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-How do you remember your first contact with science? What do you consider to be the beginning?
My first contact became a chemical Olympiad in the eighth grade of elementary school. I first understood that I could compete and win, which is why I enjoyed it. Later, at Prešov High School Taras Ševčenka, my interest in science was developed through correspondence seminars organized at the Faculty of Chemistry and Technology of Bratislava and the Chemistry Summer School. At that time, I felt that science could become an important part of my life and my future job. I walked in chemistry by miles and walking on a mountain of new information. As a high school student, for example, I was able to read college scripts. At the Gymnasium, I was very competitive and ambitious. I knew I would do science in the future, but the idea of working in biomedicine was born much longer. I would say in the next 20 years.
– Did you initially report on medicine? Finally, you have chosen another college. Why? –
Already in high school, I wanted to work with people and people. At the same time, I wanted to stay scientific and use my knowledge in chemistry, which was my strong point. I went abroad and, in Iceland, I started studying medicine, but it did not work. It was very demanding because the study was in two foreign languages and I was not able to, so I went to biochemistry. Later, I began PhD studies where I dealt with bioorganic chemistry and structural biology. Darilo has mainly been published by us, as well as many attractive foreign job offers. My return to the medical world was due to my admission to Rockefeller University in New York, a world-renowned biomedical institute with 25 Nobel Prize winners in history. I was admitted to the position of postdoctoral professor in the laboratory of Professor Thomas Tuschl. It's here that I came back into the biomedical world by developing all new diagnostic technologies.
– You have a lot of success. With your project, you have become the absolute winner of the Startup Awards 2016. You have recently participated in the CESAwards regional competition as part of the Global Startup Awards, where you have won the category of the largest scope for a company in the Central Europe region. and oriental. What do you consider to be your greatest success so far?
The most important success that I consider is perhaps the advanced technology we developed at Rockefeller University for the diagnosis of cancer. Our research led to a very important scientific article, often cited in scientific circles, as well as to three patents.
-Any impact on the treatment of cancer itself has these patents?
These are mainly technology patents. They do not have a direct impact on treatment. They revitalize certain steps of the method, be it the tissue fixation or the correct visualization of the cancer biomarker, etc.
• In the area of cancer research, you develop a test to diagnose cancer more effectively. How will it work in practice?
When a person falls ill, they consult a doctor who uses basic diagnostic methods such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. When a suspected discovery is discovered, a biopsy is performed, that is, a sample is taken from the tissue. The sample is analyzed later. By an overwhelming majority, the procedure is standard. The tissue is sliced and histologically visualized. This means that we are looking for a healthy or cancerous tissue, a malignant or malignant tumor. Another option is immunohistochemistry, which is today also a standard of reference. However, all these diagnostic methods have their limits, they offer a number of false positives or false negatives. In other words, we can not detect cancer accurately. Just in the form of biopsy is still 20, 30, sometimes up to 50% error, which leads to misdiagnosis. The goal of MultiplexDX is to eliminate the wrong diagnosis at close to zero percent. The goal is not only to visualize the tissue, but also to extract biomarkers from it. We want to quantify a biomarker in two ways, with two technologies: visualization and sequencing. Next, we scientifically compare these two methods, the "cross-validation". This cross-validation can eliminate diagnostic errors and help treat the patient properly. We assume that such a diagnostic test could arrive on the market around 2023, but it is possible that it will be sooner.
– So, if you do that, the cancer patient should be treated more effectively.
Yes, especially more precisely. The current medical standard is to use purely preventative chemotherapy. Clinical studies have shown that for some types of cancer, up to 50% or more patients are unnecessarily treated with chemotherapy. This is one of the things we clearly want to identify, in which case chemotherapy is needed or other chemotherapy is not necessary. Optionally, a chemotherapy drug may not be taken and a combination of drugs is needed. We simply rely on an individual approach to the patient, called "personalized medicine". By knowing how to precisely quantify a particular biomarker, we could only administer eight doses of chemotherapy commonly used in this type of cancer, and more effectively. At present, the medical consensus is not based on cutting edge research, but rather on benchmarks and the physician's experience. Nowadays, the most important thing is to diagnose, treat and monitor the patient. If the treatment fails, it returns. These are pillars of medicine that have been working for centuries: diagnose, heal and monitor. Unfortunately, it still does not seem to be the most advanced diagnosis in this circle. Many treatments, drugs and diagnostic methods developed in the scientific world are still under experimental conditions. It still does not belong to a group of excellence in diagnosis and treatment, which is compelling for the patient.
-In one of your interviews, you said that cancer did not have to worry and that the problem was related to a late diagnosis and inaccurate features. What does this mean in practice? Can doctors fail or not have the right options?
The system has two cracks. The first is that people do not go to preventive inspections. In Slovakia, a very small percentage of people really do. Secondly, early diagnosis is not well developed on a global scale. The most important role played by the system and the people themselves. The oncologist in Slovakia is a doctor overburdened with oncology patients. In addition, he must make very difficult decisions every day, he is responsible for the treatment he must undergo, he must trust his abilities and his experience.
-You have also said that in the treatment of cancer, positive thinking and belief is necessary.
I am a scientist, so I keep the facts. I would not want this issue to become a matter of alternative treatment. I would not support an alternative treatment. I greatly respect the positive psychic because I treat, for example, the molecular biology of cancer. As the cancer progresses, the metastasis becomes, how can it be healed. The more I meddle with the problem, I do not know much. When I am still angry at the psychic, I lose all contact with certain facts. When you have a positive thought and think you can heal, hormonal levels change. The molecular level of hormones is different from that of depression. I know this has some effects of boosting the immune system. Scientific research has shown whether positive thinking or, on the contrary, depression can stimulate or, on the contrary, hinder the immune system's response, but no results have been scientifically captured. The immune system plays a very important role in the treatment of cancer. For example, in the case of immunotherapy, which is currently the most advanced treatment, it is a phenomenon when the body can no longer stimulate the immune system for that reason. He kills tumors. However, immunotherapy will strengthen your immune system to such an extent that it can again fight against cancer cells. The tumor, as it develops, enters the phase of the so-called intelligent mini-organ that can protect itself from the immune system. The immune system is like it's blocking. Immunotherapy can unblock this "protection" of the tumor and the immune system itself begins to detect it and kill it slowly.
-When can we say that we are successful in treating cancer or that success is increasing rapidly?
In the 1960s, two-thirds of people died after five years of cancer. At present, two-thirds of people survive. To see we have improved by 33%. The change is incredible. I think that if the early diagnosis improves in the preventive exams and will be used massively, the treatment will reach the level at which we recognize the heterogeneity of the tumors and we will use the appropriate customized combination of drugs and treatments. The success of the treatment will be massively high and we will come out of it. 90 percent.
-We spend a lot of time in the lab. Nevertheless, you have the pleasure of folklore and music. How did you get that?
Folklore is probably due to the fact that our family has strong roots in the past. By studying the violin and later singing, I had a tendency to do it. I have it in me. As I know, I also have talent for music and that's part of my personality. Now, unfortunately, the music is a lot less, because I do not hate it. Music is a way of deregistering for me. In the United States, we even had a group called PreSoVolt because we were three Prešovčania. We did a folk-rock business and, in Iceland, I was studying an opera song. There are very few genres in the music that are against me. Maybe one, as I'm more on melody, so rap is not for me.
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