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You heard it here first, people; Stephen Quake comes for colonoscopy.
The scientist has made a point of replacing invasive, painful and dangerous procedures with simple and inexpensive tests that can be performed almost anywhere. This year again, more than three million women have purchased a blood sample that it has developed to detect birth defects, thus replacing the need for amniocentesis and giant needles puncturing the blood. 39; uterus. At the WIRED25 summit on Monday morning, Quake said, perhaps jokingly, that the colonoscopies were next. Vigorous applause ensues.
He was referring to the burgeoning field of liquid biopsies – a noninvasive and cheap cancer screening that could be part of routine care. Blood can be taken anywhere and sent to a lab to be tested, says Quake. "If we can pass this type of information to anyone, it will be a big step forward in creating more equity in health care."
This technique is possible thanks to massive data collection, and the use of massive data to cure diseases is at the heart of Quake's work. Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at Stanford University and Co-President of Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, he is one of the people that the founder of Facebook (and Bill Gates) hopes to heal from all things human before the end of the century.
Stephen Quake wants to replace invasive, painful and dangerous procedures with simple, inexpensive tests that can be done almost anywhere.
Amy Lombard
This will require a much deeper understanding of how genetics influences disease at the cellular level, and for decades Quake has been developing technologies to select individual cells, split them, and examine them in-house. One of Biohub's most important projects is to support the Human Cell Atlas, an ambitious international effort to catalog the 37 trillion cells of the human body. Last week, Quake's group published its first major contribution to the project: a collection of data from nearly 100,000 mouse cells from 20 organs and tissues. Mice are the most important model organism used by scientists to understand human disease, and this comprehensive organism map provides insights into how cells talk to each other and what happens when things go wrong.
"I really consider 23andMe a data company," says Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe.
Amy Lombard
Jane Metcalfe, founder of WIRED, led the conversation on stage with Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe, who also highlighted the role of data in consumer DNA technology.
"I really consider 23andMe as a data processing company," said Wojcicki. But it took the genetic testing provider more than a decade to get there. After a first wave of positive press and an avalanche of aerial parts in 2006, sales of 23andMe kits dropped steeply, falling to 20 per day. "We understood that we would have to prove what we could do with this information," Wojcicki said. 23andMe started reporting on the risks of diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Then the US Food and Drug Administration slammed the door. It was only last year that 23andMe regained the right to provide health forecasts to people. Since then, he has collected new approvals and shows no signs of slowing down.
The company has now amassed genetic, health and behavioral data from more than five million people, a data store that has allowed it to make a $ 300 million investment from one of the world's largest drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline, earlier this year. The pharmaceutical company also signed an exclusive five-year data sharing agreement aimed at discovering new targeted treatments. Wojcicki defended it on Monday, claiming that 23andMe's mission was still aimed at reaping benefits from the human genome: "Finding a treatment or treatment for you is one of the clearest ways to show you benefits. "
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