overexpressed even in the early stages of cancer. He also knew that carbon nanotubes have great mechanical and electrical properties. Therefore he conducted a hypothesis to “lace mesothelin-specific antibodies into a network of carbon nanotubes.” Mesothelin proteins would attach to the antibodies, widening the gaps between the carbon nanotubes, and in turn, this network would have weaker conductivity. This conductivity change would increase based on the amount of mesothelin in the blood sample, and therefore, would be an indicator for specific cancers, including pancreatic cancer, that have elevated mesothelin as an early sign of diagnosis. The conductivity change is easy enough to detect with a standard ohmmeter, making diagnosis much cheaper as well.

            After conducting preliminary research at John Hopkins University with his, “dip-coated filter paper test strips-hooked up via electrodes” to an ohmmeter, they were, “capable of measuring mesothelin levels in the blood of transgenic mice with human pancreatic tumors, and in a limited number of human serum samples.”

            It is because someone like Jack, being as young as he is, can inspire students to make their impact in the scientific field. As scientists, we want to make such an impact to improve the lives of others, and as engineers, we want to accomplish that task as efficiently as possible. To us, Jack is someone to aspire to- to see a lack in the field and improve upon that.

            Click on the link below to read more about how Jack Andraka got involved with researching his experiment at John Hopkins University after many letters of rejection, and some of his trouble shooting, as well as his consequential achievements.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34759/title/The-Cancer-Test-Kid/