At the 2012 TEDx San Jose Women’s conference, a remarkable young man took the stage for what would be a short 8 minutes and 54 second talk, but what followed will forever change the world of cancer research. Jack Andraka is a high school freshman with an innate sense of curiosity that was elevated when a close family friend passed of Pancreatic cancer. He set out to find out why? He began his research online and was determined to identify the protein that was the most likely trigger. He studied over 8,000 different proteins, and hit gold after his 4,000th attempt. He then got rejected by 199 of the 200 research laboratories where he wanted to conduct his research. Luckily, Johns Hopkins University answered the call. The result is a new dipstick – the cost is about 3 cents, it takes less than five minutes to administer, and it has over 90% accuracy. Appropriately enough, the theme of that particular TEDx event was to – Be Fearless – and what we learned from Jack’s example is what makes Jaimal Yogis’ – The Fear Project – so fascinating. Here’s why….
