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High School Freshman Confounds Researchers, Invents New Pancreatic Cancer Test
DailyTech ^ | May 25, 2012 | Jason Mick

Posted on 05/28/2012 6:20:23 PM PDT by neverdem

15-year-old nabs $100,000 top prize in Intel-sponsored competition; his "dipstick" test is 90 percent accurate

Jack Andraka. Andraka.

"Keep that last name in mind. You're going to read about him a lot in the years to come. What I tell my lab is, 'Think of Thomas Edison and the light bulb.' This kid is the Edison of our times. There are going to be a lot of light bulbs coming from him."

Those are bold words, bolder still given that their source is one of the top medical researchers in the nation. But Dr. Anirban Maitra, a pathology professor at John Hopkins University firmly believes what he says.

I. HS Freshman Invents Test That's 100x as Sensitive

The invention is incredible. A "dipstick" style sensor, it is 90 percent accurate at testing for pancreatic cancer in blood samples. It's also being considered as a prime candidate for testing for other diseases.

When it comes to pancreatic cancer timing is crucial. Late detection or refusal to seek treatment can be deadly. Indeed, this same cancer took a great toll on tech luminary and Apple, Inc. (AAPL) founder Steven P. Jobs, first claiming his liver with its complications, and later his life.

Incredibly, Mr. Andraka, a mere boy at 15, claims to have come up with the underlying idea for his method at just 3 years old, when he found that by dropping objects into a flowing river, he could test the current. Encouraged by his parents -- a civil engineer (his father) and an anesthetist (his mother) -- and their small library of science magazines, the spark grew in the young man's mind.

That spark grew into the fire of a bold idea, after Mr. Andraka emailed 200 Johns Hopkins professors, University of Maryland professors, and officials at the National Institutes...

(Excerpt) Read more at dailytech.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: cancer; dsj; mesothelin; pancreaticcancer; pancreaticcancertest
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1 posted on 05/28/2012 6:20:33 PM PDT by neverdem
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This kid is the Edison of our times.

Apparently Dr. Maitra doesn't know that Edison was a thief.

2 posted on 05/28/2012 6:30:32 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: neverdem

If only my parents were like that...


3 posted on 05/28/2012 6:31:55 PM PDT by wastedyears ("God? I didn't know he was signed onto the system.")
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To: neverdem

“Keep that last name in mind. You’re going to read about him a lot in the years to come. What I tell my lab is, ‘Think of Thomas Edison and the light bulb.’ This kid is the Edison of our times. There are going to be a lot of light bulbs coming from him.”

I bet the kid burns out by age 17.


4 posted on 05/28/2012 6:37:22 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: wastedyears

My parents wouldn’t buy me a computer for my bedroom, nor let me hook it up to the internet.


5 posted on 05/28/2012 6:40:43 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: neverdem

This kid will be unemployed and on welfare, under 0bummerCare. Forget any advances in anything on Nov 7th, if the Racist/Marxist/Liar-in-Chief wins the GE. Nanny State, Cradle-To-Grave America... ***UTOPIA***, here we come!


6 posted on 05/28/2012 6:45:47 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (All liberals & most demoncraps think that life is just a sponge bath, with a happy ending.)
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To: vladimir998

If the kid can help a lot of sick people in the world and make some bucks doing it don’t knock him.


7 posted on 05/28/2012 6:50:11 PM PDT by donhunt (Certified and proud "Son of a Bitch".)
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To: A.A. Cunningham

Do you say Edison was a thief because of the way he didn’t pay Tesla for his AC motor?

Edison was a great man but he definitely wronged Mr. Tesla. While Edison didn’t pay up he didn’t treat Tesla nearly as bad as Westinghouse did.


8 posted on 05/28/2012 6:50:44 PM PDT by JAKraig (Surely my religion is at least as good as yours)
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To: wastedyears
My parents were. And for that I am ever grateful.

Mom had me reading newspapers at age 4, and I followed along with Dad on his DeVry electronics course. I could do the math on triode (remember tubes?) amplifier circuits by the time I was 7.

I was blessed.

I hope my grandchildren speak that way of me.

/johnny

9 posted on 05/28/2012 7:03:31 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: donhunt

Not knocking him.


10 posted on 05/28/2012 7:04:28 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: vladimir998
He might not burn out. He's not being driven from externals, from what I see. Those that are internally driven don't burn out quite so fast as those that are externally driven.

/johnny

11 posted on 05/28/2012 7:06:45 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: donhunt

The last thing we need is another cancer test giving false positives.


12 posted on 05/28/2012 7:08:56 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature not nurture TM)
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To: steve86

Think about it.

A false positive just means you get scanned or whatever.

A false negative is far worse,,you go away all happy while the cancer grows.

Ideally a test has no false results but personally I will take a false positive any day.


13 posted on 05/28/2012 7:12:36 PM PDT by cajungirl
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To: cajungirl

You evidently are not aware of the millions of dollars of wasted health expenditures and millions of patients undergoing unnecessary suffering in the case of another cancer, prostate, because of false positives. Think about it.


14 posted on 05/28/2012 7:17:35 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature not nurture TM)
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To: JAKraig

Edison screwed over a lot of people besides Tesla.


15 posted on 05/28/2012 7:19:48 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: steve86

I have cancer, not found until it was advanced, there is a simple test to pick it up in early stafes when it is highly treatable. It is not done because of the expense, women have to demand it. It isnt cost efficient.

But so far my treatment id at around 600 grand plus untold misery.

I had no symptoms, none. I would pay cash to have had it so dont go making cost decision assumptions about whether we need this test or not.

If I had KNOWN about this fifty buck test I would have had it and spared me an early dearh.

Paople who talk about cost efficiency dont get it.


16 posted on 05/28/2012 7:25:35 PM PDT by cajungirl
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To: steve86

And another thing I AM a physician and a Master in public health to boot so not only do I know but I know the creeps who will use the cost effective tool to make sure people die to make the gov health care CHEAP!

It will bite all of us in one way or the other if we start viewing life itself through that corrupt prism.


17 posted on 05/28/2012 7:30:02 PM PDT by cajungirl
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To: cajungirl

Sorry about your health problems.

What is the test that you are talking about?


18 posted on 05/28/2012 8:49:29 PM PDT by COUNTrecount (Barry...above his poi grade.)
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To: cajungirl

Sorry to hear that. I really hope that things improve for you.


19 posted on 05/28/2012 9:14:35 PM PDT by boycott (CAL)
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To: cajungirl

Good luck cajungirl, keep up the fight.


20 posted on 05/28/2012 10:27:16 PM PDT by Orange1998
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