自古英雄出少年！JackAndraka 就是這樣一個與眾不同的孩子！

-----------------------------------------------------

來源：現代快報 2013-02-01

15歲少年發明測癌試紙 精確度超90%

美國馬里蘭州克朗斯維爾市15歲男孩傑克・安德拉卡痛感一名家庭朋友患胰腺癌去世，竟研究出了一種早期胰腺癌的測試方法!他發明的早期測癌法比當前的醫學檢 測法敏感有效400倍，然而花費只需3美分!傑克的測癌方法能讓『癌症之王』----胰腺癌潛在患者在自身癌細胞尚處於萌芽狀態時就發出『警報』，從而使他們的術後生存率幾乎達到100%!傑克的測癌方法同樣適用於卵巢癌、肺癌等其他眾多癌症!

　　一滴血知癌變

　　根據報導，現年15歲的傑克・安德拉卡是美國馬里蘭州克朗斯維爾市的一名普通中學生，傑克是在一名朋友患胰腺癌去世後，暗暗立下了要攻克癌症的志向。他從一份科普雜誌上讀到了一篇關於碳納米管的文章後，產生了靈感，摸索到了一個發現早期癌細胞的革命性方法!

傑克想出的是一種測試人體血液內『間皮索』含量的方法----『間皮索』是早期胰腺癌患者的血液和尿液中常有的一種生物指標。傑克用『間皮索』抗體和碳納 米管製成一種特殊材料，然後覆蓋在普通濾紙上，做成一種『測癌試紙』。測試者提供一滴血測試，透過試紙上的一些色調變化，就能精確測出自己血液中的『間皮索』含量程度。

　　求助連連遭拒

　　然而一開始，由於傑克沒有高科技實驗工具來製造這種『碳納米管』試紙，以及檢測他的神奇測癌方法，所以傑克只好向多名美國科學家求助，希望他們能讓他使用實驗室來優化和驗證他的神奇測癌方法。然而令人難以置信的是，傑克的求助遭到了一個又一個美國科學家的拒絕，最後，總共有197位科學家都拒絕幫助和指導傑克進行他的測癌方法研究，一些科學家甚至還給傑克潑冷水，坦率地稱他的早期測癌方法完全『不可行』，壓根不可能實現。

　　直到傑克向第198個科學家、美國約翰・霍普金斯大學的病理學和腫瘤學教授安尼爾班・邁特拉博士求助時，邁特拉教授才終於同意幫助他，允許他在自己的實驗室中進行研究，邁特拉教授還幫助傑克一起優化他的測癌方法。

　　精度超90%

　　傑克在約翰・霍普金斯大學中的實驗證明，他的神奇測癌方法不但完全可行，並且幾乎比現在所有的癌症測試方法都更加先進和快速!如今傑克發明的神奇早期測癌 法已經申報了美國專利。傑克發明的早期胰腺癌的測試方法，要比目前醫學界流行的檢測方法速度快上168倍、價格便宜26667倍，並且敏感度和有效度更是 高達400倍!

　　據悉，用傑克的神奇測癌法檢測一次血液的代價，只需3美分，並且5分鐘就能得知測試結果，而測癌精確度更是超過90%!不過更令醫學界深感興奮的是，傑克 發明的簡單測癌方法可以用來檢測其他各種癌症!因為只需對這種神奇『測癌試紙』上的檢測材料做些不同的改變，就能輕易檢測出各種不同癌症的生物標記!

　　獲得兩項大獎

　　目前許多美國科學家都已經認同傑克的神奇發明，還有人宣稱這項醫學發明甚至有望改變整個醫學史的進程。去年11月，美國《史密森學會雜誌》在華盛頓市向 15歲的傑克頒發了一年一度的美國青少年成就創意獎;上個月，在美國2012年英特爾科學節上，傑克又獲得了75000美元的獎學基金，用來獎勵他的發明 和成就。

據悉，傑克現在計劃將他發明的『神奇測癌試紙』向公眾進行大規模市場推廣，他相信不用多久，全世界的藥店都可以買到他的『神奇測癌試紙』，任何人都可以用它來檢測自己的身體是否擁有癌細胞徵兆，一旦發現早期徵兆就立即就醫，從而就能將癌症成功扼殺於萌芽狀態!

（續……）

--------------------------------------------

來源：Smithsonian magazine, December 2012

• Science & Nature

JackAndraka, the Teen Prodigy of Pancreatic Cancer

It’s first period digital arts class, and the assignment is to makePhotoshop monsters. Sophomore Jack Andraka considers crossing a velociraptorwith a Brazilian wandering spider, while another boy grafts butterfly wingsonto a rhinoceros. Meanwhile, the teacher lectures on the deranged genius ofDoctor Moreau and Frankenstein, “a man who created something he didn’t takeresponsibility for.”

“You don’t have to do this, Jack!” somebody in back shouts.

The silver glint of a retainer: Andraka grins. Since he won the $75,000grand prize at this past spring’s Intel International Science and EngineeringFair, one of the few freshman ever to do so, he’s become a North County HighSchool celebrity to rival any soccer star or homecoming queen. A series ofjokes ensue about Andraka’s mad scientist doings in the school’s imaginary“dungeon” laboratory. In reality, Andraka created his potentially revolutionarypancreatic cancer detection tool at nearby Johns Hopkins University, though hedoes sometimes tinker in a small basement lab at the family’s house in leafyCrownsville, Maryland, where a homemade particle accelerator crowds thefoosball table.

This 15-year-old “Edison of our times,” as Andraka’s Hopkins mentor hascalled him, wears red Nikes carefully coordinated with his Intel T-shirt. Hisshaggy haircut is somewhere between Beatles and Bieber. At school one day, hecites papers from leading scientific publications, including Science, Natureand the Journal of Clinical Neurology. And that’s just in English class.In chemistry, he tells the teacher that he will make up a missed lab at home,where of course he has plenty of nitric acid to work with. In calculus, he doesnot join the other students who cluster around a blackboard equation likehungry young lions at a kill. “That’s so trivial,” he says, and plops down at adesk to catch up on assigned chapters from Brave New World instead.Nobody stops him, perhaps because last year, when his biology teacherconfiscated his clandestine reading material on carbon nanotubes, he was in themidst of the epiphany that scientists think has the potential to save lives.

After school Andraka’s mom, Jane, a hospital anesthetist, arrives in herbattered red Ford Escort station wagon with a saving supply of chocolate milk.She soon learns that Jack’s big brother, Luke—a senior, and a previous finalistin the same elite science fair—has been ordered to bring his handmade arcfurnace home. He built it in a school lab, but teachers grew nervous when hementioned that the device could generate temperatures of several thousanddegrees Fahrenheit, and melted a steel screw to prove it. The contraption willfind a spot in the Andraka basement.

“I just say ‘Don’t burn down the house or kill yourself or your brother,’”the boys’ mother cheerfully explains. “I don’t know enough physics and math toknow if that’s a death ray or not. I say use common sense, but I don’t knowwhat they’re working on down there.”

***

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers, with a five-yearsurvival rate of 6 percent. Some 40,000 people die of it each year. Thediagnosis can be devastating because it is often delivered late, after thecancer has spread. Unlike the breast or colon, the pancreas is nestled deep inthe body cavity and difficult to image, and there is no telltale early symptomor lump. “By the time you bring this to a physician, it’s too late,” saysAnirban Maitra, a Johns Hopkins pathologist and pancreatic cancer researcherwho is Andraka’s mentor. “The drugs we have aren’t good for this disease.”

But as the cancer takes hold, the body does issue an unmistakable distresssignal: an overabundance of a protein called mesothelin. The problem is thatscientists haven’t yet developed a surefire way to look for this red flag inthe course of a standard physical. “The first point of entry would have to be acheap blood test done with a simple prick,” Maitra says.

That’s exactly what Andraka may have invented: A small dipstick probe thatuses just a sixth of a drop of blood appears to be much more accurate thanexisting approaches and takes five minutes to complete. It’s still preliminary,but drug companies are interested, and word is spreading. “I’ve gotten theseFacebook messages asking, ‘Can I have the test?’” Andraka says. “I amheartbroken to say no.”

***

That fateful day in freshman biology class last year, Andraka had a lot onhis 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 hisfather, Steve, a civil engineer, had been using carbon nanotubes to screencompounds in water from the Chesapeake Bay. Andraka had frankly become a littleobsessed with the nanotubes, which look to the naked eye like little piles ofblack dust, but are really tiny cylinders about 1/50,000 the diameter of ahuman hair that can form microscopic networks. “They have these amazingproperties,” Andraka explains. “They are stronger than steel. They conductelectricity better than copper.”

The Science paper he was covertly reading at his desk was aboutapplications for nanotubes. With half an ear, Andraka listened to his biologyteacher 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 nanotubenetwork with mesothelin-specific antibodies, then introduce a drop of apancreatic cancer patient’s blood? The antibodies would bind to the mesothelinand enlarge. These beefed-up molecules would spread the nanotubes fartherapart, changing the electrical properties of the network: The more mesothelinpresent, the more antibodies would bind and grow big, and the weaker theelectrical signal would become. Other scientists had recently designed similartests for breast and prostate cancers, but nobody had addressed pancreaticcancer. “It’s called connecting the dots,” Maitra says.

Andraka wrote up an experimental protocol and e-mailed it to 200researchers. Only Maitra responded. “It was a very unusual e-mail,” heremembers. “I often don’t get e-mails like this from postdoctoral fellows, letalone high-school freshmen.” He decided to invite Andraka to his lab. Tooversee the project, he appointed a gentle postdoctoral chemist, who took thebaby-sitting assignment in stride. They expected to see Andraka for perhaps afew weeks over the summer.

Instead, the young scientist worked for seven months, every day afterschool and often on Saturdays until after midnight, subsisting on hard-boiledeggs and Twix as his mother dozed in the car in a nearby parking garage. He laboredthrough Thanksgiving and Christmas. He spent his 15th birthday in the lab.

Not having finished even freshman biology, he had a lot to learn. Hecalled 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 burstinto tears.

But sometimes his lack of training yielded elegant solutions. For his teststrips, he decided to use simple filter paper, which is absorbent enough tosoak up the necessary solution of carbon nano­tubes and mesothelin antibodies,and inexpensive. To measure the electrical change in a sample, he bought a $50ohmmeter at Home Depot. He and his dad built the Plexiglas testing apparatusused to hold the strips as he reads the current. He swiped a pair of his mom’ssewing needles to use as electrodes.

About 2:30 a.m. one December Sunday, Jane Andraka was jolted from herparking 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 eyewhen something went right?” The test had detected mesothelin in artificialsamples. A few weeks later, it pinpointed mesothelin in the blood of micebearing human pancreatic tumors.

Andraka’s appetite for science and success knows no bounds: His euphoricreaction to the Intel win quickly went viral on YouTube. In the months sincethat triumph, reality has sunk in a little as he spoke with attorneys andlicensing companies. “I just finished the patent,” he says, “and I’m going tostart an LLC soon.” But Maitra—who believes that the dipstick should ultimatelybe modified to identify other flag-raising cancer proteins along withmesothelin—has made clear that Andraka has a lot more testing to do beforepublishing a peer-reviewed paper on the work, the next step. Even if all goeswell, the product probably wouldn’t be marketed for a decade or so, which, to ateenager, is practically eternity.

And of course, he’s got to start working on next year’s science fairproject. He has no shortage of ideas.

“He’s ahead of his time in many ways,” Maitra says. “Taking one idea andseeing how to extrapolate something even more expansive, that’s the differencebetween being great and being a genius. And who comes up with ideas like thisat 14? It’s crazy.” Andraka is young enough to speak with perfect earnestnessabout “when I grow up.”

Even so, he is in high demand, giving TED talks and speaking atinternational ideas festivals. His iPhone contains snapshots of dignitariesranging from Bill Clinton to Will.i.am. In September, Andraka attended highschool so infrequently that a few teachers thought he’d dropped out. “But Idon’t want to quit high school,” he says. “High school is fun—sometimes.”Occasionally he wishes that he had more time for it, and kid stuff in general.He likes to watch “Glee” and to compete with Luke on the national juniorwhitewater rafting team.

Then there’s all that homework to catch up on. His English class is busydiscussing Brave New World, about a technological dystopia where the inventorHenry Ford is worshiped as a god. “Your Fordliness,” the teacher explains, isthe standard honorific.

“Your Jackliness,” one classmate whispers.

欣賞視頻請點擊：