0:00:04.462,0:00:07.788
"You have cancer."

0:00:09.064,0:00:14.209
Sadly, about 40 percent of us will hear[br]those three words within our lifetime,

0:00:14.209,0:00:16.732
and half will not survive.

0:00:17.184,0:00:21.011
This means that two of five[br]of your closest friends and relatives

0:00:21.011,0:00:23.511
will be diagnosed[br]with some form of cancer,

0:00:23.511,0:00:25.406
and one will die.

0:00:27.342,0:00:29.021
Beyond the physical hardships,

0:00:29.021,0:00:32.277
roughly one-third of cancer[br]survivors here in the US

0:00:32.277,0:00:33.971
will go into debt from treatment.

0:00:33.971,0:00:37.659
And they're at least two-and-a-half times[br]more likely to declare bankruptcy

0:00:37.659,0:00:39.394
than those without cancer.

0:00:39.789,0:00:42.374
This disease is pervasive.

0:00:42.374,0:00:43.916
It's emotionally draining,

0:00:43.916,0:00:45.088
and for many,

0:00:45.088,0:00:46.933
financially destructive.

0:00:48.067,0:00:51.777
But a cancer diagnosis doesn't[br]have to be a death sentence.

0:00:52.131,0:00:54.042
Finding cancer early,

0:00:54.042,0:00:55.246
closer its genesis,

0:00:55.246,0:00:58.911
is one of the critical factors[br]to improving treatment options,

0:00:58.911,0:01:00.986
reducing its emotional impact

0:01:00.986,0:01:03.290
and minimizing financial burdens.

0:01:03.649,0:01:05.026
Most importantly,

0:01:05.026,0:01:06.329
finding cancer early --

0:01:06.329,0:01:09.274
which is one of the primary[br]aims of my research --

0:01:09.274,0:01:11.981
greatly enhances your odds of survival.

0:01:12.366,0:01:15.190
If we just look at the case[br]of breast cancer for example,

0:01:15.190,0:01:18.631
we find that those who are diagnosed[br]and treated at stage one

0:01:18.631,0:01:22.982
have a five-year survival rate[br]of nearly 100 percent --

0:01:22.982,0:01:27.267
odds that decrease to just 22 percent[br]if treated at stage four.

0:01:28.324,0:01:33.194
And similar trends are found[br]for colorectal and ovarian cancer.

0:01:34.218,0:01:39.695
Now, we're all aware that an early[br]diagnosis that is accurate

0:01:39.695,0:01:42.602
is critical for survival.

0:01:43.901,0:01:47.732
The problem is that many[br]cancer diagnostic tools are invasive,

0:01:47.732,0:01:48.764
costly,

0:01:48.764,0:01:49.933
often inaccurate,

0:01:49.933,0:01:54.310
and they can take an agonizing[br]amount of time to get the results back.

0:01:54.685,0:01:55.694
Still worse,

0:01:55.694,0:01:57.515
when it comes to some forms of cancer,

0:01:57.515,0:02:01.499
such as ovarian, liver[br]or pancreatic cancer,

0:02:01.499,0:02:05.204
good screening methods simply don't exist,

0:02:05.204,0:02:09.291
meaning that often people wait[br]until physical symptoms surface,

0:02:09.291,0:02:13.448
which are themselves already indicators[br]of late-stage progression.

0:02:14.221,0:02:17.796
Like a tornado strike in an area[br]without an early warning system,

0:02:17.796,0:02:19.772
there is no alarm to warn

0:02:19.772,0:02:22.639
for the danger is already[br]at your doorstep ...

0:02:22.639,0:02:25.762
when your odds of survival[br]are greatly reduced.

0:02:27.679,0:02:31.946
Having the convenience and accessibility[br]of regular screening options

0:02:31.946,0:02:37.328
that are affordable, noninvasive[br]and could provide results much sooner,

0:02:37.328,0:02:41.918
would provide us with a formidable[br]weapon in the fight against cancer.

0:02:42.998,0:02:46.094
An early warning would allow us[br]to get out ahead of the disease

0:02:46.094,0:02:48.669
instead of merely following[br]in its relentless wake.

0:02:48.669,0:02:50.639
And this is exactly what I've been doing.

0:02:50.639,0:02:52.385
For the past three years,

0:02:52.385,0:02:53.970
I've been developing technologies

0:02:53.970,0:02:55.710
that could ultimately aid clinicians

0:02:55.710,0:02:58.727
with rapid, early-stage[br]cancer diagnostics.

0:02:59.231,0:03:03.060
And I've been fueled by a deep[br]scientific curiosity,

0:03:03.060,0:03:05.738
and a passion to change these statistics.

0:03:06.995,0:03:09.201
Last year however,

0:03:09.201,0:03:12.179
this fight became much more personal

0:03:12.179,0:03:15.321
when my wife was diagnosed[br]with breast cancer.

0:03:15.788,0:03:20.187
It was an experience that added a strong[br]and unexpected emotional dimension

0:03:20.187,0:03:21.733
to these efforts.

0:03:23.516,0:03:27.768
I know firsthand how life altering[br]treatment can be,

0:03:27.768,0:03:30.470
and I'm keenly aware[br]of the emotional havoc

0:03:30.470,0:03:32.926
that cancer and wreak on a family,

0:03:32.926,0:03:35.739
which in our case included[br]our two young daughters.

0:03:36.686,0:03:39.870
Because we found it early[br]during a routine mammogram,

0:03:39.870,0:03:43.479
we were able to focus primarly[br]on treatment options

0:03:43.479,0:03:45.188
for the localized tumor,

0:03:45.188,0:03:49.711
reaffirming to me how important[br]an early diagnosis is.

0:03:51.262,0:03:53.578
Unlike other forms of cancer,

0:03:53.578,0:03:57.367
mammograms do offer an early stage[br]screening option for breast cancer.

0:03:57.367,0:03:59.640
Still, not everyone has this done,

0:03:59.640,0:04:02.758
or they may develop cancer before[br]the middle age recommendation

0:04:02.758,0:04:04.644
for having a mammogram.

0:04:05.651,0:04:07.903
So, there's still a lot[br]of room for improvement,

0:04:07.903,0:04:10.209
even for cancers that do[br]have screening options.

0:04:10.209,0:04:11.207
And of course,

0:04:11.207,0:04:13.652
considerable benefits[br]for those that don't.

0:04:13.966,0:04:16.672
A key challenge then[br]for cancer researchers

0:04:16.672,0:04:18.060
is to develop methods

0:04:18.060,0:04:23.266
that make regular screening for many[br]types of cancers much more accessible.

0:04:24.112,0:04:27.301
Imagine a scenario where during[br]your regular checkup,

0:04:27.301,0:04:31.022
your doctor can take a simple,[br]noninvasive urine sample,

0:04:31.022,0:04:33.038
or other liquid biopsy,

0:04:33.038,0:04:37.053
and present you with the results[br]before you even leave the doctor's office.

0:04:37.053,0:04:40.668
Such a technology could dramatically[br]reduce the number of people

0:04:40.668,0:04:44.606
who slip through the net[br]of an early-stage cancer diagnosis.

0:04:45.078,0:04:47.884
My research team[br]of engineers and biochemists

0:04:47.884,0:04:50.668
is working on exactly this challenge.

0:04:50.668,0:04:55.843
We're working on ways to frequently[br]activate an early-stage cancer alarm

0:04:55.843,0:05:00.126
by enabling regular screenings[br]that would start when a person is healthy

0:05:00.126,0:05:04.467
so that action could be taken to stop[br]cancer the moment it emerges,

0:05:04.467,0:05:07.788
and before it can progress[br]beyond its infancy.

0:05:08.939,0:05:11.910
The silver bullet in this case[br]are tiny vesicles,

0:05:11.910,0:05:16.689
little escape pods regularly shed[br]by cells called exosomes.

0:05:16.871,0:05:21.552
Exosomes are important biomarkers[br]that provide an early-warning system

0:05:21.552,0:05:23.399
for the development of cancer.

0:05:23.897,0:05:27.288
And because they're abundantly present[br]in just about every bodily fluid,

0:05:27.288,0:05:29.906
including blood, urine and saliva,

0:05:29.906,0:05:34.443
they're extremely attractive[br]for noninvasive liquid biopsies.

0:05:35.280,0:05:36.903
There's just one problem.

0:05:36.903,0:05:41.237
An automated system for rapidly sorting[br]these important biomarkers

0:05:41.237,0:05:43.256
is not currently available.

0:05:43.948,0:05:47.352
We've created a technology[br]that we call nano-DLD

0:05:47.352,0:05:50.054
that is capable of precisely this:

0:05:50.054,0:05:53.015
automated exosome isolation

0:05:53.015,0:05:55.630
to aid rapid cancer diagnostics.

0:05:56.267,0:05:59.077
Exosomes are the newest[br]early-warning weapon,

0:05:59.077,0:06:00.078
if you will,

0:06:00.078,0:06:02.084
to emerge on the liquid biopsy front.

0:06:02.084,0:06:04.248
And they're really, really small.

0:06:04.248,0:06:08.368
They measure just 30 to 150[br]nanometers in diameter.

0:06:08.368,0:06:09.763
This is so tiny

0:06:09.763,0:06:13.493
that you could fit about a million[br]of them into a single red blood cell.

0:06:13.942,0:06:16.273
That's roughly the difference[br]between a golf ball

0:06:16.273,0:06:18.588
and a fine grain piece of sand.

0:06:19.123,0:06:22.760
Once thought to be little bins[br]for unwanted cellular waste,

0:06:22.760,0:06:25.858
it has been found that cells[br]actually communicate

0:06:25.858,0:06:28.998
by producing and absorbing these exosomes

0:06:28.998,0:06:31.406
which contain surface receptors,

0:06:31.406,0:06:32.476
proteins

0:06:32.476,0:06:35.747
and other genetic material[br]collected from their cell of origin.

0:06:36.753,0:06:39.447
When absorbed by a neighboring cell,

0:06:39.447,0:06:43.247
exosomes release their contents[br]into the receiving cell,

0:06:43.247,0:06:46.547
and can set in motion fundamental[br]changes in gene expression --

0:06:46.547,0:06:47.553
some good --

0:06:47.553,0:06:49.332
and this is where cancer comes in --

0:06:49.332,0:06:50.465
some bad.

0:06:51.016,0:06:54.821
Because they are clothed[br]in the material of the mother cell,

0:06:54.821,0:06:56.745
and contain a sample of its environment,

0:06:56.745,0:07:02.345
they provide a genetic snapshot[br]of that cell's health and its origin.

0:07:03.418,0:07:06.606
All of these qualities make exosomes[br]invaluable messengers

0:07:06.606,0:07:09.933
that potentially allow physicians[br]to eavesdrop on your health

0:07:09.933,0:07:11.837
at the cellular level.

0:07:12.192,0:07:14.033
To catch cancer early however,

0:07:14.033,0:07:16.972
you have to frequently[br]intercept these messages

0:07:16.972,0:07:20.473
to determine when cancer-causing[br]troublemakers within your body

0:07:20.473,0:07:22.273
decide to start staging a coup,

0:07:22.273,0:07:25.467
which is why regular[br]screening is so critical,

0:07:25.467,0:07:28.600
and why we're developing[br]technologies to make this possible.

0:07:30.075,0:07:35.147
While the first exosome-based diagnostics[br]emerged on the market just this year,

0:07:35.147,0:07:38.797
they are not yet part of mainstream[br]healthcare options.

0:07:39.522,0:07:41.353
In addition to their recent emergence,

0:07:41.353,0:07:44.845
another factor that's limiting[br]their widespread adoption

0:07:44.845,0:07:45.953
is that currently,

0:07:45.953,0:07:48.943
no automated exosome[br]isolation system exists

0:07:48.943,0:07:52.359
to make regular screening[br]economically accessible.

0:07:52.962,0:07:55.771
The current gold standard[br]for exosome isolation

0:07:55.771,0:07:57.819
includes ultracentrifugation,

0:07:57.819,0:08:01.022
a process requiring expensive[br]laboratory equipment,

0:08:01.022,0:08:02.184
a trained lab tech

0:08:02.184,0:08:05.648
and about 30 hours of time[br]to process a sample.

0:08:06.773,0:08:11.534
We've come up with a different approach[br]for achieving automated exosome isolation

0:08:11.534,0:08:13.399
from a sample such as urine.

0:08:13.851,0:08:18.101
We use a chip-based, continuous flow[br]separation technique

0:08:18.101,0:08:20.922
called deterministic lateral displacement,

0:08:20.922,0:08:22.522
and we have done with it

0:08:22.522,0:08:26.480
what the semiconductor industry has done[br]so successfully for the past 50 years.

0:08:26.837,0:08:28.909
We shrunk the dimensions[br]of this technology

0:08:28.909,0:08:32.247
from the micron scale[br]to the true nanoscale.

0:08:32.901,0:08:34.353
So how does it work?

0:08:34.353,0:08:35.524
In a nutshell,

0:08:35.524,0:08:39.644
a set of tiny pillars separated[br]by nanoscopic gaps

0:08:39.644,0:08:40.900
are arranged in such a way

0:08:40.900,0:08:44.109
that the system divides[br]the fluid into streamlines,

0:08:44.109,0:08:47.439
with the larger cancer-related[br]nanoparticles being separated

0:08:47.439,0:08:51.481
through a process of redirection[br]from the smaller, healthier ones,

0:08:51.481,0:08:53.020
which can in contrast,

0:08:53.020,0:08:55.617
move around the pillars[br]in a zigzag-type motion

0:08:55.617,0:08:57.587
in the direction of fluid flow.

0:08:58.301,0:09:02.522
The net result is a complete separation[br]of these two particle populations.

0:09:03.618,0:09:07.471
You can visualize[br]this separation process --

0:09:07.471,0:09:11.241
similar to traffic on a highway[br]that separates into two roads,

0:09:11.241,0:09:14.827
with one road going into[br]a low-clearance tunnel under a mountain,

0:09:14.827,0:09:16.528
and the other road going around it.

0:09:16.862,0:09:19.593
Here, smaller cars[br]can go through the tunnel

0:09:19.593,0:09:20.736
while larger trucks,

0:09:20.736,0:09:22.958
carrying potentially hazardous material,

0:09:22.958,0:09:25.042
are forced to take the detour route.

0:09:25.742,0:09:29.958
Traffic is effectively separated[br]by size and contents

0:09:29.958,0:09:31.708
without impeding its flow.

0:09:32.032,0:09:36.448
And this is exactly how our system works[br]on a much, much smaller scale.

0:09:37.715,0:09:41.740
The idea here is that the separation[br]process for screening

0:09:41.740,0:09:45.867
could be as simple as processing[br]a sample of urine, blood or saliva,

0:09:45.867,0:09:48.706
which is a near-term possibility[br]within the next few years.

0:09:49.009,0:09:54.465
Ultimately, it could be used to isolate[br]and detect target exosomes

0:09:54.465,0:09:57.661
associated with a particular[br]type of cancer,

0:09:57.661,0:10:00.324
sensing and reporting[br]their presence within minutes.

0:10:00.833,0:10:04.804
This would make rapid diagnostics[br]virtually painless.

0:10:04.804,0:10:05.992
Broadly speaking,

0:10:05.992,0:10:08.817
the ability to separate[br]and enrich biomarkers

0:10:08.817,0:10:12.546
with nanoscale precision[br]in an automated way,

0:10:12.546,0:10:16.085
opens the door to better understanding[br]diseases such as cancer,

0:10:16.085,0:10:20.104
with applications ranging from sample[br]preparation to diagnostics,

0:10:20.104,0:10:22.913
and from drug resistance[br]monitoring to therapeutics.

0:10:23.579,0:10:25.852
Even before my wife's bout with cancer,

0:10:25.852,0:10:30.083
it was a dream of mine to facilitate[br]the automation of this process --

0:10:30.083,0:10:32.951
to make regular screening more accessible,

0:10:32.951,0:10:35.886
similar to the way Henry Ford[br]made the automobile accessible

0:10:35.886,0:10:37.496
to the general population

0:10:37.496,0:10:39.611
through development of the assembly line.

0:10:39.867,0:10:42.815
Automation is the key to accessibility.

0:10:44.402,0:10:46.235
And in the spirit of the Hoover dream,

0:10:46.235,0:10:49.308
"a chicken in every pot[br]and a car in every garage,"

0:10:49.308,0:10:50.713
we're developing a technology[br]

0:10:50.713,0:10:52.219
that could ultimately place

0:10:52.219,0:10:54.629
an early-warning cancer detection system

0:10:54.629,0:10:55.859
in every home.

0:10:56.211,0:10:58.302
This would allow every[br]man, woman and child

0:10:58.302,0:11:02.450
the opportunity to be regularly tested[br]while their still healthy,

0:11:02.450,0:11:04.978
catching cancer when it first emerges.

0:11:05.555,0:11:07.230
It is my hope and dream

0:11:07.230,0:11:10.847
to help people around the world[br]avoid the high costs --

0:11:10.847,0:11:13.456
physical, financial and emotional --

0:11:13.456,0:11:15.760
faced by today's cancer patients ...

0:11:15.760,0:11:18.412
hardships that I'm well acquainted with.

0:11:19.692,0:11:23.706
I'm also happy to report that because[br]we caught my wife's cancer early,

0:11:23.706,0:11:25.696
her treatment was successful,

0:11:25.696,0:11:28.422
and she is now, thankfully, cancer-free.

0:11:28.670,0:11:31.365
(Applause)

0:11:36.369,0:11:40.852
It is an outcome that I would like to see[br]for everyone with a cancer diagnosis.

0:11:41.407,0:11:43.406
With the work that my team[br]has already done

0:11:43.406,0:11:46.338
on separation of nanoscale biomarkers

0:11:46.338,0:11:49.335
for rapid, early-stage cancer diagnostics,

0:11:49.335,0:11:51.901
I am optimistic that within[br]the next decade,

0:11:51.901,0:11:54.461
this type of technology will be available,

0:11:54.461,0:11:58.475
helping protect our friends, our family,[br]and future generations.

0:11:58.948,0:12:02.815
Even if we are so unlucky[br]as to be diagnosed with cancer,

0:12:02.815,0:12:05.820
that early-stage alarm will provide[br]a strong beacon of hope.

0:12:06.292,0:12:07.512
Thank you.

0:12:08.141,0:12:09.749
(Applause)