Description Of Opportunity Motivated By Convergence Of Bio-, Info-, And Nanotechnologies
Wave of innovation
According to Christy Roland, convergence by definition is when two or more distinct things come together. Convergence of different areas of studies is a great source of innovation and opportunity. Convergence can reveal a customer need, or a problem may be found and convergence of different areas of study may be the solution, all this will lead to new opportunity. For example Technological convergence has been an important source for innovation, because technological breakthroughs has often take place on the boundaries between technologies and industrial sectors.
In particular, the convergence of info-technology into a wide range of scientific disciplines and industrial and service processes, and actually in every aspect of society, characterizes the information revolution. An example of such convergence is the Internet, the internet resulted from the convergence between IT and communication technologies and we also have the Human Genome project also provided an excellent example of technological convergence: between biology and IT that gave birth to so-called BI convergence. The human genome is highly dependent on the power of the computer. Vice versa, developments and concepts in biology have also inspired the computer community, as illustrated by such notions as neural networks, swarm intelligence, and DNA computers.
For example according to glycometrix (glycometrix. com) ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among women. It accounted to be approximately 25, 400 new cases and 14, 300 deaths in 2003. Patients have a 5 year survival (approximately 95%) if it is detected early. But, symptoms usually do not appear until the cancer reaches an advanced stage, when the survival falls to 35%The challenge in the U. S is that currently, it is recommended to screen only women considered at high risk due to personal or family history, who are up to 10 million in the U. S. For this amount of people it is recommended that Cancer Antigen CA-125 protein blood tests be performed on a regular basis. If the levels of CA-125 in the blood become elevated, the next is a transvaginal ultrasound. If the results of the ultrasound are not normal, surgery is performed. This approach is so poor that it is estimated that it takes four needless surgeries to find one case of ovarian cancer in asymptomatic women. This rule does nothing for normal-risk women or those who develop ovarian cancer without elevated CA-125 levels. Still, an estimated $80 million is spent on CA-125 tests annually in the US (glycometrix. com).
How the convergence of bio-, info-, and nanotechnologies may offer a solution
Dr. Carlito Lebrilla of UC Davis, expert in glycan analysis, has developed patent pending techniques for the identification of glycannic biomarkers. In particular, he discovered glycan biomarkers exclusively linked to ovarian cancer cells. Using only a chemical blood serum test, its process accurately identifies not only the presence of ovarian cancer, but also the subtype and stage of the cancer. The ovarian cancer test is currently undergoing small-scale clinical trials. Dr. Lebrilla is confident that tests will also be developed over the next year for other adenocarcinomas such as breast, prostate, and lung cancers pancreas. Glycometrix aims to become a leading cancer screening and surveillance company by providing high-precision, non-invasive and cost-effective products for early detection of cancer using new patented glycan-based blood serum testing technologies. If their ovarian cancer screening test was offered at 100 USD / test / year, the potential of this market would be 10 million (high risk population) times 100 USD / person, or 1 billion USD per year.
