This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors
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0:01 - 0:04In the space that used
to house one transistor, -
0:04 - 0:07we can now fit one billion.
-
0:08 - 0:12That made it so that a computer
the size of an entire room -
0:12 - 0:14now fits in your pocket.
-
0:14 - 0:17You might say the future is small.
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0:18 - 0:19As an engineer,
-
0:19 - 0:23I'm inspired by this miniaturization
revolution in computers. -
0:23 - 0:24As a physician,
-
0:24 - 0:30I wonder whether we could use it
to reduce the number of lives lost -
0:30 - 0:34due to one of the fastest-growing
diseases on Earth: -
0:34 - 0:36cancer.
-
0:36 - 0:37Now when I say that,
-
0:37 - 0:41what most people hear me say
is that we're working on curing cancer. -
0:41 - 0:42And we are.
-
0:42 - 0:43But it turns out
-
0:43 - 0:46that there's an incredible
opportunity to save lives -
0:46 - 0:49through the early detection
and prevention of cancer. -
0:50 - 0:55Worldwide, over two-thirds of deaths
due to cancer are fully preventable -
0:55 - 0:58using methods that we already
have in hand today. -
0:58 - 1:01Things like vaccination, timely screening
-
1:01 - 1:04and of course, stopping smoking.
-
1:04 - 1:08But even with the best tools
and technologies that we have today, -
1:08 - 1:10some tumors can't be detected
-
1:10 - 1:14until 10 years after
they've started growing, -
1:14 - 1:17when they are 50 million
cancer cells strong. -
1:18 - 1:20What if we had better technologies
-
1:20 - 1:23to detect some of these more
deadly cancers sooner, -
1:23 - 1:24when they could be removed,
-
1:24 - 1:27when they were just getting started?
-
1:27 - 1:30Let me tell you about how
miniaturization might get us there. -
1:31 - 1:33This is a microscope in a typical lab
-
1:33 - 1:37that a pathologist would use
for looking at a tissue specimen, -
1:37 - 1:39like a biopsy or a pap smear.
-
1:40 - 1:42This $7,000 microscope
-
1:42 - 1:45would be used by somebody
with years of specialized training -
1:45 - 1:47to spot cancer cells.
-
1:48 - 1:51This is an image from a colleague
of mine at Rice University, -
1:51 - 1:53Rebecca Richards-Kortum.
-
1:53 - 1:57What she and her team have done
is miniaturize that whole microscope -
1:57 - 1:59into this $10 part,
-
1:59 - 2:01and it fits on the end
of an optical fiber. -
2:02 - 2:06Now what that means is instead
of taking a sample from a patient -
2:06 - 2:07and sending it to the microscope,
-
2:07 - 2:10you can bring the microscope
to the patient. -
2:10 - 2:15And then, instead of requiring
a specialist to look at the images, -
2:15 - 2:20you can train the computer to score
normal versus cancerous cells. -
2:20 - 2:21Now this is important,
-
2:21 - 2:24because what they found
working in rural communities, -
2:24 - 2:28is that even when they have
a mobile screening van -
2:28 - 2:30that can go out into the community
and perform exams -
2:30 - 2:32and collect samples
-
2:32 - 2:35and send them to the central
hospital for analysis, -
2:35 - 2:36that days later,
-
2:36 - 2:39women get a call
with an abnormal test result -
2:39 - 2:41and they're asked to come in.
-
2:41 - 2:45Fully half of them don't turn up
because they can't afford the trip. -
2:46 - 2:49With the integrated microscope
and computer analysis, -
2:49 - 2:52Rebecca and her colleagues
have been able to create a van -
2:52 - 2:56that has both a diagnostic setup
and a treatment setup. -
2:56 - 2:59And what that means
is that they can do a diagnosis -
2:59 - 3:01and perform therapy on the spot,
-
3:01 - 3:03so no one is lost to follow up.
-
3:04 - 3:08That's just one example of how
miniaturization can save lives. -
3:08 - 3:09Now as engineers,
-
3:09 - 3:12we think of this
as straight-up miniaturization. -
3:12 - 3:15You took a big thing
and you made it little. -
3:15 - 3:17But what I told you before about computers
-
3:17 - 3:19was that they transformed our lives
-
3:19 - 3:23when they became small enough
for us to take them everywhere. -
3:24 - 3:28So what is the transformational
equivalent like that in medicine? -
3:28 - 3:32Well, what if you had a detector
-
3:32 - 3:36that was so small that it could
circulate in your body, -
3:36 - 3:38find the tumor all by itself
-
3:38 - 3:41and send a signal to the outside world?
-
3:41 - 3:43It sounds a little bit
like science fiction. -
3:43 - 3:47But actually, nanotechnology
allows us to do just that. -
3:47 - 3:52Nanotechnology allows us to shrink
the parts that make up the detector -
3:52 - 3:54from the width of a human hair,
-
3:54 - 3:56which is 100 microns,
-
3:56 - 3:58to a thousand times smaller,
-
3:58 - 4:00which is 100 nanometers.
-
4:00 - 4:03And that has profound implications.
-
4:04 - 4:07It turns out that materials
actually change their properties -
4:07 - 4:09at the nanoscale.
-
4:09 - 4:12You take a common material like gold,
-
4:12 - 4:15and you grind it into dust,
into gold nanoparticles, -
4:15 - 4:18and it changes from looking
gold to looking red. -
4:19 - 4:23If you take a more exotic material
like cadmium selenide -- -
4:23 - 4:25forms a big, black crystal --
-
4:25 - 4:28if you make nanocrystals
out of this material -
4:28 - 4:29and you put it in a liquid,
-
4:29 - 4:31and you shine light on it,
-
4:31 - 4:32they glow.
-
4:32 - 4:38And they glow blue, green,
yellow, orange, red, -
4:38 - 4:40depending only on their size.
-
4:41 - 4:45It's wild! Can you imagine an object
like that in the macro world? -
4:45 - 4:51It would be like all the denim jeans
in your closet are all made of cotton, -
4:52 - 4:56but they are different colors
depending only on their size. -
4:56 - 4:58(Laughter)
-
4:59 - 5:01So as a physician,
-
5:01 - 5:03what's just as interesting to me
-
5:03 - 5:05is that it's not just
the color of materials -
5:05 - 5:07that changes at the nanoscale;
-
5:07 - 5:11the way they travel
in your body also changes. -
5:11 - 5:14And this is the kind of observation
that we're going to use -
5:14 - 5:16to make a better cancer detector.
-
5:16 - 5:18So let me show you what I mean.
-
5:19 - 5:21This is a blood vessel in the body.
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5:21 - 5:23Surrounding the blood vessel is a tumor.
-
5:24 - 5:27We're going to inject nanoparticles
into the blood vessel -
5:27 - 5:31and watch how they travel
from the bloodstream into the tumor. -
5:31 - 5:36Now it turns out that the blood vessels
of many tumors are leaky, -
5:36 - 5:40and so nanoparticles can leak out
from the bloodstream into the tumor. -
5:41 - 5:44Whether they leak out
depends on their size. -
5:44 - 5:45So in this image,
-
5:45 - 5:50the smaller, hundred-nanometer,
blue nanoparticles are leaking out, -
5:50 - 5:53and the larger, 500-nanometer,
red nanoparticles -
5:53 - 5:55are stuck in the bloodstream.
-
5:55 - 5:57So that means as an engineer,
-
5:57 - 6:01depending on how big
or small I make a material, -
6:01 - 6:04I can change where it goes in your body.
-
6:05 - 6:10In my lab, we recently made
a cancer nanodetector -
6:10 - 6:15that is so small that it could travel
into the body and look for tumors. -
6:15 - 6:20We designed it to listen
for tumor invasion: -
6:20 - 6:24the orchestra of chemical signals
that tumors need to make to spread. -
6:25 - 6:28For a tumor to break out
of the tissue that it's born in, -
6:28 - 6:31it has to make chemicals called enzymes
-
6:31 - 6:33to chew through
the scaffolding of tissues. -
6:34 - 6:38We designed these nanoparticles
to be activated by these enzymes. -
6:39 - 6:45One enzyme can activate a thousand
of these chemical reactions in an hour. -
6:45 - 6:49Now in engineering, we call
that one-to-a-thousand ratio -
6:49 - 6:51a form of amplification,
-
6:51 - 6:53and it makes something ultrasensitive.
-
6:53 - 6:57So we've made an ultrasensitive
cancer detector. -
6:57 - 7:02OK, but how do I get this activated
signal to the outside world, -
7:02 - 7:04where I can act on it?
-
7:04 - 7:07For this, we're going to use
one more piece of nanoscale biology, -
7:07 - 7:09and that has to do with the kidney.
-
7:10 - 7:12The kidney is a filter.
-
7:12 - 7:17Its job is to filter out the blood
and put waste into the urine. -
7:17 - 7:20It turns out that what the kidney filters
-
7:20 - 7:22is also dependent on size.
-
7:23 - 7:25So in this image, what you can see
-
7:25 - 7:28is that everything smaller
than five nanometers -
7:28 - 7:32is going from the blood,
through the kidney, into the urine, -
7:32 - 7:35and everything else
that's bigger is retained. -
7:35 - 7:40OK, so if I make a 100-nanometer
cancer detector, -
7:40 - 7:43I inject it in the bloodstream,
-
7:43 - 7:48it can leak into the tumor
where it's activated by tumor enzymes -
7:48 - 7:50to release a small signal
-
7:50 - 7:54that is small enough to be
filtered out of the kidney -
7:54 - 7:56and put into the urine,
-
7:56 - 8:00I have a signal in the outside world
that I can detect. -
8:01 - 8:03OK, but there's one more problem.
-
8:03 - 8:04This is a tiny little signal,
-
8:04 - 8:06so how do I detect it?
-
8:07 - 8:09Well, the signal is just a molecule.
-
8:09 - 8:12They're molecules
that we designed as engineers. -
8:12 - 8:15They're completely synthetic,
and we can design them -
8:15 - 8:18so they are compatible
with our tool of choice. -
8:18 - 8:22If we want to use a really
sensitive, fancy instrument -
8:22 - 8:24called a mass spectrometer,
-
8:24 - 8:26then we make a molecule
with a unique mass. -
8:27 - 8:30Or maybe we want make something
that's more inexpensive and portable. -
8:30 - 8:34Then we make molecules
that we can trap on paper, -
8:34 - 8:36like a pregnancy test.
-
8:36 - 8:39In fact, there's a whole
world of paper tests -
8:39 - 8:43that are becoming available
in a field called paper diagnostics. -
8:44 - 8:46Alright, where are we going with this?
-
8:47 - 8:48What I'm going to tell you next,
-
8:48 - 8:50as a lifelong researcher,
-
8:50 - 8:52represents a dream of mine.
-
8:52 - 8:54I can't say that's it's a promise;
-
8:55 - 8:56it's a dream.
-
8:56 - 9:00But I think we all have to have dreams
to keep us pushing forward, -
9:00 - 9:04even -- and maybe especially --
cancer researchers. -
9:04 - 9:07I'm going to tell you what I hope
will happen with my technology, -
9:07 - 9:11that my team and I will put
our hearts and souls -
9:11 - 9:13into making a reality.
-
9:13 - 9:15OK, here goes.
-
9:15 - 9:18I dream that one day,
-
9:18 - 9:22instead of going into
an expensive screening facility -
9:22 - 9:23to get a colonoscopy,
-
9:23 - 9:25or a mammogram,
-
9:25 - 9:26or a pap smear,
-
9:27 - 9:28that you could get a shot,
-
9:28 - 9:30wait an hour,
-
9:30 - 9:33and do a urine test on a paper strip.
-
9:34 - 9:36I imagine that this could even happen
-
9:36 - 9:39without the need for steady electricity,
-
9:39 - 9:42or a medical professional in the room.
-
9:42 - 9:43Maybe they could be far away
-
9:43 - 9:46and connected only by the image
on a smartphone. -
9:47 - 9:49Now I know this sounds like a dream,
-
9:49 - 9:52but in the lab we already
have this working in mice, -
9:52 - 9:54where it works better
than existing methods -
9:54 - 9:58for the detection of lung,
colon and ovarian cancer. -
9:59 - 10:01And I hope that what this means
-
10:01 - 10:06is that one day we can
detect tumors in patients -
10:06 - 10:09sooner than 10 years
after they've started growing, -
10:09 - 10:11in all walks of life,
-
10:11 - 10:13all around the globe,
-
10:13 - 10:16and that this would lead
to earlier treatments, -
10:16 - 10:20and that we could save more lives
than we can today, -
10:20 - 10:21with early detection.
-
10:22 - 10:23Thank you.
-
10:23 - 10:30(Applause)
- Title:
- This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors
- Speaker:
- Sangeeta Bhatia
- Description:
-
What if we could find cancerous tumors years before they can harm us -- without expensive screening facilities or even steady electricity? Physician, bioengineer and entrepreneur Sangeeta Bhatia leads a multidisciplinary lab that searches for novel ways to understand, diagnose and treat human disease. Her target: the two-thirds of deaths due to cancer that she says are fully preventable. With remarkable clarity, she breaks down complex nanoparticle science and shares a dream for a radical new cancer test that could save millions of lives.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 10:43
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors |