Adam de la Zerda: We can start winning the war against cancer
Adam de la Zerda: Cómo empezar a ganar la guerra contra el cáncer
Adam de la Zerda develops new medical imaging technologies to detect and destroy cancer. Full bio
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la guerra contra el cáncer,
and the National Cancer Institute declared
el Instituto Nacional del Cáncer declaró
but I don't buy that.
pero yo no me lo creo.
esta guerra, sin embargo,
anyone here will question that.
cuestione eso.
esta guerra contra el cáncer
this war against cancer
a story about a good friend of mine.
una historia de un buen amigo mío.
Ehud was diagnosed with brain cancer.
diagnosticaron cáncer cerebral.
de los más letales.
of the most deadly forms of brain cancer.
that they only have 12 months,
que solo tenía 12 meses,
deben encontrar un tratamiento.
they have to find a treatment.
find a cure, he will die.
diferentes para elegir,
of different treatments to choose from,
if a treatment is even working or not,
un tratamiento funciona o no,
about three months or so.
into his first treatment,
solo tras un par de días de tratamiento,
just a few days into that treatment,
creo que esto está funcionando.
"Adam, I think this is working.
Something is happening."
Algo está pasando".
¿Cómo lo sabes, Ehud?"
How do you know that, Ehud?"
I feel so terrible inside.
tan mal por dentro
we got the news, it didn't work.
nos llegó la noticia, no funcionó.
en su segundo tratamiento.
into his second treatment.
gotta be working there."
algo debe estar pasando".
again we get bad news.
de nuevo malas noticias.
and then his fourth treatment.
y luego en el cuarto.
is going through such a huge struggle,
pasa por una gran lucha como esta,
muchas emociones.
are going through your head.
this is the best that we can offer?
es lo mejor que podemos ofrecer?
more and more into this.
the best that doctors could offer Ehud.
los médicos podrían ofrecer a Ehud.
ofrecer a pacientes con cáncer cerebral.
patients with brain cancer generally.
con toda la paleta del cáncer.
all across the board with cancer.
Uds. han visto las estadísticas antes.
have seen those statistics before.
how many patients actually died of cancer,
que en realidad murió de cáncer,
that many things that have changed.
muchas cosas que han cambiado.
algunos cambios.
for example, on the rise.
por ejemplo, en alza
for example, stomach cancer
el cáncer de estómago
causas de muerte de todos los cánceres,
of the biggest killers of all cancers,
Anyone knows, by the way?
¿Alguien lo sabe?
struck by stomach cancer?
es alcanzada por un cáncer de estómago?
medical technology breakthrough
de la tecnología médica
that saved humanity from stomach cancer?
de cáncer de estómago?
or a better diagnostic?
o un mejor diagnóstico?
no longer eating spoiled meats.
comemos carne en mal estado.
nos ha pasado hasta ahora
that happened to us so far
en la investigación del cáncer
the refrigerator was invented.
in cancer research.
en la investigación del cáncer.
investigación sobre el cáncer
of good cancer research
that taught us about cancer.
que nos enseñaron sobre el cáncer.
to still do ahead of us.
principal para que este sea el caso,
reason why this is the case,
las imágenes médicas.
medical imaging comes in.
entra en acción.
of the best medical imaging
de la mejor imagen médica
to brain cancer patients,
con cáncer cerebral,
a todos los pacientes de cáncer,
to all cancer patients,
where the bones are,
que muestra donde están los huesos
where tumors are.
donde están los tumores.
outside of the body,
para el exterior del cuerpo,
into these patients by the billions,
en estos pacientes por miles de millones,
that are hungry for sugar.
for example, lights up there.
por ejemplo, se enciende ahí.
necesita una gran cantidad de azúcar.
needs a lot of sugar.
lights up there.
is the thing that's clearing
otros puntos calientes,
a wonderful technology.
una tecnología maravillosa.
to look into someone's body
buscar en el cuerpo de alguien
each and every one of the cells
y cada una de las células
allowing us to look into someone's body
permite ver en el cuerpo de una persona
has the cancer metastasized?
metástasis el cáncer?
are showing you very clearly
muestran muy claramente
where is the tumor.
donde está el tumor.
small little hot spots there.
cancerosas se encuentran en estos tumores?
are in any one of these tumors?
de células cancerosas,
que este número descendió.
that this number sunk in.
estas pequeñas irregularidades
of these small little blips
at least 100 million cancer cells
100 millones de células de cáncer
like a very large number,
un número muy grande,
un número increíblemente grande,
an incredibly large number,
algo con suficiente antelación
in order to pick up something early enough
to do something meaningful about it,
that are a thousand cells in size,
que tienen mil células
a handful of cells in size.
pretty far away from this.
a little experiment here.
to now play and imagine
que imaginen
en una sala de operaciones,
that the tumor is out.
el tumor se haya extinguido.
have already been removed,
ya se han apartado,
de una pelota de golf o menos
about the size of a golf ball or so
del cerebro de esta persona.
of this person's brain.
everything looks the same,
y por desgracia, todo parece igual,
y el tejido cerebral sano
and healthy brain tissue
a little bit on the brain,
un poco en el cerebro,
a little harder, stiffer,
algo más fuertes, más rígidos,
a little bit like this and say,
y empieza a cortar el tumor
and start cutting the tumor
to a stage where you think,
I took out everything."
Saqué todo".
like, pretty crazy --
challenging decision of your life here.
a la decisión más difícil de su vida.
and let this patient go,
some leftover cancer cells behind
células cancerosas sobrantes
around the tumor
o menos alrededor del tumor
una decisión fácil de tomar
tienen que tomar a diario
have to take every single day
con amigos míos en el laboratorio:
to a few friends of mine in the lab,
there's got to be a better way."
un amigo que debe haber una mejor manera.
that there's got to be a better way.
una manera mejor para esto.
de los que hablé, el azúcar, etc.
the sugar and so on.
instead of using sugar molecules,
de moléculas de azúcar?
little particles made of gold,
hechas de oro,
interesting chemistry around them.
interesante que les rodea.
to look for cancer cells.
células cancerosas.
these gold particles
estas partículas de oro
every single cell in our body
todas las células del cuerpo
"¿Eres una célula cancerosa o sana?
or are you a healthy cell?
nos pegaremos a ti para resplandecer.
we're sticking in and shining out
"Hey, look at me, I'm here."
through some interesting cameras
maybe we can guide brain cancer surgeons
guiar a los neurocirujanos de cáncer
and leaving the healthy brain alone.
dejando el cerebro sano en paz.
and boy, this works well.
esto funciona bien.
into this mouse's brain
en el cerebro de este ratón
growing in this mouse's brain,
en el cerebro de este ratón,
and asked the doctor
as if that was a patient,
out of the tumor.
ver dónde están las partículas de oro.
to see where the gold particles are.
into this mouse,
las partículas de oro en este ratón,
right here at the very left there
donde están las partículas de oro.
where the gold particles are.
is that these gold particles
"Hey, we're here. Here's the tumor."
"Estamos aquí. Aquí está el tumor".
to the doctor yet.
now please start cutting away the tumor,
empiece a extirpar el tumor,
de extirpar el primer cuadrante del tumor
just took the first quadrant of the tumor
is now missing.
el segundo cuadrante, el tercero,
the second quadrant, the third,
se volvió a nosotros y dijo:
the doctor came back to us and said,
¿Qué más quieren que haga?
What do you want me to do?
some extra margins around?"
márgenes adicionales?"
"No has extirpado esos dos puntos,
"You've missed those two spots,
grandes márgenes de alrededor,
and then let's take a look."
and lo and behold,
por completo.
that the cancer is completely gone
ha desaparecido por completo
grandes cantidades de cerebro sano
huge amounts of healthy brain
podemos imaginar un mundo
as they take away a tumor,
extirpan un tumor
have to guess with their thumb.
to take those tiny little leftover tumors.
esos diminutos tumores sobrantes.
si son solo un puñado de células,
even if it's just a handful of cells,
del 80 % a 90 %
al final fallarán
ultimately fail
extra margins that were left positive,
que se dejaron siendo positivo,
that were left there.
que quedaron allí.
is where I think we're heading from here.
con Uds. es adónde nos dirigimos.
what should we be working on now?
¿en qué deberíamos trabajar ahora?
medical imaging is heading to
por imágenes se dirige
en el cuerpo humano
of these cells separately.
de estas células por separado.
antes de que sean 100 millones de células
way, way earlier in the process,
so we can actually do something about it.
hacer algo al respecto.
de las células también nos permitirá
of the cells might also allow us
ahora estamos llegando a un punto
we are now getting to a point
these cancer cells real questions,
estas células cancerosas preguntas reales,
to the treatment we are giving you or not?
al tratamiento que le estamos dando o no?
to stop the treatment right away,
detener el tratamiento de inmediato,
no en tres meses.
nasty, nasty chemotherapy drugs,
de quimioterapia desagradables,
side effects of the drugs
terribles de los fármacos
in fact not even helping them.
ni siquiera les ayudan.
from winning the war against cancer,
la guerra contra el cáncer,
with better medical imaging techniques
para el diagnóstico por imágenes
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Adam de la Zerda - Biologist, electrical engineerAdam de la Zerda develops new medical imaging technologies to detect and destroy cancer.
Why you should listen
Adam de la Zerda is an assistant professor at the Departments of Structural Biology and Electrical Engineering (courtesy) at Stanford University – School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate degree in computer engineering and physics from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 2005 Summa Cum Laude. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2011, where he developed the Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging technique with Sanjiv Sam Gambhir. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at the lab of Carolyn Bertozzi at UC Berkeley – Chemistry Department, before joining the Stanford faculty in 2012.
de la Zerda's research interests span the broad field of molecular imaging. His lab focuses on developing new optical imaging instrumentation and chemistry tools to study the complex spatiotemporal behavior of biomolecules in living subjects. The lab uses animal models for cancer and ophthalmic diseases such as age-related macular degeneration. His research efforts span both basic science and clinically translatable work.
de la Zerda has received many awards and honors for his work, including the Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research, the AFOSR Young Investigator Award, Baxter Faculty Scholar Award, Dale F. Frey Award, Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 in Science and Healthcare for 2012 and 2014, NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, Era of Hope Distinguished Predoctoral Poster Award, Best Poster Presentation at SPIE Photonics West, the Young Investigator Award at the World Molecular Imaging Congress, the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Award for Predoctoral researchers, the Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowship and first place at the Bay Area Entrepreneurship Contest. He has published papers in leading journals including Nature Medicine, Nature Nanotechnology and PNAS. He holds a number of patents and is the founder of a medical device company, Click Diagnostics.
Adam de la Zerda | Speaker | TED.com