Have you ever experienced a moment in your life that was so painful and confusing, that all you wanted to do was learn as much as you could to make sense of it all? When I was 13, a close family friend who was like an uncle to me passed away from pancreatic cancer. When the disease hit so close to home, I knew I needed to learn more. So I went online to find answers. Using the Internet, I found a variety of statistics on pancreatic cancer, and what I had found shocked me. Over 85 percent of all pancreatic cancers are diagnosed late, when someone has less than a two percent chance of survival. Why are we so bad at detecting pancreatic cancer? The reason? Today's current "modern" medicine is a 60-year-old technique. That's older than my dad. (Laughter) But also, it's extremely expensive, costing 800 dollars per test, and it's grossly inaccurate, missing 30 percent of all pancreatic cancers. Your doctor would have to be ridiculously suspicious that you have the cancer in order to give you this test. Learning this, I knew there had to be a better way. So, I set up scientific criteria as to what a sensor would have to look like in order to effectively diagnose pancreatic cancer. The sensor would have to be: inexpensive, rapid, simple, sensitive, selective, and minimally invasive. Now, there's a reason why this test hasn't been updated in over six decades. And that's because when we're looking for pancreatic cancer, we're looking at your bloodstream, which is already abundant in all these tons and tons of protein, and you're looking for this miniscule difference in this tiny amount of protein. Just this one protein. That's next to impossible. However, undeterred due to my teenage optimism -- (Laughter) (Applause) I went online to a teenager's two best friends, Google and Wikipedia. I got everything for my homework from those two sources. (Laughter) And what I had found was an article that listed a database of over 8,000 different proteins that are found when you have pancreatic cancer. So, I decided to go and make it my new mission to go through all these proteins, and see which ones could serve as a bio-marker for pancreatic cancer. And to make it a bit simpler for myself, I decided to map out scientific criteria, and here it is. Essentially, first, the protein would have to be found in all pancreatic cancers, at high levels in the bloodstream, in the earliest stages, but also only in cancer. And so I'm just plugging and chugging through this gargantuan task, and finally, on the 4,000th try, when I'm close to losing my sanity, I find the protein. And the name of the protein I'd located was called mesothelin, and it's just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill type protein, unless, of course, you have pancreatic, ovarian or lung cancer, in which case it's found at these very high levels in your bloodstream. But also, the key is that it's found in the earliest stages of the disease, when someone has close to 100 percent chance of survival. So now that I'd found a reliable protein I could detect, I then shifted my focus to actually detecting that protein, and thus, pancreatic cancer. Now, my breakthrough came in a very unlikely place, possibly the most unlikely place for innovation -- my high school biology class, the absolute stifler of innovation. (Laughter) (Applause) And I had snuck in this article on these things called carbon nanotubes, and that's just a long, thin pipe of carbon that's an atom thick, and one 50,000th the diameter of your hair. And despite their extremely small sizes, they have these incredible properties. They're kind of like the superheroes of material science. And while I was sneakily reading this article under my desk in my biology class, we were supposed to be paying attention to these other kind of cool molecules, called antibodies. And these are pretty cool because they only react with one specific protein, but they're not nearly as interesting as carbon nanotubes. And so then, I was sitting in class, and suddenly it hit me: I could combine what I was reading about, carbon nanotubes, with what I was supposed to be thinking about, antibodies. Essentially, I could weave a bunch of these antibodies into a network of carbon nanotubes, such that you have a network that only reacts with one protein, but also, due to the properties of these nanotubes, it will change its electrical properties, based on the amount of protein present. However, there's a catch. These networks of carbon nanotubes are extremely flimsy. And since they're so delicate, they need to be supported. So that's why I chose to use paper. Making a cancer sensor out of paper is about as simple as making chocolate chip cookies, which I love. (Laughs) You start with some water, pour in some nanotubes, add antibodies, mix it up, take some paper, dip it, dry it, and you can detect cancer. (Applause) Then, suddenly, a thought occurred that kind of put a blemish on my amazing plan here. I can't really do cancer research on my kitchen countertop. My mom wouldn't really like that. So instead, I decided to go for a lab. So I typed up a budget, a materials list, a timeline, and a procedure, and I emailed it to 200 different professors at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health -- essentially, anyone that had anything to do with pancreatic cancer. I sat back waiting for these positive emails to be pouring in, saying, "You're a genius! You're going to save us all!" And -- (Laughter) Then reality took hold, and over the course of a month, I got 199 rejections out of those 200 emails. One professor even went through my entire procedure, painstakingly -- I'm not really sure where he got all this time -- and he went through and said why each and every step was like the worst mistake I could ever make. Clearly, the professors did not have as high of an opinion of my work as I did. However, there is a silver lining. One professor said, "Maybe I might be able to help you, kid." So, I went in that direction. (Laughter) As you can never say no to a kid. And so then, three months later, I finally nailed down a harsh deadline with this guy, and I get into his lab, I get all excited, and then I sit down, I start opening my mouth and talking, and five seconds later, he calls in another Ph.D. Ph.D.s just flock into this little room, and they're just firing these questions at me, and by the end, I kind of felt like I was in a clown car. There were 20 Ph.D.s, plus me and the professor crammed into this tiny office space, with them firing these rapid-fire questions at me, trying to sink my procedure. How unlikely is that? I mean, pshhh. (Laughter) However, subjecting myself to that interrogation -- I answered all their questions, and I guessed on quite a few but I got them right -- and I finally landed the lab space I needed. But it was shortly afterwards that I discovered my once brilliant procedure had something like a million holes in it, and over the course of seven months, I painstakingly filled each and every one of those holes. The result? One small paper sensor that costs three cents and takes five minutes to run. This makes it 168 times faster, over 26,000 times less expensive, and over 400 times more sensitive than our current standard for pancreatic cancer detection. (Applause) One of the best parts of the sensor, though, is that it has close to 100 percent accuracy, and can detect the cancer in the earliest stages, when someone has close to 100 percent chance of survival. And so in the next two to five years, this sensor could potentially lift the pancreatic cancer survival rates from a dismal 5.5 percent to close to 100 percent, and it would do similar for ovarian and lung cancer. But it wouldn't stop there. By switching out that antibody, you can look at a different protein, thus, a different disease -- potentially any disease in the entire world. So that ranges from heart disease, to malaria, HIV, AIDS, as well as other forms of cancer -- anything. And so, hopefully one day, we can all have that one extra uncle, that one mother, that one brother, sister, we can have that one more family member to love. And that our hearts will be rid of that one disease burden that comes from pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancer, and potentially any disease. But through the Internet, anything is possible. Theories can be shared, and you don't have to be a professor with multiple degrees to have your ideas valued. It's a neutral space, where what you look like, age or gender -- it doesn't matter. It's just your ideas that count. For me, it's all about looking at the Internet in an entirely new way, to realize that there's so much more to it than just posting duck-face pictures of yourself online. (Laughter) You could be changing the world. So if a 15 year-old who didn't even know what a pancreas was could find a new way to detect pancreatic cancer -- just imagine what you could do. Thank you. (Applause)
Jeste li ikad u svom životu doživeli trenutak koji je bio toliko bolan i zbunjujuć da ste samo želeli da saznate što više o njemu kako bi on imao smisla? Kada mi je bilo 13 godina, blizak porodični prijatelj koji mi je bio poput ujaka umro je od raka pankreasa. Kada je bolest udarila tako blizu mog doma, znao sam da moram da saznam više, pa sam otišao na internet da nađem odgovore. Koristeći internet, naišao sam na mnoštvo statistika u vezi sa rakom pankreasa, a ono što sam otkrio šokiralo me je. Više od 85% svih slučajeva raka pankreasa otkrije se kasno, kada osoba ima šansu manju od 2% da preživi. Zašto nam toliko loše ide otkrivanje raka pankreasa? Razlog tome je da današnja moderna medicina koristi tehniku staru 60 godina. To znači da je starija od mog tate. (Smeh) Ali takođe, veoma je skupa i košta 800 dolara po testu. Pri tome je i veoma nepouzdana i ne otkrije 30% slučajeva raka pankreasa. Vaš lekar bi morao da ima ogromnu sumnju da imate rak kako bi vas poslao na ovo testiranje. Saznavši ovo, znao sam da mora postojati bolji način. Tako da sam napravio naučne kriterijume o tome kakav bi senzor morao da bude kako bi efikasno otkrivao rak pankreasa. Senzor bi trebalo da bude jeftin, brz, jednostavan, osetljiv, selektivan i minimalno invazivan. Međutim, postoji razlog zašto se ovaj test nije modernizovao preko 6 decenija, a to je zato što kada tražimo rak pankreasa, posmatramo vaš krvotok koji već u sebi ima gomilu proteina, a mi tražimo neku malecnu razliku u toj malenoj količini proteina, samo tog jednog proteina. To je skoro nemoguće. Ipak, ohrabren svojim tinejdžerskim optimizmom - (Aplauz) - posetio sam na internetu dva najbolja prijatelja jednog tinejdžera, Gugl i Vikipediju. Sve što mi treba za domaće zadatke, dobijam sa ta dva izvora. I pronašao sam članak koji je sadržao bazu podataka sa preko 8.000 raličitih proteina koji su prisutni kada imate rak pankreasa. Tako da sam odlučio da sebi zadam cilj - da prođem kroz sve te proteine i nađem one koji bi mogli da posluže kao biomarkeri u raku pankreasa. A da bih to sebi malo pojednostavio odlučio sam da postavim naučne kriterijume, koji su sledeći: prvo i osnovno, morao bi da postoji visok nivo tog proteina u krvi u svim slučajevima raka pankreasa u ranim fazama, ali samo u slučaju raka. I tako ja rontam kroz informacije u ovom ogromnom zadatku i konačno, iz 4.000-og pokušaja, kada sam već blizu gubljenja razuma, pronađem taj protein. A ime proteina koji sam našao je mezotelin i on je najobičniji, vrlo zastupljeni protein, sem ako, naravno, imate rak pankreasa, jajnika ili pluća. A u tom slučaju, u vašoj krvi će se nalaziti visok nivo ovog proteina. Ali takođe, ključno je da je prisutan u najranijim fazama bolesti, onda kada neko ima skoro 100% šansu da preživi. Sada, kad sam pronašao pouzdan protein koji bih mogao da tražim, fokusirao sam se na to da ga zaista i nađem, a, na taj način, i rak pankreasa. Moje otkriće se desilo na veoma neobičnom mestu, moguće najneverovatnijem mestu za inovaciju: u kabinetu za biologiju moje srednje škole, apsolutnom gušitelju inovacije. (Smeh) (Aplauz) Tu sam krišom uneo članak o nečemu što se zove nano-cevi od ugljenika i to je duga, tanka cev od ugljenika koja je debljine atoma, a to je 50.000-ti deo prečnika dlake vaše kose. Ali i pored ove ekstremno male veličine, ove cevi imaju izuzetne osobine. One su kao superheroji nauke o materijalima. I dok sam na času biologije ispod stola krišom čitao ovaj članak, trebalo je da pratim predavanje o drugim kul molekulima, antitelima. A oni su prilično kul jer reaguju samo sa jednim posebnim proteinom, ali nisu ni izbliza zanimljivi kao nano-cevi od ugljenika. Dakle, sedeo sam tako na času i odjednom mi je sinulo: mogao bih da kombinujem ono o čemu sam čitao, o nano-cevima od ugljenika, sa onim o čemu je trebalo da razmišljam, o antitelima. U osnovi, mogao bih da prepletem gomilu antitela u mrežu nano-cevi od ugljenika, tako da se napravi mreža koja reaguje samo sa jednim proteinom, ali koja bi takođe, zbog osobina ovih nano-cevi, promenila svoje električne osobine u zavisnosti od količine prisutnog proteina. Međutim, ima jedna kvaka. Ove mreže nano-cevi od ugljenika su izuzetno slabe, a, pošto su toliko osetljive, moraju se pridržati. Zato sam izabrao papir. Napraviti senzor za rak od papira je jednostavno poput pravljenja čokoladnih keksića, koje obožavam. Počnemo sa vodom, sipamo malo nano-cevi, dodamo antitela, pomešamo, uzmemo malo papira, umočimo ga, osušimo i možemo da otkrijemo rak. (Aplauz) A onda mi je, iznenada, sinula jedna misao koja je malo pokvarila moj neverovatni plan. Baš i ne mogu da radim istraživanje o raku u svojoj kuhinji. Mojoj mami se to ne bi baš svidelo. Umesto toga, odlučio sam se za laboratoriju. Zatim sam otkucao budžet, spisak materijala, vremenski okvir i postupak i poslao imejl na adrese 200 profesora sa Univerziteta Džons Hopkins i Nacionalnog instituta za zdravlje, zapravo svima koji su bilo kako povezani sa rakom pankreasa. I zavalio sam se čekajući da počnu da stižu pozitivni odgovori, koji kažu: "Ti si genije! Sve ćeš nas spasiti!" Ali... (Smeh) Onda me je dočekala realnost i u roku od mesec dana, dobio sam 199 odbijenica od tih 200 imejlova. Jedan profesor je čak prošao kroz čitav moj postupak, vrlo pažljivo - ne znam odakle mu vreme za to - i objasnio mi zašto je svaki moj korak najgora greška koju sam mogao da napravim. Očigledno je da profesori nisu imali toliko visoko mišljenje o mom radu kao ja. Međutim, postojalo je i nešto dobro. Jedan od profesora je rekao: "Možda bih ja mogao da ti pomognem, mali." Pa sam se uputio u tom pravcu. (Smeh) Jer nikad ne možete detetu reći "ne". Tako da sam posle tri meseca konačno uspeo da odredim tačan rok sa ovim tipom. I odem u njegovu laboratoriju, sav uzbuđen, a onda sednem i otvorim usta da progovorim i pet sekundi kasnije, on pozove još jednog doktora. Doktori se sjate u tu malu prostoriju i počnu da me rešetaju pitanjima. Naposletku smo bili zbijeni kao sardine. U prostoriji je bilo 20 doktora, profesor i ja, svi nagurani u tu malu kancelariju, a oni su me rešetali tom gomilom pitanja pokušavajući da obore moj postupak. Kolike su šanse za tako nešto? Mislim, stvarno. (Smeh) Međutim, budući da sam prošao to ispitivanje, i odgovorio na sva njihova pitanja, a dosta odgovora sam samo uspešno pogodio, konačno sam dobio laboratoriju koja mi je bila potrebna. Ali sam ubrzo shvatio da moj, naizgled, sjajan plan ima oko milion rupa koje sam u narednih sedam meseci pažljivo morao da popunim, jednu po jednu. Rezultat je jedan mali papirni senzor koji košta tri centa i deluje za pet minuta. Ovo čini da je ovaj postupak 168 puta brži, preko 26.000 puta jeftiniji i preko 400 puta osetljiviji od standardnog postupka za otkrivanje raka pankreasa. (Aplauz) Ipak, jedna od najboljih osobina ovog senzora je da je približno stoprocentno tačan i može da otkrije rak u najranijim fazama, onda kada osoba ima šansu od skoro 100% da preživi. Tako da bi u sledećih 2-5 godina ovaj senzor mogao podići stopu preživljavanja raka pankreasa sa žalosnih 5,5% na blizu 100%, a isto bi učinio i sa rakom jajnika i pluća. Ali ne bi se na tome zaustavilo. Isključujući to antitelo, mogu da se posmatraju drugi proteini, stoga, i druge bolesti. Potencijalno, bilo koja bolest koja postoji igde u svetu. Dakle, od srčanih bolesti preko malarije, HIV-a, side pa sve do drugih vrsta raka - praktično bilo čega. Tako da jednog dana svi možemo imati tog još jednog ujaka, jednu majku, jednog brata ili sestru, možemo imati tog još jednog voljenog člana porodice, a naša srca biće oslobođena tog tereta bolesti koji dolazi sa rakom pankreasa, jajnika ili pluća i potencijalno sa bilo kojom drugom bolesti. Sve je moguće zahvaljujući internetu. Mogu da se podele teorije i ne morate da budete profesor sa nekoliko diploma da bi se vaše ideje cenile. To je neutralan prostor u kojem vaš izgled, godine ili pol nisu bitni. Računaju se samo vaše ideje. Za mene, ključ je u posmatranju interneta na sasvim novi način kako biste shvatili da postoji mnogo više od postavljanja slika na kojima ste napućeni. Mogli biste da promenite svet. Znači, ako je petnaestogodišnje dete koje nije znalo ni šta je pankreas moglo da pronađe novi način da se otkrije rak pankreasa, samo zamislite šta biste vi mogli da uradite. Hvala vam. (Aplauz)