1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You have cancer. 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Sadly, about 40 percent of us will hear those three words within our lifetime, 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and half will not survive. 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This means that two of five of your closest friends and relatives 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer, 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and one will die. 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Beyond the physical harships, 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 roughly one-third of cancer survivors here in the US 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 will go into debt from treatment. 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And they're at least two-and-a-half times more likely to declare bankruptcy 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than those without cancer. 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This disease is pervasive. 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's emotionally drainging, 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and for many, 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 financially destructive. 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But a cancer diagnosis doesn't have to be a death sentence. 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Finding cancer early, 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 closer its genesis, 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is one of the critical factors to improving treatment options, 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 reducing its emotional impact 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and minimizing financial burdens. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Most importantly, 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 finding cancer early -- 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is one of the primary aims of my research -- 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 greatly enhances your odds of survival. 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If we just look at the case of breast cancer for example, 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we find that those who are diagnosed and treated as Stage One 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 have a five-year survival rate of nearly 100 percent. 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Odds that decrease to just 22 percent if treated at Stage Four. 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And similar trends are found for cholorectal and ovarian cancer. 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, we're all aware that an early diagnosis that is accurate 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is critical for survival. 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The problem is that many cancer diagnostic tools are invasive, 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 costly, 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 often inaccurate, 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they can take an agonizing amount of time to get the results back. 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Still worse, 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 when it comes to some forms of cancer, 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 such as ovarian, liver or pancreatic cancer, 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 good screening methods simply don't exist, 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 meaning often people wait until physical symptoms surface, 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which are themselves already indicators of late stage progression. 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Like a tornado strike in an area without an early warning system, 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there is no alarm to warn 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for the danger is already at your doorstep ... 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 when your odds of survival are greatly reduced. 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Having the convenience and accessibility of regular screening options 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that are affordable, noninvasive and could provide results much sooner, 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 would provide us with a formidable weapon in the fight against cancer. 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 An early warning would allow us to get out ahead of the disease 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 instead of merely following in its relentless wake. 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this is exactly what I've been doing. 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 For the past three years, 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I've been developing technologies 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that could ultimately aid clinicians 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with rapid, early-stage cancer diagnostics. 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I've been fueled by a deep scientific curiosity, 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and a passion to change these statistics. 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Last year however, 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 this fight became much more personal 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was an experience that added a strong and unexpected emotional dimension 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to these efforts. 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I know firsthand how life-altering treatment can be, 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I'm keenly aware of the emotional havoc 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that cancer and wreak on a family, 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which in our case included our two young daughters. 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Because we found it early during a routine mamogram, 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we were able to focus primarly on treatment options 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for the localized tumor, 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 reaffirming to me how important an early diagnosis is. 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Unlike other forms of cancer, 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 mamograms do offer an early stage screening option for breast cancer. 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Still, not everyone has this done, 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or they may develop cancer before the middle age recommendation 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for having a mamogram. 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, there's still a lot of room for improvement, 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 even for cancers that do have screening options. 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And of course, 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 considerable benefits for those that don't. 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A key challenge then for cancer researchers 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is to develop methods 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that make regular screening for many types of cancers much more accessible. 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Imagine a scenario where during your regular checkup, 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 your doctor can take a simple, noninvasive urine sample, 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or other liquid biopsy, 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and present you with the results before you even leave the doctor's office. 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Such a technology could dramatically reduce the number of people 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who slipped through the net of an early stage cancer diagnosis. 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My research team of engineers and biochemists 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is working on exactly this challenge. 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We're working on ways to frequently activate an early stage cancer alarm 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by enable regular screenings that would start when a person is healthy 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so that action could be taken to stop cancer the moment it emerges, 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and before it can progress beyond its infancy. 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The silver bullet in this case are tiny [vesacilles], 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 little escape pods regularly shed by cells called [exosomes]. 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Exosomes are important biomarkers that provide an early warning system 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for the development of cancer. 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And because they're abundantly present in just about every bodily fluid, 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 including blood, urine and saliva, 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they're extremely attractive for noninvasive, liquid biopsies. 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There's just one problem. 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And automated system for rapidly sorting these important biomarkers 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is not currently available. 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We've created a technology that we call "Nano DOD" 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that is capable of precisely this. 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Automated exome isolation 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to aid rapid cancer diagnostics. 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Exosomes are the newest early warning weapon if you will 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to emerge on the liquid biopsy front. 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And they're really, really small. 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They measure just 30 to 150 nanometers in diameter. 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is so tiny 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that you could fit about a million of them into a single red blood cell. 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That's roughly the difference between a golf ball 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and a fine grain piece of sand. 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Once thought to be little bins for unwanted cellular waste, 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it has been found that cells actually communicate 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by producing and absorbing these exosomes 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which contain surface receptors, 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 proteins 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and other genetic material collected from their cell of origin. 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When absorbed by a neighboring cell, 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 exosomes release their contents into the receiving cell, 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and can set in motion fundamental changes in gene expression.