Biotech Innovations: The Future Is In Our Hands.
In 2012 I earned my Master Degree in Systems Engineering. I remember sitting in the audience at the Fox Theatre in downtown Atlanta, waiting to walk across the stage to pick up my diploma from the president of Georgia Tech.
At the time, I recalled my undergraduate graduation 7 years earlier. The keynote speaker had blabbed on for what felt like an eternity about energy policy. Fast forward, and there I was dreading another mind-numbing keynote address.
I was pleasantly surprised when they introduced a very well-spoken engineering professor who gave an urgent, important message to a room full of engineers with newly minted diplomas.
“No one has a crystal ball,” he told us. “So if you want to predict the future, the only true way is to invent it yourself.”
Make no mistake: Nerds like us are forging the way to a better future,
Every year since 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — better known as MIT — releases their list of the top 10 technological innovations that will change the world.
This year, two of the top 10 fall under the umbrella of biotech: “Internet of DNA” and “liquid biopsy.”
As you have probably already guessed from my previous articles, Internet of DNA is the current breakthrough of sharing millions of DNA database records, closely aligned with the precision medicine initiative.
With this information, doctors will be able to compare your DNA and symptoms to another patient with the same condition. MIT believes we’ll see this roll out into standard medical treatment in the next one to two years.
Then there’s liquid biopsy. This is a technology that will allow us to identify small quantities of cancerous cells from trace amounts of DNA in the blood stream — all from a simple blood test! This will allow for earlier detection and treatment for cancer patients.
