0:00:01.880,0:00:05.840 Data and Medicine 0:00:09.200,0:00:13.020 This is really a magic era for [br]software. We can use computers now to 0:00:13.530,0:00:19.990 simulate so many different things. So every[br]person has a DNA sequence that's 3 billion 0:00:19.990,0:00:24.280 letters long, that's a really long sequence![br]And in order for me to study it, I can't do 0:00:24.280,0:00:29.320 it by hand. I need to use computer programming[br]in order to go through this code that's 3 0:00:29.320,0:00:34.180 billion letters long in order to figure out[br]how your DNA code is associated with disease. 0:00:34.180,0:00:39.149 My interests are actually right at the interface[br]between biology and computer science. There 0:00:39.149,0:00:47.289 is a huge database that contains all known[br]organisms so humans, monkeys, mice, viruses, 0:00:47.289,0:00:53.569 bacteria. Usually now if a doctor is worried[br]about you having an infection, based on your 0:00:53.569,0:01:00.519 age and where your symptoms are, if it's in[br]your ear, your heart, or your brain, they 0:01:00.519,0:01:06.910 try to make a best guess as to what type of[br]infection you have. Then they'll send off 0:01:06.910,0:01:12.860 tests specifically for those bugs. So if they[br]think you have strep throat, they send off 0:01:12.860,0:01:18.010 the strep test. But the type of testing that[br]we do, since we can essentially test for any 0:01:18.010,0:01:24.180 type of infection with a single test so we[br]don't have to have a bias going into the testing 0:01:24.180,0:01:31.550 saying we think it's X, Y, or Z we just say[br]let's see what's in there. A Cottage Grove 0:01:31.550,0:01:36.050 teenager now says he's taking one life one[br]day at a time after being critically ill from 0:01:36.050,0:01:42.510 a mysterious illness. Mary Jolla has his story[br]and details into new DNA sequencing that helped 0:01:42.510,0:01:50.090 solve a medical mystery. It's spring and like[br]any other teenager, Joshua Osborn can't 0:01:50.090,0:01:55.480 be stuck indoors. Josh: "I feel wonderful[br]today. It's 80 degrees." It's a welcome change 0:01:55.480,0:02:03.890 from last summer, here in the hospital and[br]in a coma. His symptoms began last April with 0:02:03.890,0:02:09.360 fevers and headaches and he only got worse.[br]Clark: "And he needed to be hospitalized." 0:02:09.360,0:02:14.990 Josh may not remember the hospital stay but[br]his dad, Clark does. They tested for everything 0:02:14.990,0:02:21.970 that they knew. They tested for viruses and[br]bacteria and ultimately he had a brain scan 0:02:21.970,0:02:29.640 and two or three spinal taps. He had all these[br]crazy tubes. I remember that weekend when 0:02:29.640,0:02:35.360 they were doing it, it was so intense it was[br]like he was going to die that week. We got 0:02:35.360,0:02:40.940 Josh's samples from his doctor, because his[br]doctor was giving up. They had no idea. They 0:02:40.940,0:02:46.390 sunk millions of dollars into this kid and[br]they have used hundreds of test. Hundreds-- 0:02:46.390,0:02:52.270 sent to the CDC, sent to multiple labs, and[br]they couldn't get an answer back. And they, 0:02:52.270,0:02:57.230 I mean so much money right, and they turned[br]to us and they were like, "We need to know 0:02:57.230,0:03:11.520 what it is." So this is where we have the[br]gene sequencers. We got a small amount of 0:03:11.520,0:03:17.240 Josh's cerebral spinal fluid which is the[br]fluid that bathes the brain, with very powerful 0:03:17.240,0:03:24.569 computer algorithms we took out all the human[br]sequences that were present in the data. And 0:03:24.569,0:03:31.410 then searched all the non-human sequences[br]that we got against a giant database that 0:03:31.410,0:03:39.739 contains gene sequences of all known organisms.[br]And very quickly we saw that the sequences 0:03:39.739,0:03:47.110 were all for a particular organism that Josh[br]likely contracted when he visited Puerto Rico 0:03:47.110,0:03:53.959 about nine months before. And fortunately,[br]that organism, it's a bacterium. And there 0:03:53.959,0:04:00.080 is a very straightforward treatment for it:[br]penicillin. The doctor gave him the drugs 0:04:00.080,0:04:06.459 that same day and he was fine 24 hours later.[br]All I can tell you is that, I'm happy to be 0:04:06.459,0:04:18.690 alive and I have dreams and I'm looking forward[br]to accomplishing them. Data analysis is changing 0:04:18.690,0:04:24.970 all medicine. It's not just changing how diseases[br]are diagnosed. Data is changing how we discover 0:04:24.970,0:04:30.770 cures to diseases. And even after a cure is[br]known, data is used for delivering medicine 0:04:30.770,0:04:36.270 to patients, for example, to fight polio in[br]Africa by distributing vaccines to everybody 0:04:36.270,0:04:42.270 who needs it. The magic of polio is finding[br]all the kids and getting them to have the 0:04:42.270,0:04:51.520 vaccine three times. And so we're taking satellite[br]photographs and using visual analysis to figure 0:04:51.520,0:04:57.780 out what the population is. And so we can[br]look and see if we're giving out a certain 0:04:57.780,0:05:03.970 amount of vaccine are we really reaching all[br]the kids? And amazingly what we found, on 0:05:03.970,0:05:10.090 the boundaries between political areas there[br]are various settlements that one group thought 0:05:10.090,0:05:16.780 that the other group was taking care of. We[br]also can take the phone that has the GPS tracking 0:05:16.780,0:05:22.350 and when they come back at the end of the[br]day, plug it in, and see where they've been 0:05:22.350,0:05:28.690 every minute. And that's making all the difference[br]because just getting coverage up from 80% 0:05:28.690,0:05:34.050 of kids to 90% of kids--that's the difference[br]between success and failure. And literally 0:05:34.050,0:05:40.460 the software that lets us look at the movements[br]of the teams, looks at the satellite maps, 0:05:40.460,0:05:45.750 gathers all the statistics together and tracks[br]this thing, that's what's going to make this 0:05:45.750,0:05:52.180 the second disease we finally get rid of.[br]So it's systems thinking, and the magic of 0:05:52.180,0:05:55.040 software are really at the center.