Jack Andraka, the Teen Prodigy of Pancreatic Cancer
A high school sophomore won the youth achievement Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for inventing a new method to detect a lethal cancer
- By Abigail Tucker
- Smithsonian magazine, December 2012, Subscribe
(Page 2 of 3)
That’s exactly what Andraka may have invented: A small dipstick probe that uses just a sixth of a drop of blood appears to be much more accurate than existing approaches and takes five minutes to complete. It’s still preliminary, but drug companies are interested, and word is spreading. “I’ve gotten these Facebook messages asking, ‘Can I have the test?’” Andraka says. “I am heartbroken to say no.”
***
That fateful day in freshman biology class last year, Andraka had a lot on his mind. A close friend of his family had recently died of pancreatic cancer, and Andraka had been reading about the disease. At the same time, he and his father, Steve, a civil engineer, had been using carbon nanotubes to screen compounds in water from the Chesapeake Bay. Andraka had frankly become a little obsessed with the nanotubes, which look to the naked eye like little piles of black dust, but are really tiny cylinders about 1/50,000 the diameter of a human hair that can form microscopic networks. “They have these amazing properties,” Andraka explains. “They are stronger than steel. They conduct electricity better than copper.”
The Science paper he was covertly reading at his desk was about applications for nanotubes. With half an ear, Andraka listened to his biology teacher lecture on antibodies, which bind to particular proteins in the blood. Suddenly, the two ideas collided in his mind. What if he could lace a nanotube network with mesothelin-specific antibodies, then introduce a drop of a pancreatic cancer patient’s blood? The antibodies would bind to the mesothelin and enlarge. These beefed-up molecules would spread the nanotubes farther apart, changing the electrical properties of the network: The more mesothelin present, the more antibodies would bind and grow big, and the weaker the electrical signal would become. Other scientists had recently designed similar tests for breast and prostate cancers, but nobody had addressed pancreatic cancer. “It’s called connecting the dots,” Maitra says.
Andraka wrote up an experimental protocol and e-mailed it to 200 researchers. Only Maitra responded. “It was a very unusual e-mail,” he remembers. “I often don’t get e-mails like this from postdoctoral fellows, let alone high-school freshmen.” He decided to invite Andraka to his lab. To oversee the project, he appointed a gentle postdoctoral chemist, who took the baby-sitting assignment in stride. They expected to see Andraka for perhaps a few weeks over the summer.
Instead, the young scientist worked for seven months, every day after school and often on Saturdays until after midnight, subsisting on hard-boiled eggs and Twix as his mother dozed in the car in a nearby parking garage. He labored through Thanksgiving and Christmas. He spent his 15th birthday in the lab.
Not having finished even freshman biology, he had a lot to learn. He called forceps “tweezers.” He had a nasty run-in with the centrifuge machine, in which a month’s worth of cell culture samples exploded, and Andraka burst into tears.
But sometimes his lack of training yielded elegant solutions. For his test strips, he decided to use simple filter paper, which is absorbent enough to soak up the necessary solution of carbon nanotubes and mesothelin antibodies, and inexpensive. To measure the electrical change in a sample, he bought a $50 ohmmeter at Home Depot. He and his dad built the Plexiglas testing apparatus used to hold the strips as he reads the current. He swiped a pair of his mom’s sewing needles to use as electrodes.
About 2:30 a.m. one December Sunday, Jane Andraka was jolted from her parking lot stupor by an ecstatic Jack. “He opens the door,” she remembers, “and you know how your kid has this giant smile, and that shine in their eye when something went right?” The test had detected mesothelin in artificial samples. A few weeks later, it pinpointed mesothelin in the blood of mice bearing human pancreatic tumors.
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Comments (45)
Some of you commenters sound very ignorant. You really believe pharmaceutical companies and the FDA try to inhibit discovery and translation? What's your evidence for these assertions? Yes, this kid is talented. Is he a scientific messiah who invented something no one's thought of before? No. If he has seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. He did what most/all scientists do: he made a marginal step in innovation, and it worked. I'm not saying he did not accomplish something great, but let's please dispell the myth that he's already on the level of people like Bob Langer. Just search "carbon nanotube biosensor" or more specifically "carbon nanotube immunoassay": there are numerous hits. This research has been ongoing for a decade. http://phys.org/news175447210.html http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11032010-150610/unrestricted/abera_diss.pdf https://www.google.com/search?q=carbon+nanotube+biosensor&aq=f&oq=carbon+nanotube+biosensor&aqs=chrome.0.57j0l3.4587j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Posted by Jack on May 13,2013 | 07:42 AM
re Pancreatic cancer dipstick - fantastic. Please hurry up availabilty! In Brisbane, Australia, the Institute of Molecular Science has identified 2000 genes from operation specimens of pancreatic cancer. Perhaps they could assist? I had a pancreatic duct cyst, before was cancer, but what might happen to my remaining head of pancreas?
Posted by R Hewland on May 10,2013 | 01:52 AM
I will be participating in the International Science and Engineering Fair this year testing probiotics. All I can say is, "Wow Jack Andraka's research is amazing!"
Posted by Maddy on May 5,2013 | 12:59 PM
Wow, what a great story. With the "reformers" hijacking public school funds in so many places to give them to the executives of for-profit (or non-profit, for that matter) "charter" schools, we aren't likely to have many more kids like this in this generation. I'm charmed by the inexpensive solutions he found -- I have ho doubt if this breakthrough had been done by one of the big pharma companies the apparatus would cost $250,000 and each testee would be charged $10,000. Well, they might be anyway, our medical care system is so broken.
Posted by Procopius on May 3,2013 | 04:15 AM
So why after almost a year has this kid's work not been published in a reputable journal. I'm sorry but real research is verified by peers and gets published. I have my doubts that this was either his own work or if it has merit. When it gets peer reviewed I will take it more seriously.
Posted by coolhead on May 2,2013 | 12:56 PM
Fabulous that he's made this breakthrough but when will it be put into use by doctors?
Posted by BDePaula on April 30,2013 | 03:59 PM
Phantastic, I'm full of respect, best regards from Germany! Jo, Berlin
Posted by Jo on April 26,2013 | 06:21 PM
there is something really special about kids at this age. their minds have not yet gotten so stuck in traditional ways of research that limits creative thinking. his way of coping with the loss of a family member led him to understand the disease, and his brilliant mind helped him understand the mechanism to detect it. but it was the matter of being fourteen that allowed his mind to not only make the connection but also to disregard any notion of impossibility.
Posted by ande spenser on April 23,2013 | 01:27 PM
That is completely managing and inspiring!!! Jack, if you are reading this thank-you and keep in doing what you do!!!
Posted by Natasha on March 28,2013 | 07:38 PM
God Bless God Our Father for blessing you with the brains to be so bright. Wonder how many other genius people like yourself have been murdered through abortion. God bless your gifted brother, Luke and your Mom who from all reports is a self-sacrificing Mom. May you continue your research for the honor and glory of God and for the good of humanity. Keeping you in prayer. Keep up the good work.
Posted by Kathy Reilly RN on March 20,2013 | 03:39 PM
I recently wrote a blog about this. You can read it here. http://www.empowernetwork.com/wmckay/blog/cancer-cure-not-exactly/
Posted by Wendell McKay on March 18,2013 | 09:53 PM
DEAR JACK ANDRAKA, I WATCHED YOUR PRESENTATION ON U-TUBE ABOUT YOUR TEST FOR PANCREAS,AND LUNG CANCER.IT WAS VERY INTERRESTING. I HAVE A BOOK YOU MIGHT LIKE TO READ, THE TITLE IS " WORLD WITHOUT CANCER " BY G. EDWARD GRIFFIN. IN HIS BOOK HE DOCUMENTS THAT IN THE MID 1960'S, Dr.MANUEL NAVARRO, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, AND SURGERY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS IN MANILLA, WAS USING A CANCER TEST THAT DETECTED CANCER OF ALL TYPES BY DETECTING THE PRESENTS OF C G H (CHORIONIC GONADOTROPHIC HORMONE ).THE CGH IS SOMETIMES REFERED TO AS HCG. I HAD THIS TEST RUN ON ME IN MARCH OF 1980. I HAVE ALSO HAD TWO TESTS RUN ON ME CALLED THE A F P SERUM (ALPHA FETOPROTEIN SERUM TEST) ONE IN JULY 2003, AND AGAIN IN MARCH OF 2013. ALL THESE TESTS ARE BASED ON THE RESEARCH BUY JOHN BEARD, A PROFESSOR OF EMBRYOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH IN SCOTLAND. HE AUTHORED A PAPER PUBLISHED IN THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL THE "LANCET" IN 1902 IN WITCH HE PROVED THAT THE CANCER CELL IS IDENTICAL TO THE "TROPHOBLAST CELL THAT IS PRODUCTED DURING PREGNANCY,BUT IS DESTROYED DURING NORMAL CHILD BERTH. THE PANCREAS IS THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE AGAINST CANCER, AND THE SECOND LINE OF DEFENCE IS VITAMIN B-17. WE ARE STEAL STUCK WITH THE PROBLEM OF FINDING A Dr. THAT HAS THE GOOD SINCE, AND HAS NOT BEEN " BLACK-MAILED " BY THE AMA, FDA,AND GOVERNMENT WHO HAVE OUT-LAWED ANY SANE METHODE OF TREATMENT FOR CANCER!!! THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME EXSPRESS MY OPINIONS, AND, JACK, IF YOU GET THIS COMMENT SEND ME AN E-MAIL AT jd41817@yahoo.com you take care JD OSBORNE
Posted by JD OSBORNE on March 18,2013 | 04:16 PM
its to bad that the FDA is a criminal enterprise run to benefit the drug industry. i hope this young man and his brain dont become the victim of their assaults.
Posted by TOM on March 11,2013 | 04:06 PM
Great article. Well-written, and a nice, tingly final line.
Posted by Christopher Wood on March 5,2013 | 10:56 AM
Don't let the Pharma companies shut this down. They will try that through their servants on Capitol Hill and WH It's going to take revolt to keep this product out there.
Posted by misa on March 4,2013 | 09:19 AM
Inspiring and frustrating, at the same time. What a great example of creative thought, of persistence, of aspirational success! What a hope for mankind! And then: "the product probably wouldn’t be marketed for a decade or so." WHY??? The answer: government regulation via the FDA. By making any drug or medical technology much harder to produce, by pushing out this potentially life-saving technology by 10 years, the FDA and its cumbersome processes may be responsible for 400,000 deaths just from pancreatic cancer, more counting other cancers that this invention could identify early. By preventing the speedy introduction of this and other innovative medical technologies, the FDA is actively violating the individual rights of patients, doctors, drug companies and inventors like this amazing young man. It's an agency of death, not life. It ought to be abolished. More here: http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2008-fall/fda-violates-rights.asp
Posted by Heike Larson on March 2,2013 | 03:15 PM
Shari Johnson i agree with you!
Posted by marlon on February 28,2013 | 07:51 AM
This will disappear just like all the low gas cars have in the past. Big pharmaceutical companies are making WAY too much money on chemotherapy to let something like this get on the market. How many billions of dollars of our tax dollars and donations have been spent on finding a cure for cancer and/or early detection......and an answer is discovered by a high school freshman with almost no education. 10 years of testing? Meanwhile our government sits back and does absolutely nothing. All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to sit back and do nothing. Disgustingly evil. Insatiable greed. Our government and big corporations are one entity.
Posted by Shari Johnson on February 25,2013 | 10:14 AM
This is a young man that is so needed , with what is in his head could benefit everyone . My worry is he will burn himself out or get cought up in fam and loose sit of who he is . A young man . With an added bonus a gift .
Posted by alison smith on February 24,2013 | 04:28 AM
What a brilliant young man! ….. I realize it's just a test, and only significant (at this time) for one type of cancer, but anything to help is awesome. And his start is so early in this field. Maybe one day he'll find a cure. My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died a painful death 7 months later. A horrid disease!
Posted by Jennifer Svendsen on February 23,2013 | 11:34 PM
is this test being used now? if not when will it be in use? if it is so simple and cheap it should be in every test labority in the world when is this likely to happen?
Posted by reesha browning on February 22,2013 | 07:29 AM
Jack's mom, Jane Andraka, spent what must have been unbelievably boring hours in her car for seven to provide the opportunity for her son's lab work. Without her support, Jack's breakthrough likely would not have occurred or would have been long delayed: "The young scientist worked for seven months, every day after school and often on Saturdays until after midnight, subsisting on hard-boiled eggs and Twix as his mother dozed in the car in a nearby parking garage. He labored through Thanksgiving and Christmas. [And so Mom spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in her car.] … About 2:30 a.m. one December Sunday, Jane Andraka was jolted from her parking lot stupor by an ecstatic Jack." Mothers make comparable sacrifices for their sons and daughters in every hamlet, town and city on earth. It is so common that it is scarcely noticed.
Posted by Thomas on February 20,2013 | 11:06 AM
Thank you Jack. My day so much brighter to know someday soon, people won't need to suffer the way my best friend and countless others have. You have an amazing gift, keep up the wonderful work.
Posted by kristin mesa on February 13,2013 | 11:54 AM
We need this screening tool now...not a decade from now. How many of us will die in the next 10 years when we might have been spared?
Posted by Kathryn on February 11,2013 | 12:50 PM
Where can you get tested? Is Anyone other then John Hopkins administering this test? Who's making the strips? I want to get tested.
Posted by Marta on February 11,2013 | 11:47 AM
While I found this fantastic, and good for the kid... why did whoever wrote this feel compelled to write about what the kid is wearing and what his hair is like? There are pictures of the kid posted and this information has no relevenece to his scientific work. That actively made me mad. It felt shallow, like it had something to do with what he has done.
Posted by Emmi on February 11,2013 | 05:17 AM
He's not arrogant, at least not any more than any other 14 year old. Humility comes with maturity. There are many failures in his future, just like with any scientist who is willing to take risks. Humility comes with experience.
Posted by Chrispina on February 10,2013 | 04:45 PM
Congratulations jake. Keep going with your research and hopefully u can cure cancer.
Posted by Ann on February 9,2013 | 06:37 PM
Kudos to Jack. Perhaps the bigger story here is what so many of us are capable of with a little passion, perseverance and most important, belief in the possibility of things. I beg to differ with phillydoc, I don't think Jack is arrogant; I think he's exuberant, overflowing with the excitement of discovery (as we all once were). Self-righteous adherence to pedagogical orthodoxy, not ego--is the monster you have to watch out for.
Posted by John Dolan on February 9,2013 | 10:54 AM
This test which the young Jake claims is 100% accurate at detecting ovarian, pancreatic, and lung cancers won't be available for 10 YEARS???? What in the world is wrong with this country that it would take that long to approve something that is a non-invasive test and very inexpensive to do? It's not like it costs thousands of dollars. The boy only worked on it for 7 months and came up with an amazing result. Other researchers have been working for 50 years or more and come with nothing. It would take very little to do blind testing by other researchers. It could be done easily. But the scientific community and the government think that they have all the time in the world. Meanwhile many, many more people will die because they were diagnosed too late. JS
Posted by jane singer on February 8,2013 | 04:24 PM
Wow. So many harsh comments. Kudos to his parents for giving him access to as much knowledge as he could take! I reckon all kids have the potential for genius - most just suffer from intellectual malnourishment!
Posted by Audra on February 7,2013 | 02:51 AM
An amazing young man. I often think that children around the world hold the answers to many of our human issues, but too often they exist in poverty as well as dangerous and mind numbing enviroments because as adults we abdicate our responsibilities to protect and nurture all children. How sad that phillydoc can only scold and scoff. Just the attitude that promotes policies that perpetuate the loss of contributions locked in the minds of many children. We fail the children and consequentially ourselves. Jack and his brother are already working very hard to make the world better for all of us. I hope we are encouraged to work to protect and educate all children. As a parent and professor, I have experienced the joy of helping children and young adults achieve those aha moments.
Posted by Cecilia on February 7,2013 | 04:59 PM
This kid sounds like an arrogant snot. He might be brilliant but he would do well to learn some humility. Even if calculus is trivial and you do have a lab at home, your achievements should not make you exempt from following the same rules as everyone else. Ego is a terrible monster.
Posted by phillydoc on February 7,2013 | 02:24 PM
Excellent article, very informative, but as for him being named the Edison of our times, I have to disagree. Edison was a plagiarizing hack, who's greatest achievement was MARKETING the light bulb. I think a better name would be Tesla.
Posted by Isaac Shaw on February 7,2013 | 10:52 AM
This young man has made HUGE progress in the fight against one of the deadliest cancers. The 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is SIX PERCENT. This year, 37,000 Americans will succumb to pancreatic cancer. It is the 4th-leading cause of cancer deaths, and by 2015, it will surpass breast cancer and colorectal cancer to become the 2nd-leading cause of cancer deaths, surpassed only by lung cancer, yet the National Cancer Institute (NCI) allocates only approximately 2% of its budget for pancreatic cancer research. The problem with pancreatic cancer is that it usually produces no symptoms until it is far too late to treat it. Jake's simple, inexpensive blood test may provide that early detection that we have for many kinds of cancers (prostate, breast, colorectal, to name a few). This is a personal topic for me; my wife of 40 years died of pancreatic cancer. After I read the Smithsonian article, I sent Jake a card thanking him for his work. You know what? He sent me a Christmas card, and included a personal note! Classy!
Posted by Stan Oberg on February 1,2013 | 12:43 AM
@Lisa, I have to disagree with your statement about Jack living a "privileged" life. This kid lives an upper middle-class life, whereas, Bill Gates' kids live a true privileged life. This is an example of inherent intelligence along with a supportive family. While I understand your premise, I disagree with your snide disdain for this kid's family. I would venture to say, he would be successful no matter his circumstance.
Posted by Hannah on February 1,2013 | 01:07 PM
Chris my late husband fought his cancer following Dr. Max Gerson, additonal herbs and vitamins. He did not do any chemo or radiation. The doctors "gave" him 90 days, he lasted 8 years.
Posted by Nancy Smith on January 30,2013 | 02:52 PM
This is great. With luck this kids hard work will continue to yield benefits to people throughout his life. AND... This is only possible because he lives a life of privilege, with well educated, well-paid parents who are able to indulge his whims of keeping chemistry equipment in the basement, who have a baseline of knowledge about how to access medical journals, or who to email (what category of person, not specific individuals) who would be able to say "Yes, come intern at our lab." If only more kids had such resources, and such access, then stories like this might not be so rare. They'd never be common but you have to wonder how many, born with the aptitude for genius but lacking the privilege, never get a chance to fulfill their inborn promise.
Posted by Lisa on January 29,2013 | 01:45 AM
What a wonderful story. I do have to agree with Chris Hunt's suggestions. My mother has completely reversed her Type II diabetes and hypertension with a vegan diet which she has been following for almost two years. Dr. Neal Barnard has a great book on reversing diabetes with food for those interested in a readable resource. I'm in my late thirties but genetically at moderate-high risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, two kinds of cancers, as well as Alzheimer's. I have gone plant-based vegan and I've lost twenty pounds that have always been hard to keep off. My energy levels are up too. My husband is thinking of trying to go fully plant-based since he travels a lot and has trouble with his energy and immunity.
Posted by Emily on January 29,2013 | 02:11 PM
Why is his success cheapened by comparing him to a soccer star or a prom queen? He actually did something worthwhile and has made a real impact on the world. It's not ok.
Posted by Tyler on December 28,2012 | 03:12 PM
Kudos to this young man for his accomplishments. However his time and energy would be better spent teaching the world that cures for all types of cancer have been around for decades, ever since Dr. Max Gerson cured it and many other chronic, degenerative diseases like diabetes, MS, Lupus and others through nutritional therapy. His daughter, Charlotte Gerson, founded the Gerson Institute in San Diego in the 1970s and has been healing cancer for over 30 years. Read Dr. T. Colin Campbell's book, The China Study and learn how animal protein is one of the major factors in causing cancers. Watch documentary movies like Healing Cancer from Inside Out, Eating, Forks Over Knives, The Beautiful Truth, Dying to Have Known, Food, Inc., Thrive and others and learn how a plant based diet is what our ancestors over the millennium and even as recently as 100 years ago primarily ate. Eliminate animal protein from your diet and you will never get cancer-and if you have it will be cured. Cancer tumors are only the symptom of an undernourished body and under functioning immune system. The body can heal itself when it is given the proper tools and the tools are the vitamins, minerals and fiber in plants which work synergistically in a complex chemical process within the body which helps to boost the immune system.. Most Americans eat less than 6% of their total dietary intake in fresh or even cooked vegetables. The rest is animal foods, grains and processed foods which are severely nutrient deficient. When you properly nourish the entire body it heals itself of not just cancer but all diseases. Clinics that educate and have programs to cure autoimmune diseases and cancer are The Gerson Institute, The Hippocrates Health Institute, The Kushi Institute, The Living Foods Institute and Dr. McDougall's Health and Medical Center. The cure for cancer is the in the produce section of the grocery store and on your dinner plate.
Posted by Chris Hunt on December 2,2012 | 03:07 PM
This is our new generation and we should be so proud! Jack will find a way to make his findings available for all of us. Think of all the lives he can save with test. One of them might be you!
Posted by JANICE BAER on December 1,2012 | 11:38 AM
When I submitted my previous comment to Smithosian, reference my pancreatic cancer operation, I think I put the wrong date in the comment. I was operated on 21 Nov 2008 and left hospital on 20 March 2009.
Posted by Mary Elizabeth Parker on November 26,2012 | 08:47 AM
Congratulations to this super young fellow, Jack Andraka, age 15, invented a new way to diagnose pancreatic cancer.I was operated on 20 Nov 08 for pancreastic cancer, surgeon got it all , it was encapsulated in the mass,that he took out. No treatments, but it is a horrendous operation. Here it is 23 Nov 2012, only probleme seems to be bleeding ulcers, as the blood does not flow as it should in this area. I had the whipple procedure. I know your family is so proud of you Jack.
Posted by Mary ElizabethParker on November 24,2012 | 06:19 PM
Documentary Short film on Jack Andraka now a semifinalist at Focus Forward Filmmaker competition. http://bit.ly/PZmG0o
Posted by Karina Costa on November 20,2012 | 06:41 PM