Jack Andraka, who is he? Let
me inform you that this is the child prodigy, genius or sophomore or whatever
you call, who has broken the ground of pancreatic cancer in the medicine world
by his invention of a test that could detect pancreatic cancer in its very
early stage than any other tests available. Before getting into detail, let me
share something .
I never liked reading story
books. Believe me friends, just never and ever. But I am talking about the
instance, once when I was having a magazine in my hands in which the life story of Steve Jobs, yes, the founder
of Apple, Steve Jobs, one of my favorites, was written. I was just giving a glance at the story and soon it
turned out to be very enjoyable reading
the story. And since then, I have a feeling that reading story books and novels
would sometimes be fun and we could also learn a whole universe of things from them.
Steve Jobs died from lately
detected pancreatic cancer . His pancreatic cancer could not be detected in the
very early stage and as a result he could not get appropriate treatment for
this and this ultimately led him to
death with a last stage pancreatic cancer. Now, just imagine how many people
like him die from the same problem of
late pancreatic cancer detection. 19 out of 20 people die of pancreatic
cancer within five years. Does not the survival rate seem to be totally
negligible. Well friends, I think there is a miracle solution to this problem now.Yes,
this is a miracle breakthrough towards saving millions of people’s life from deadly
pancreatic cancer and even from ovarian and lung cancer too.
Again, guess what friends, very
amazingly, like Akrit Jaswal, the youngest 7 year old surgeon of the world, this
miracle revolution is brought about by only a 15 year old school boy. Wow, so
amazing. This boy claims that the use of this test, the survival rates from
pancreatic cancer, which were almost negligible, could be raised to 100% For me, these are angels being sent by God to
alleviate sufferings of the ill people on the earth.
What Is This Test
Jack Andraka,
from Crownsville, Maryland, developed a simple dip – stick type
sensor test for detecting elevated levels of a protein called mesothelin. This
protein is always present in blood and urine but the elevated levels of this
protein indicates the presence of pancreatic cancer, ovarian and lung cancers
too, which have been a really difficult job for the scientist for years..Jack
developed the test which could detect this initial increase in mesothelin
levels during the early stages of pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancers when
there is a greater chance of cure of the cancer if treated appropriately. This
little boy has done such a wonderful job with only the reach of Wikipedia and Google as his primary tools which
are available to any one on the earth with an internet connection that even
many great scientists could not managed to do after years of research and with
millions of dollars – worth of research.
This test is
claimed to be 168 times faster, simple and sensitive 26, 000 less expensive and
400 times more standard than the current standard available tests.
In a similar way
antibodies fit into an antigen binding site like a lock and key, he laced
carbon nano - tubes with mesothelin specific antibodies which specifically
attracted the mesothelin protein in blood and urine and then the nano – tube
strip generated an consequent electrical signal large enough to detect with a
simple ohm meter.
The test works in
a similar way that the diabetic test strips work, just requiring a single drop
of blood wether these patients are carrying the elevated levels of the
mesothelin biomarkers. The results are claimed to be 90% accurate and cost
about 3 cents only, which is a really good news for the people from a low
earning family to reach out for medical help.
What Led Jack to Start His Research
Many times it
happens that someone close to us has died of deadly disease and we get so
deeply attacked by emotions that we feel like if we had the power to do
something to combat the disease and could save the life of the loved one. But
for most of the cases, that is it, we just remain emotionally suffered, not having the
courage to do something. But this little boy has not just stopped by emotions
as a family uncle of his died from this deadly pancreatic cancer. He started
researching on this disease and getting to the root of the reason that why this
cancer is not preventable. He thought that
there must be a simple way. And when he started his research, very
interestingly he did not even know that he himself had a pancreas.
In the meantime
his father, who is a civil engineer, and him has been using carbon nano – tubes
to screen compounds in water from Chesapeake Bay.
The carbon nano – tubes are tiny cylindrical structures and have the property
of conducting electricity better than
copper. Together with these properties of carbon nano – tubes and the lectures
on antibodies by his biology teacher, he found his eureka moment that what
if he laced a carbon nano tube with a mesothelin specific antibody and
then introduce a drop of blood from a pancreatic cancer patient? This idea led
him to complete his theory research and start doing the lab research.
How Jack Andraka Made This Invention Possible
Jack thought of
lacing the nano - tubes with the antibody specific mesothelin
and introduced a pancreatic cancer
patient’s blood. The antibodies would bind to the mesothelin and enlarge
which would cause the nano – tubes to spread further apart changing the
electrical properties of the nano – tube network. The more mesothelin present, the more antibodies would bind to the
protein and the more the tube would enlarge, and the weaker the electrical
signal would become. This would detect the elevating levels of mesothelin in
blood and urine of these patients in the early stage of their pancreatic cancer.
Jack Andraka
mailed his experimental protocol to 200 researchers, from which only one
researcher called Dr. Anirban Maitra,
responded and invited Jack to his lab. Jack’s test detected mesothelin in
artificial samples and pinpointed mesothelin in the blood of mice carrying human pancreatic tumors. Jack Andraka’s
breakthrough could now grant a survival rate of 100% for pancreatic cancer
patients.
About The Little Scientist Jack Andraka
Jack Thomas
Andraka, born in 1997, from Crownsville,
Maryland, is a an inventor,
scientist and cancer researcher. He is the 2012 Intel Science Fair Grand prize
winner and he was awarded the Gordon E. Moore Award for the invention of the new
simple, rapid, reliable and sensitive dip – stick type sensor for the
detection of the early stage of pancreatic cancer and also ovarian and lung
cancer. The Gordon E. Moore Award is for $75, 000. He also won other prizes
totaling a prize of $ 100,500.
So friends, if
suspecting for pancreatic, lung or ovarian cancer or other forms of cancer,
tuberculosis, HIV, etc., it is time to be fearless as this revolutionary dip –
stick test could save us by leading to seek early medical treatments.
The whole story
was just incredibly fantastic for me, and I hope, it was far more fantastic to
you all friends. These little Einsteins should be saluted by us, so let us
salute them friends.
Ok friends, this
is bi, bi time. If you all are really enjoying the information through our
blog, please give your friends also the chance to let know these information by
sharing our blog link to their links.
Till our next
post, stay healthy, be passionate like Akrit Jaswal and Jack Thomas Andraka,
and keep blogging.
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