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September 06, 2004 Vol 75, no. 2F
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HEALTHY TECHNOLOGY: James Dao, who
immigrated to the U.S. from China at age 11, is founder, president,
and CEO of Genyous, which is working to develop diagnostics and
therapeutics that could make cancer a medically manageable disease.
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Alumnus
Dao works 24-7 in fight against cancer
James Dao (B.S.’60
EECS) is a man with a mission. Without formal training in medicine or
biology, Dao got involved in cancer research in the 1970s, an interest
that only intensified after losing both his mother and mother-in-law
to cancer in the 1980s. Now he works around the clock in the search
for diagnostic tests and nontoxic multi-mechanism treatments that could
dramatically reduce cancer deaths worldwide.
The Silicon Valley inventor and entrepreneur started his 35-year career
by founding ETEC Systems, where he developed a new generation of scanning
electron microscopes that accelerated the pace of cancer research in
the 1970s. After profoundly contributing to cancer research, ETEC applied
its core technologies to create the industry standards for semiconductor
mask production that are still in use today. Upon retiring in 1998,
Dao founded Genyous to work on products to prevent, detect, and treat
early-stage cancers.
“I want to make things that the whole world—not just a few
rich people—can afford,” says Dao, now president and CEO of
Genyous. “We know we could be saving tens of thousands of lives
every year, and that is a great motivator.”
Genyous’s initial product is the Automated Quantitative Cytometry
(AQC) test for lung cancer. The deadliest of all cancers, lung cancer
will cause an estimated 160,440 deaths in the U.S. this year, 28 percent
of all cancer deaths and more than colorectal, breast, and prostate
cancers combined. The test, developed by Perceptronix Medical Inc.,
a Genyous subsidiary in Canada, uses pattern recognition software to
analyze epithelial cells from a sputum sample for correlating with known
cancer-associated changes.
Clinical trials were launched in 2003 and, Dao says, the AQC test could
be in use around the world within two to three years. Cheap, fast, and
noninvasive, the test is highly accurate in detecting cancers at an
early stage, when long-term survival is more than 70 percent. Lung cancer
cannot now be detected until much later, when a lesion or tumor is visible
radiologically and chance of survival is only 15 percent. This test
gets a jump on detection by pinpointing cancerous changes in the DNA
at a molecular level, well before they manifest clinically.
“We need a new paradigm for treating cancer,” Dao says, “one
that uses early detection and treatment like we do in treating heart
disease.”
Dao is trying to steer American health care away from “heroic medicine”—the
expensive, invasive, and traumatic surgical and toxic measures often
used as a last resort—toward prevention and treatment of healthy
individuals before disease strikes.
“The biology of cancer is so complex, we need to employ multiple
mechanisms and integrate knowledge from all over the world,” Dao
says.
The multidisciplinary approach embraces many disciplines, from basic
sciences to clinical specialties like pathology, oncology, and pulmonology,
and employs a wide range of tools, including genomics, nanotechnology,
and bioinformatics.
Also in the works are new multi-mechanism therapies, including immune
system boosters that can better target cancer cells and leave healthy
tissue unharmed.
Dao envisions a day in the not-too-distant future when early stages
of cancer could be treated with safe oral drugs instead of the highly
toxic infusion therapies used today. He sometimes sounds like a man
who is racing against time.
“I retired six years ago, but now I’m working harder than
ever,” he says. “When I goof off, I feel like I’m hurting
someone.”
Written by Patti Meagher.
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