toll from the earthquake the Siddha
means a natural disaster normally saw
coming
and fortunately afterward as a health
clinic volunteers few years ago it was
just another tuberculosis deaths at the
time in reporter ladies and gentlemen
today I will be telling you a story a
story about how myself a high school
students soccer tackle one of the
world’s most notorious diseases
tuberculosis now the journey all started
back in the summer of my freshman year
initially with my father – in a small
village in sight don’t country the
village is located in the mountainous
areas and borders between Thailand and
hikmah and it is in fact one of the most
TV that endemic regions of the country
now while I was volunteering at the
village it’s not the difficulty the
people in the village undergoing to
diagnose four different diseases
especially to the closest however what
shocked me the most was the fact that a
psycho
district only has 62,000 people but it
has more annual TB deaths in the entire
United States so the major question that
immediately came up in my mind is why is
it that a disease that is already
spherical a disease that is already
preventable
why is it still taking away countless
lives and we do with this burning
question in mind I came back on the body
tension and I started to do more
research and I realize that the problem
actually isn’t about you the closest the
problem actually is about to be however
according to the w-h-o only one out of
four TV patients get diagnosed for 12
resistant in other words 75% of TB
patients are actually totally unaware
whether they have a drug business dick
forms of disease and therefore our way
of wasting their money wasted their time
and risking their lives on antibiotics
and treatments that may not even be
worthy and the root cause of all these
problems because it takes about 30 days
to detect drug-resistant TB now it is
very important that we understand the
severity of the consequences that
follows because it is not really a
problem of waiting for 30 days and
therefore risking the patient’s lives
and wasting their time and money but it
is also a problem about the future the
future where we ourselves are at fault
for turning the disease that is Iranian
steerable back into an incurable disease
and so when that happens when
drug-resistant TB takes control
when had last effects anti biotics along
forwards but then what we do so with
this project issue in mind I realized
that the key to solving all of these
cascading problems is to shorten the
diagnostic process for drug resistant to
use now to do that is first necessary
that we understand how the convention
it works so for example the connective
most widely used method involves
treating at the examples and antibiotics
and then observing whether the TTB
samples actually grow and reproduce so
for example if the TV samples grow into
a visible colony that it is considered
drug resistant now this method works for
all types of bacteria usually you’ll
need quite a few hours however since TV
bacteria is one of the world’s slowest
growth bacteria detecting drug-resistant
fortunately one thing I recall from my
internship at red cross a concept known
as reputation which is essentially blood
fontaine now I know that the same thing
was happening with TV bacteria which has
a natural tendency to talk together into
a large boost causing the proteins to be
trapped with anything and so I realized
that if I could somehow transform the TV
samples into a single cell suspension
and then create a sensor to measure the
change in protein secretion this
measurement would possibly indicate the
bacterias metabolic activity eliminating
the requirement from similar growth now
let’s take a look at this idea a bit
more closely so first we treat the TV
tap the TV samples with antibiotics and
then somehow create a sensor to measure
the change in protein secretion in the
sensor for example t detects an increase
in the amount of protein that is
secreted that is consider is that the TV
samples is drug-resistant now on the
other hand in the TV samples
does not detect an increase in the
amount of proteins and it is therefore
the bacterias therefore is no longer
metabolically active and therefore
is susceptible to the drug and hence not
drug resistant although the actual
research has much more complexities and
terminologies involved the core idea to
be sure is that we are trying to use an
indirect method to determine the level
of activeness of the bacteria and using
that measurement to indicate with effect
the bacteria is drug resistant
eliminating the requirement for
observable growth which is too
time-consuming but this idea in mind I
started to devise my own DIY solutions
to transform normal TV samples into a
single cell suspension using medical
needles and simple white sand filters
and then the next step was dead
determining what type of TV proteins to
detect and so after weeks of scouring
through lists of hundreds and hundreds
of TV proteins I finally saw the protein
that was looking for called MPT 6 before
the unique property of this protein is
that it is secreted only by tuberculosis
though especially in its active State
now I’ve constructed my own bio sensor
utilizing electrochemical reactions to
detect the change in the protein
secretion so in the detection process
e-every t-64 protein is transducers into
an electrical current and so the higher
the electrical current measurement he
hired the amount
and before 30 and honestly mama doing
all this research there were numerous
obstacles along the way initially I said
a research proposal to various research
institutions in Thailand we see me back
countless refusals because everyone deed
that was impossible for a high school
student like myself to tackle with such
dangerous enemies of research in
addition while I was doing my research I
had to skipped over 150 classes often
working at the laboratory from 8:00 in
the morning to late at night because of
amatory
was over 100 kilometers away from
Bangkok and like other researchers out
there and I encountered numerous
obstacles and failures however what the
exacerbated off of me was the fact that
I had literally placed everything on the
line my grades my time and all the
effort that could possibly gather and so
the question that kept haunting me
throughout this process is whether I
have basically you risk everything
whether I have sacrificed everything for
essentially nothing those times were
definitely one of the most difficult
times of my high school commute and so
after overcoming those obstacles and
spending over a year inventing and
reinventing when you guys I finally saw
the light at the end of the tunnel as I
discovered that my sensor can detect
drug-resistant TB within two to three
days which is ten times faster than
expected and to ensure whether my sensor
would reach the people who need it most
I further design it such that it is
portable and also a low cost acid it’s
based on abundant materials like carbon
and although in research has won many
national and international
two words the real value of those
recognition is that implementation was
after cross validating my device I have
plants work with me waho to possibly
implement my research in the rural areas
of Thailand and possibly in the future
in other TV endemic regions of the world
as well now my ultimate goal is that
what they no longer will do paralysis
death toll be comparable to those of
natural disasters because if you look at
it tuberculosis is entirely preventable
it is entirely curable so why shouldn’t
be taking away countless lives like
earthquakes tsunamis that all those
devastating natural disasters and so
looking back at all those experiences as
I realize that you don’t actually have
to be a college professor with multiple
degrees to have new ideas valid to be
honest with you when I started to do my
TV research I had a ferry in India when
tuberoses was accept two main things
that TV kills people and that he has
something to do with the human lungs and
so athletes are you guys right now the
audience might know more about
tuberculosis than I did that thing and
so the key takeaway is that it is not
about how much you know but how willing
you are to explore beyond you are
though because those areas are where the
magic happens
and so today today today I’m not trying
to sway you guys become geeky scientists
or crazy inventions like myself because
each and every one of you have your own
unique passions all I’m asking of you is
to ask what hard work and determination
to your existing passion and hopefully
found your passion will not require you
to skip over 150 classes like I said
thank you [Applause]