Ideas worth spreading

This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors

961,494 views |

Sangeeta Bhatia |

TED Talks Live

• November 2015

What if we could find cancerous tumors years before they can harm us -- without expensive screening facilities or even steady electricity? Physician, bioengineer and entrepreneur Sangeeta Bhatia leads a multidisciplinary lab that searches for novel ways to understand, diagnose and treat human disease. Her target: the two-thirds of deaths due to cancer that she says are fully preventable. With remarkable clarity, she breaks down complex nanoparticle science and shares her dream for a radical new cancer test that could save millions of lives.

What if we could find cancerous tumors years before they can harm us -- without expensive screening facilities or even steady electricity? Physician, bioengineer and entrepreneur Sangeeta Bhatia leads a multidisciplinary lab that searches for novel ways to understand, diagnose and treat human disease. Her target: the two-thirds of deaths due to cancer that she says are fully preventable. With remarkable clarity, she breaks down complex nanoparticle science and shares her dream for a radical new cancer test that could save millions of lives.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Sangeeta Bhatia

Sangeeta Bhatia

Physician, bioengineer and entrepreneur

See speaker profile

Sangeeta Bhatia is a cancer researcher, MIT professor and biotech entrepreneur who works to adapt technologies developed in the computer industry for medical innovation.

Lewis Thomas | Penguin, 1995 | Book

The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher

Using engineering tools to address medical problems is an example of convergence research: the integration of life, physical and engineering science to solve problems in human health. This idea has it origins in the 20th century, as described by Lewis Thomas, and has recently been formalized by a group of American researchers.

Lewis Thomas was an American physician and essayist, in the vein of Oliver Sacks and Atul Gawende. He was a self-described 'medicine watcher.' My favorite of his books is not his most well-known or most lauded: The Youngest Science. It describes the evolution of medicine from an art to a sophisticated science over the course of the 20th century, and the power and importance of converging basic research with medical practice.

MIT, 2016 | Article

Convergence: The Future of Health

This report argues that truly major advances in the fight against cancer, dementia and diseases of aging, still rampant infectious disease, and a host of other pressing health challenges will only come from a novel research strategy that integrates biomedical knowledge with advanced engineering skills and expertise from physical, computational, and mathematical sciences, an approach known as Convergence.

National Nanotechnology Initiative | Explore

What is Nanotechnology?

Learn more about nanotechnology.

National Cancer Institute | Explore

Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer

Learn more about US efforts in nanotechnology and cancer.

MIT | Explore

The Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine

Learn more about individuals conducting convergence research.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.