The electronic nose developed by Dr. Husam Hayek from the Technion may warn of cancer in the early stages as part of routine tests.
by Eitan Crane
In the family doctor's clinic in the near future there will be a device the size of a laptop computer. After a few breaths through the tube protruding from the device and a few minutes of waiting, the doctor will be able to receive a report on the subject's health, based on his oral cavity analysis. The report will be able to warn that the subject has a certain type of cancer and even determine at what stage the disease is, and all this long before any external symptoms appear. This is the vision that Dr. Hussam Haik, from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and the Russell Berry Institute for Nanotechnology at the Technion, is working to realize together with the 22 researchers in his group. "An early diagnosis of cancer," says Dr. Haik in his office, "will significantly increase the possibilities for treatment and the chances of recovery." In the more distant future, Dr. Haik hopes to develop a device that can diagnose many diseases, whether cancerous or otherwise. These days a prototype of this "electronic nose" is being tested in the oncology department at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The facility is already able to diagnose cancer in advanced stages and differentiate between lung, colon and breast cancer.
The idea of developing an "electronic nose" that could diagnose diseases occurred to Dr. Hayek during his postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he began to specialize in electronic sniffing sensors. But, the sensors of that time were not suitable for medical purposes that require great sensitivity and accuracy at a reasonable price. Upon his return to Israel and the establishment of his laboratory at the Technion, Dr. Haik began an effort to overcome the obstacles in the development of a medical electronic nose. And the obstacles were many and high: first, the sensors that were present were large and insensitive. "The usual electronic noses could often detect substances with a concentration of a few parts per million (ppm)" says Hayek. "But the concentration of the substances found in the oral cavity, which enable disease detection, is 1,000-10,000 times smaller, meaning their concentration is as low as 0.1 parts per billion (ppb)." Miniaturizing the sensors and increasing their sensitivity required Dr. Haik to turn to the nanotechnological direction and use the skills he acquired in the field of molecular electronics during his research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the research group of Professor David Kahn. "Nano-devices allow for greater sensitivity," explains Hayek, "because they allow for a huge surface area, improved electrical properties, and special optical and mechanical properties."
But the difficulties did not end there. Cancer cells, and other diseased cells, emit certain and characteristic compounds. When these compounds are carried in the bloodstream to the lungs they are expelled. But their chemical properties are very different from those of the compounds that conventional sensors knew how to detect. "While most of the nanometer sensors available today have no difficulty detecting polar substances, such as explosives for example, the substances we are interested in are not polar" says Hayek. "These are volatile organic compounds that the sensors available today have difficulty detecting. Our first article in the field was also the first to break the ground for the electronic identification of such materials using nanometric sensors."
These difficulties oblige the Haifa group to develop all of its own sensors from XNUMX to XNUMX. The sensors are built on the basis of nano-particles, nano-wires or carbon nano-tubes, to which are bound organic molecules that serve as receptors.
The electronic nose is inspired by the human or canine olfactory system. There is a marked difference between the receptors of the nervous system or the immune system and the receptors of the nose. Nervous system receptors bind to certain molecules in a "key and lock" mechanism and are therefore able to detect certain substances with a high level of specificity. The nasal receptors, on the other hand, adsorb substances to them by non-specific physical-mechanical adsorption. But since there are many different receptors in the nose, the absorption map is not uniform. When we smell something, for example the aroma rising from a glass of beer, a mixture containing more than 700 different substances reaches our nose. The nose does not distinguish between all the substances but transmits to the brain, through the nervous system, the image of the absorption of the components of the mixture to the various receptors. The brain, which specializes in recognizing patterns, recognizes the pattern, links it to memory and determines: this is beer and not wine.
The electronic nose works in a similar way: the device contains an array of many diverse nano-sensors. Each type of sensor binds to organic compounds of a certain type: alkanes, alcohols, aldehydes, benzene derivatives and more. When the subject blows into the device, the molecules in the oral cavity bind to the sensitive sensors and these transmit an electrical signal to a computer chip - the "brain" of the device. The adsorption pattern that reaches the sensors is analyzed by the chip, using neural network algorithms that also specialize in pattern recognition. If the pattern matches a certain type of cancer, which the chip has already "learned" to recognize in early programming, it displays the diagnosis.
As mentioned, a prototype of an electronic nose capable of diagnosing cancer is currently undergoing clinical tests, a field to which Haik was exposed for the first time. For those who come from the field of engineering, the encounter with the biological-medical reality is not simple, says Haik. After the device works well in the lab, conditions in the field pose new fascinating challenges. It turns out that even the way you breathe greatly affects the results. Genetic differences, dietary habits, metabolic changes, smoking habits, all of these must be taken into account before the facility can operate in the field.
Dr. Hussam Hayek's groundbreaking research has received wide international recognition. In 2006, Dr. Haik won the Marie Curie Excellence Grant from the European Union for a total of 1.73 million Euros, the highest grant ever given to a single Israeli researcher. In 2008, the magazine Technology Review, which is published on behalf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), chose to include him in the TR35 list - the list of the 35 leading young scientists in the world. In total, since he started his work at the Technion, Dr. Hayek has won 17 awards, some of them also in the field of molecular electronics in which he is engaged at the same time. "The electronic nose is getting a lot of exposure," says Hayek. "But we also deal with electrical devices made of nanoscale materials, conduction mechanisms in single molecules and the electrical connection of single organic molecules."
How is it possible to compete in the world at such a level of success? "When you have such a great team," says Haik. "We can move forward. Our team has some of the brightest master's and PhD students. But the hardest thing is to get the best postdocs. To do this, they must be offered a very attractive research program, and salaries much higher than those offered in America..."
19 תגובות
People, some of the comments are embarrassing and make me shift uncomfortably in my chair, and as you can understand, I express myself very gently
On the one hand, a person who, instead of longing to be happy, fills his heart with hope for those dear people, mothers, fathers, small children, who will be spared from this cursed disease that has no trace of racism, since it does not distinguish between sex, race, religion, and nationality. ., I understand that you have no idea or knowledge about the quality of the research bodies in which he studied experience or research abroad and also in our country on the other hand two people who seem (to an outside observer like me) interested in the stage and it doesn't matter where it is because there is no reference to the article itself at all but as a means and what it allows them to collide and collide with each other when they are full of arrogance and pride, sages from my side said if you have nothing to say shut up the right one to find a solution to this damn disease.
Yehuda:
If you just wanted to read this answer again then why did you say I'm always evasive?
My answer is:
Because you don't always tell the truth.
You are not telling the truth either by twisting my words.
I didn't say we add material because we like material and I don't know where you got that from. I said we add material because when adding material the problem is solved.
In the explanations I gave you many times in the past, I also detailed and explained to you that this method - of adding material that we cannot see - is not only logical, but it has also proven itself many times and there are many stars - both in the solar system and outside it - that were discovered using this exact method.
This is not about creating something out of nothing, but - as demonstrated in the past - another way to discover what is there - a way that you decided to reject even though it has succeeded many times and has never failed.
I repeat and declare - for the umpteenth time - that all the theories that are accepted by me (and the scientific community in general) are always (but always! Without a creator in general!) the most plausible theories that the scientific community has been able to find among the theories that are consistent with the findings. Since this is always the case, once you find a theory that explains the findings better - there will not be a scientist who will understand it and will not prefer it over the existing theory.
As mentioned - I have already told you this in the past and I even did it on my own initiative and without you asking the question, so presenting the question and casting doubt on this point are also not direct statements.
To dear Michael
I just wanted to hear this nonsense again:-
"It turns out that the simplest way to solve the problem is by changing the theory about the amount of matter in galaxies and not by changing gravitation." End quote.
I mean, in your opinion, we add matter to the galaxy, not because of gravitation but... simply because we like matter??.. So wouldn't it be better to add chocolate?, we all like chocolate and really my granddaughter wouldn't let me argue with you about that.
My dear, you added matter only for gravitation!, which does not fit Newton!, and not for any other property!, and therefore you did an act that should not be done. point.
Especially when it requires you to also create the dark energy to justify the accelerated expansion of the universe.
The question remains if it is permissible to do the "deed that will not be done" because you don't have a better solution?
Well, it's hard for me to answer you, at least you understand that in your opinion it's the worst of the lot. I try to believe that if you see a better solution you will neglect the dark mass.
Or maybe I'm wrong about that too?
good day everybody
Sabdarmish Yehuda
Yehuda:
Do you want to tell me that I have deluded myself and that even though I have given you the answer many times you still don't know it?
Good. I will not argue with you. You probably really don't know.
So I will answer your question, but I inform you that this is the last time - not only because the repeated question annoys me, but because your questions are always accompanied by senseless and even more annoying slander.
Now you will have to memorize the answer.
There is no conflict between the theory of gravitation and what happens in spiral galaxies.
The conflict with what is happening in the spiral galaxies arises from the combination of the theory of gravitation with the estimation of the amount of mass in these galaxies, therefore one of these two - either the theory of gravity or the estimation of the amount of matter - is not correct.
It turns out that the simplest way to solve the problem is by changing the theory about the amount of matter in galaxies and not by changing gravitation.
This is not only the simplest way, but to this very day no other way has been found because no change has been found in the theory of gravitation that would explain the phenomena.
Kapish ?!
Now write it somewhere and in the same place it is also written that you know that I know the answer and I gave it to you and that I never evade.
To Michael
What to do, you Hamid avoids an answer when you find a contradiction in your words. What is "not true"?, what is "of course"?, in your words there is a contradiction. explain her
Everyone knows how to repeat the words of the philosopher Popper that a theory is one that stands before being disproved, but no one dares to really disprove theories even when an experiment "screams" that it is so.
So this is what I know. And when my theory is disproved then it is disproved. point.
Good night
Sabdarmish Yehuda
Yehuda:
Not true, of course, but it's clear to me that you know that and you just couldn't outsmart your consumer.
To Michael
What's the point of using exploded sentences and not using them in the end?
There is a conflict between the theory of gravitation and the reality seen in the spiral galaxies, so…. Why don't you stand by your words and declare that the error is in the theory? Why do you refuse to change reality with huge amounts of ridiculous and dark mysterious mass without declaring that the theory of gravitation is broken??
And as for the other commenters who are sick with the disease of racism, I must point out that your place is not on the site of science and your human disease does not need the nose of Dr. Hussam Haik for the purpose of revealing that the racist stench emanates from you far and wide.
God bless Dr. Hussam Hayek.
And I hope that a Nobel Prize will be waiting for you at the door.
Good night
Sabdarmish Yehuda
Equipment:
When there is a conflict between my descriptions and reality - the error is in the theory and not in reality.
This is the essence of science and that is why experiments are done in it designed to disprove theories.
Since you have just encountered a fact of reality that contradicts your racist theory, you are welcome to abandon it with fun.
An Arab scientist?! How can these two exist in one person... ?1
strange world…
It doesn't make me happy at all.
Jonathan:
You are the type of person for whom everything is proof of the existence of a Creator.
So there is no point in you mentioning it every time.
And another note to Jonathan,
Dr. Hussam Haik is a Christian and not a Muslim. But even that should not change one thing and a half from the achievement he reached, an achievement that can allow all human beings regardless of race, religion and gender to help them be cured of this dark disease
Jonathan,
You make a casual assumption without any substantiation ("The doctor may be of Jewish descent...")
Then he quotes some verse without connection
And in the end he concludes that there is a supreme supervision... come on
We are a scientific, non-political and non-racist website, so please spare us this kind of musings
Happy article.
I very much hope that one day, at the end of time, the people of the honorable doctor will take an example from him and devote their great energy to useful and life-saving activities instead of murdering religious fanaticism, hatred and wars, which are so dear to them.
On the other hand, it could be that this doctor is one of the descendants of the Jews who were forced to convert to Islam by the Arab conqueror.
As the verse says: "And he will be a wild man, his hand in everything and his hand in everything." It's amazing how accurate things written in Genesis are, even after 3000 years.
It makes me think that after all and despite all the detractors - the supreme providence exists.
sad.
He is Arab, there is no such thing as "Palestinian".
Kudos to the Israeli researcher, and it doesn't matter at all that he is of Palestinian-Israeli minority descent