Remember, two weeks ago, I wrote about the billions spent by Big Pharma on developing drugs and procedures to cure the major diseases we face? Well here's another way of doing it - how about a 14 year old boy in his high school lab and family basement?
This is what Jack Andraka did two years ago in Maryland, US. He was upset when a family friend died of pancreatic cancer, and he leaned that the disease was virtually untraceable in its early stages and by the time it was identified, some 97% of patients died.
Using his high school biology and lots of reading via Google and Wikipedia, he spent his summer holidays not surfing or partying, but locked in his room studying 8000 proteins, looking for the one that would make the ideal biological marker. It had to respond immediately to the presence of pancreatic cancer antibodies. Eventually he found one - the 4000th he tested.
Then, simply as if stirring a cake mix with water, he attached the molecules to graphene nanotubes one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair. He soaked the mixture onto filter paper and let it dry.
The tiniest drop of blood, if it contains any antibodies, will cause a reaction that can be detected by measuring the electric current flowing through the microscopic tubes. This he did with a $50 multimeter from the hardware shop.
It worked. It still needs much further development and medical testing, but potentially, said Andraka, "The test is over 90 percent accurate in detecting the presence of mesothelin [the marker]. It is also 168 times faster, costs around three cents, over 400 times more sensitive than the current diagnostic tests, and only takes five minutes to run."
His project won the $75,000 Intel International Science Prize and he became a media sensation. He was 15 - hadn't even done the equivalent of the VCE - and he was giving pep talks on TED.
Now he's older and wiser - all of 17 - and says he wants to complete high school and university, or at least his mother does. However if you check out his web site he is flipping to meetings all over America and the world (including Australia) and you wonder where he is going to fit it in.
The boy genius is also pretty smart. As soon as he was satisfied that he had success in his hands, he hired a patent lawyer. Presumably he is negotiating with some pharmaceutical giant who will take over all the hard running and pay him lots of cash.
A few months ago he was embarked on another project, though I expect he has run out of time for it. But it is a groundbreaking idea, no less than creating the Tricorder. Remember Mister Spock's amazing machine in Star Trek? The size of what, today, would be seen as a mobile phone, it was able to diagnose and analyse any disease known to man or Vulcan.
The communications company Qualcomm has offered a $10 million prize for the first team to create a real Tricorder.
It must have the ability to diagnose a set of 15 diseases. It will take blood pressure, breathing, temperature. And "measurement of health states through a combination of wireless sensors, imaging technologies, and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements."
In other worlds a full-blown medical lab, capable of use by a non-doctor, in the palm of your hand.
There are two dozen teams competing - groups from the world's leading universities, companies, even NASA, a suitable tribute to Mr Spock.
