Conference Presentation, Keynote
Lunch Program | This Changes Everything: How Technology Is Revolutionizing Medicine
Milken InstituteMargaret Anderson, Mike Milken, Jack Gilbert, Elizabeth Blackburn, Vadim Bachman, Nina Tandon, Juan Enriquez, Mike Cloughton
- Increased global disease threats on the horizon necessitate directing public health attention and convening diverse ideas to integrate disruptive concepts into the biomedical research system.
- Investments in bioscience are expected to address critical 21st-century challenges including clean water access, food production, bioterrorism defense, energy supply, and environmental sustainability.
- The Human Genome Project has already begun revolutionizing the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of over 4,000 genetic diseases, driving a call to renew commitment to this progress.
- Technological advances in speed, cost, storage, and access have transformed genomic sequencing, evolving from 500 letters per day to processing millions of letters on a $5,000 machine.
- Healthcare is shifting toward an ecologist's perspective to rapidly treat conditions like depression and neurocognitive disorders by preventing the microbiome from attacking the host during surgery.
- Technology is predicted to eradicate 90% of surgical infections through microbial management, with findings moving rapidly from laboratory to clinic via a "microbial GPS" concept.
- Basic research, clinical studies, and technology now enable a focus on earlier disease stages, increasing predictive power by combining sources like telomere length and depression data to make disease optional.
- Research into telomeres provides understanding of major age-related diseases, supporting the goal of preempting disease progression and keeping the biological system intact.
- A new approach prioritizing early detection and prevention over drug development aims to prolong patient life by 10 to 20 years and prevent death from cancer entirely.
- Nanocytology technology is designed to sense nanoscale chromatin alterations, with a lung cancer screening test targeted for clinical introduction by 2017, followed by colon and ovarian cancer tests.
- Nanocytology is expected to reduce mortality for major cancers by more than 90% by performing functions similar to the Pap smear, potentially applicable to many other cancers.
- A one-year pig study is 10 months into its timeline, targeting craniofacial bones initially to expand into markets for joint trauma, arthritis, and dental applications via attached cartilage.
- Research originating from pig studies has been spun out into a company to translate work toward clinical practice, with future technologies aiming to be so high-tech they appear natural.
- Humanity is transitioning into "Homo evolutus" through unnatural selection and non-random mutation, allowing direct control over species evolution by inserting specific genes.
- Capabilities to read and write life code are predicted to fundamentally change the world, with green goo engineered for various environments from greenhouses to tubes.
- The ability to manipulate life code is described as the most significant force capable of changing humanity and all life on the planet.
- The event schedule includes several more afternoon sessions culminating in a new entrance into the presidential race.