Adam de la Zerda: We can start winning the war against cancer
Adam de la Zerda: We kunnen de oorlog tegen kanker eindelijk overwinnen
Adam de la Zerda develops new medical imaging technologies to detect and destroy cancer. Full bio
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winnen tegen 2015."
and the National Cancer Institute declared
Senaat en het Cancer Institute,
but I don't buy that.
maar ik geloof dat niet.
anyone here will question that.
this war against cancer
hebben overwonnen
a story about a good friend of mine.
van 'n goeie vriend van me. Hij heet Ehud.
Ehud was diagnosed with brain cancer.
hersenkanker bij hem vastgesteld.
of the most deadly forms of brain cancer.
dodelijke vormen van hersenkanker.
maar 12 maanden meer gaven.
that they only have 12 months,
een remedie vinden.
they have to find a treatment.
find a cure, he will die.
of different treatments to choose from,
nieuwe behandelingen mogelijk zijn.
if a treatment is even working or not,
about three months or so.
werkt of niet.
into his first treatment,
just a few days into that treatment,
van z'n eerste behandeling
"Ik denk dat dit gaat werken...
"Adam, I think this is working.
Er gebeurt iets met mij."
Something is happening."
Hoe weet je dat?"
How do you know that, Ehud?"
zo vreselijk vanbinnen.
I feel so terrible inside.
we got the news, it didn't work.
het nieuws dat dat niet het geval was.
into his second treatment.
gotta be working there."
het moet wel werken."
again we get bad news.
kregen we weer slecht nieuws.
and then his fourth treatment.
en daarna z'n vierde.
is going through such a huge struggle,
door zo'n moeilijk gevecht moet,
are going through your head.
this is the best that we can offer?
wat we hem te bieden hadden?
more and more into this.
the best that doctors could offer Ehud.
wat we Ehud konden bieden.
patients with brain cancer generally.
patiënten van hersenkanker konden bieden.
all across the board with cancer.
wat kanker betreft.
have seen those statistics before.
vast ook allemaal al gezien.
how many patients actually died of cancer,
dat effectief sterft aan kanker.
that many things that have changed.
zoveel veranderd is.
for example, on the rise.
for example, stomach cancer
dat maagkanker, bijvoorbeeld,
of the biggest killers of all cancers,
de dodelijkste kankers was,
Anyone knows, by the way?
Weet iemand dat?
geteisterd door maagkanker?
struck by stomach cancer?
medical technology breakthrough
that saved humanity from stomach cancer?
van maagkanker?
or a better diagnostic?
of een betere diagnose?
no longer eating spoiled meats.
bedorven voedsel te eten.
overkomen is tot dusver
that happened to us so far
the refrigerator was invented.
over de vooruitgang
in cancer research.
op het gebied van kankeronderzoek.
of good cancer research
kankeronderzoek.
that taught us about cancer.
ontdekt over kanker.
to still do ahead of us.
reason why this is the case,
waarom dit het geval is,
uitzonderlijk goed doen,
medical imaging comes in.
speelt hierin een rol.
of the best medical imaging
van de medische beeldvorming
to brain cancer patients,
aan patiënten van hersenkanker,
to all cancer patients,
where the bones are,
where tumors are.
waar de tumors liggen.
outside of the body,
into these patients by the billions,
ingespoten in een patiënt.
that are hungry for sugar.
for example, lights up there.
needs a lot of sugar.
lights up there.
is the thing that's clearing
ons lichaam zuivert
a wonderful technology.
een wonderlijke technologie.
to look into someone's body
binnenkijken in iemands lichaam
each and every one of the cells
in iemands lichaam kijken,
allowing us to look into someone's body
has the cancer metastasized?
zich verspreid heeft,
are showing you very clearly
where is the tumor.
en de tumor zich bevinden.
small little hot spots there.
are in any one of these tumors?
er in één van deze tumoren zit?
that this number sunk in.
of these small little blips
at least 100 million cancer cells
kankercellen zitten
like a very large number,
an incredibly large number,
in order to pick up something early enough
to do something meaningful about it,
iets echt betekenisvol,
that are a thousand cells in size,
slechts enkele duizenden cellen tellen.
a handful of cells in size.
pretty far away from this.
a little experiment here.
to now play and imagine
that the tumor is out.
of de tumor helemaal verwijderd is.
have already been removed,
about the size of a golf ball or so
de grootte heeft van een golfbal,
of this person's brain.
van de patiënt.
everything looks the same,
Jammer genoeg ziet alles er hetzelfde uit.
and healthy brain tissue
a little bit on the brain,
a little harder, stiffer,
wat harder, stijver.
a little bit like this and say,
and start cutting the tumor
en snijdt de tumor weg,
to a stage where you think,
I took out everything."
Ik heb alles verwijderd."
like, pretty crazy --
challenging decision of your life here.
uit je leven nemen.
and let this patient go,
zo naar huis stuurt,
some leftover cancer cells behind
dat er nog kankercellen achterblijven
around the tumor
dat je alles hebt weggenomen.
have to take every single day
iedere dag moeten nemen
to a few friends of mine in the lab,
there's got to be a better way."
een betere manier bestaan."
that there's got to be a better way.
the sugar and so on.
van daarjuist en de suiker?
instead of using sugar molecules,
little particles made of gold,
deeltjes goud gebruiken,
interesting chemistry around them.
met wat chemie uit hun omgeving.
to look for cancer cells.
om te zoeken naar kankercellen.
these gold particles
every single cell in our body
or are you a healthy cell?
of een gezonde cel.
we're sticking in and shining out
blijven ze eraan plakken
"Hey, look at me, I'm here."
through some interesting cameras
dankzij vernuftige camera's,
maybe we can guide brain cancer surgeons
kunnen we chirurgen tonen
and leaving the healthy brain alone.
zonder het gezonde weefsel te beschadigen.
and boy, this works well.
en het werkte zeer goed.
into this mouse's brain
growing in this mouse's brain,
aan het groeien zijn.
and asked the doctor
as if that was a patient,
alsof het een patiënt was,
out of the tumor.
voor deeltje weg te nemen.
to see where the gold particles are.
waar de gouddeeltjes waren.
into this mouse,
in te spuiten bij de muis.
right here at the very left there
where the gold particles are.
zich bevinden.
is that these gold particles
"Hey, we're here. Here's the tumor."
to the doctor yet.
aan de dokter.
now please start cutting away the tumor,
om de kanker weg te snijden.
just took the first quadrant of the tumor
het eerste kwadrant van de tumor wegnam.
is now missing.
the second quadrant, the third,
en derde kwadrant weg.
the doctor came back to us and said,
What do you want me to do?
Kon hij nog iets doen?
some extra margins around?"
"You've missed those two spots,
and then let's take a look."
and lo and behold,
en kijk eens aan...
that the cancer is completely gone
volledig verwijderd is
huge amounts of healthy brain
hebben moeten wegnemen
as they take away a tumor,
die tumors wegnemen,
have to guess with their thumb.
to take those tiny little leftover tumors.
om de tumors helemaal weg te halen.
even if it's just a handful of cells,
ook al zijn het slechts enkele cellen,
ultimately fail
extra margins that were left positive,
die men neemt,
that were left there.
die men laat steken.
is where I think we're heading from here.
hoe het nu verder moet.
what should we be working on now?
waar we nu aan zouden moeten werken.
medical imaging is heading to
moet in staat zijn
lichaam te kijken
of these cells separately.
way, way earlier in the process,
so we can actually do something about it.
groot is, zodat we nog wat kunnen doen.
of the cells might also allow us
individueel kijken.
we are now getting to a point
these cancer cells real questions,
echte vragen kunnen stellen.
to the treatment we are giving you or not?
die we geven, bijvoorbeeld.
to stop the treatment right away,
met de behandeling stoppen,
nasty, nasty chemotherapy drugs,
chemotherapie moeten ondergaan
side effects of the drugs
neveneffecten van deze medicijnen
in fact not even helping them.
from winning the war against cancer,
van een overwinning tegen kanker,
with better medical imaging techniques
met een betere medische beeldvorming,
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