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"I actually love single-walled carbon nanotubes; they're like the superheroes of material science." I feel the same way. This kid is genuinely excited and inter

"I actually love single-walled carbon nanotubes; they're like the superheroes of material science." I feel the same way. This kid is genuinely excited and interested which, is extraordinary. I love seeing youngsters getting excited about science. Unfortunately, this blog post and the one it claims as a source [1] are rather fluffy on details. Justin organized this information and presentation for the Intel Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) [2]. More details about the process he discovered can be found on the ISEF 2012 profile page [3] and for those who don't want to follow the trail, I've reproduced it here: "Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease with a five-year survival rate of 5.5%. One reason for this is the lack of a rapid, sensitive, inexpensive screening method. A novel paper sensor is described that simply, rapidly and inexpensively screens for pancreatic cancer. Mia Paca cells overexpressing mesothelin, a biomarker for pancreatic cancer, were cultured; mesothelin was isolated, concentrated and quantified with ELISA. After optimization with the Western Blot assay, the antibody to human mesothelin was dispersed with single walled carbon nanotubes. This dispersion was used to dip-coat strips of filter paper, rendering the paper conductive. Optimal layering was determined using a scanning electron microscope. Cell media spiked with varying amounts of mesothelin was applied to the paper biosensor. Change in electrical potential was measured before and after application and a dose-response curve was constructed with an R2 value of 99.92%. In vivo tests on human blood serum obtained from healthy people and patients with chronic pancreatitis, PanIn, pancreatic cancer revealed the same trends.. The sensor’s limit of detection was found to be 0.156 ng/mL, satisfying the limit of 10 ng/mL, the level considered an overexpression of mesothelin consistent with pancreatic cancer. The sensor costs $3.00; 10 tests can be performed per strip. A test takes 5 minutes and is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive than ELISA, 25% to 50% more accurate than the CA10-9 test and is a sensitive, accurate, inexpensive, and rapid screening tool to detect mesothelin, a biomarker for pancreatic cancer." [1] - http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680194/meet-the-15-year-old-who-is-changing-how-we-test-for-cancer http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680194/meet-the-15-year-old-who-... [2] - http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/ http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/ [3] - http://apps.societyforscience.org/intelisef2012/project.cfm?PID=ME028&CFID=28485&CFTOKEN=10931553 http://apps.societyforscience.org/intelisef2012/project.cfm?...

brittohalloran 14y ago
Short explanation: Paper covered with carbon nanotubes is conductive. This conductivity changes when cancer marker cells are present. The cancer markers cells are drawn in by their antibodies, which are pre-mixed with the carbon nanotubes.
danso 14y ago
Thanks for this. This is a great story but one of the type that is prone to being overhyped by writers whose angle is "man bites dog." As another commenter pointed out, the test is still very preliminary: http://www.pancan.org/section_research/strategic_research_program/news/topic_maryland_science_fair_pancreatic_cancer_diagnosis.php http://www.pancan.org/section_research/strategic_research_pr... Whether or not the test is a smashing success is not the only point of inspiration. I think the field of medicine is extremely prone to disruption by clever, process-focused laymen, whether they are 15 or 30-years of age. The field of medicine is filled with brilliant people, but it's also held back by institutional tradition and authority, i.e. "that's just the way things are done." Frequent readers of HN are probably familiar with Atul Gawande's article on the checklist, in which hospitals who mandated that surgeons and nurses follow a simple list of steps (literally, as simple as "wash your hands") were able to reduce the rate of needless post-surgical infections to zero. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_gawande http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_... I believe Merck's first big drug came from reading a research paper that had apparently been overlooked. In a book I've been reading about how companies develop drugs, a veteran of the industry wrote about how a potential multi-billion dollar drug was almost shelved because the company's analysts had forgotten to remove dummy data from their test-analysis routines...and that this kind of thing happens all the time, apparently. And of course, most people are pretty familiar with the calcified information-systems of their doctors' offices. Those things remain in place because that's how they've been done in the past, by many other brilliant people, so why re-examine them?* (to be fair, medical information systems are also hindered by medical privacy laws governing the copying/distribution of patient data) Edit: Just after I posted this, I came across this NYT article about a boy who went to the hospital after cutting his arm diving for a basketball and died from infection-related complications. The upshot: > In a statement, the hospital said that emergency physicians and nurses would be “immediately notified of certain lab results suggestive of serious infection, such as elevated band counts.” Rory Staunton’s bands, or a type of white blood cell, were nearly five times as high as a normal level. > The hospital has developed a new checklist to ensure that a doctor and nurse have conducted “a final review of all critical lab results and patient vital signs” before a patient leaves, Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman, said in the statement. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/nyregion/after-rory-stauntons-death-hospital-alters-discharge-procedures.html?_r=1&hp http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/nyregion/after-rory-staunt...

brittohalloran 14y ago

Short explanation: Paper covered with carbon nanotubes is conductive. This conductivity changes when cancer marker cells are present. The cancer markers cells are drawn in by their antibodies, which are pre-mixed with the carbon nanotubes.

danso 14y ago

Thanks for this. This is a great story but one of the type that is prone to being overhyped by writers whose angle is "man bites dog." As another commenter pointed out, the test is still very preliminary: http://www.pancan.org/section_research/strategic_research_program/news/topic_maryland_science_fair_pancreatic_cancer_diagnosis.php http://www.pancan.org/section_research/strategic_research_pr... Whether or not the test is a smashing success is not the only point of inspiration. I think the field of medicine is extremely prone to disruption by clever, process-focused laymen, whether they are 15 or 30-years of age. The field of medicine is filled with brilliant people, but it's also held back by institutional tradition and authority, i.e. "that's just the way things are done." Frequent readers of HN are probably familiar with Atul Gawande's article on the checklist, in which hospitals who mandated that surgeons and nurses follow a simple list of steps (literally, as simple as "wash your hands") were able to reduce the rate of needless post-surgical infections to zero. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_gawande http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_... I believe Merck's first big drug came from reading a research paper that had apparently been overlooked. In a book I've been reading about how companies develop drugs, a veteran of the industry wrote about how a potential multi-billion dollar drug was almost shelved because the company's analysts had forgotten to remove dummy data from their test-analysis routines...and that this kind of thing happens all the time, apparently. And of course, most people are pretty familiar with the calcified information-systems of their doctors' offices. Those things remain in place because that's how they've been done in the past, by many other brilliant people, so why re-examine them?* (to be fair, medical information systems are also hindered by medical privacy laws governing the copying/distribution of patient data) Edit: Just after I posted this, I came across this NYT article about a boy who went to the hospital after cutting his arm diving for a basketball and died from infection-related complications. The upshot: > In a statement, the hospital said that emergency physicians and nurses would be “immediately notified of certain lab results suggestive of serious infection, such as elevated band counts.” Rory Staunton’s bands, or a type of white blood cell, were nearly five times as high as a normal level. > The hospital has developed a new checklist to ensure that a doctor and nurse have conducted “a final review of all critical lab results and patient vital signs” before a patient leaves, Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman, said in the statement. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/nyregion/after-rory-stauntons-death-hospital-alters-discharge-procedures.html?_r=1&hp http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/nyregion/after-rory-staunt...