Teenager Creates 90 percent Accurate Cancer Test That Only Costs 3 Cents

Ever feel like you’re not doing enough in a day or not achieving enough? We all have, and when you read incredible stories like Jack Andraka’s incredible discovery it makes it even feel a little more that way. Jack is only 16 years old and when his uncle recently passed away from cancer he started looking for ways on the internet to prevent cancer. This is one of those stories of someone’s pain leading to a discovery and motivating a young man we will most likely see much more from. Jack created a test to detect pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancer and the best part is test only costs three cents and takes and only takes five minutes to run. When you compare this to current methods you might be thinking it isn’t as good. However quite the opposite, Jack stated that his method is “168 times faster, over 26,000 times less expensive, and over 400 times more sensitive than our current methods of diagnosis.” Those statistics are pretty incredible for anybody, but let’s remember here Jack is 16 and did this. Current methods of diagnosis are not that great. 85 percent of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed too late and at the point they are diagnosed leave less than a 2 percent survival chance. The current test also costs a whopping $800 dollars and only has a 70 percent accuracy rate. Besides the potential lives jack is saving we should probably thank him for the massive amounts of financial money he may have just saved in medical costs. Think about that a coffee is 5 dollars nowadays and for only 3 cents you can detect it if you those cancers in only 5 minutes. The previous cost to screen the whole US population would be 250 trillion, you could now test the whole population for under 10 million dollars. Jack has shown us innovation at its finest. What was Jack’s method of discovery you ask? Did he have access to high tech tools and analysis machines capable of processing massive amounts of data and running acute tests? Quite the opposite, Jack simply tinkered in his room and correlated and analyzed data that was already available on the internet. Jack then proceeded to ask over 200 labs for a chance to test his theory, but he was turned down every time. Also shame on everybody that turned him down. Everybody talks about innovation and giving back to the younger generations, but apparently it only applies if money is involved. In the end the wonderful Professor Anirban Maitra at John Hopkins University (hats off to John Hopkins and Prof. Maitra), allowed Jack to use the research facilities needed. After working on his idea further Jack won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair[/url] and $100,000 worth of scholarships with it. In addition he is now aiming for the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE. Jack described this endeavor as follows, “It’s a $10 million prize. Essentially what you have to do is develop something the size of a smartphone that you scan over your skin and it will diagnose any disease instantly.” Jack in a little boasting that he has rightly earned, says that in competing in the contest against adult scientists, new eyes are likely to solve old problems. Congratulations Jack and we here at The Lab World Group will be looking for more incredible discoveries from you. If you ever need to use our equipment feel free, but I doubt that someone letting jack use their equipment will be an issue going forward.