Jack Andraka

Andraka has been openly gay since he was 13. When asked to be interviewed about his sexual orientation, Andraka responded, "That sounds awesome! I’m openly gay and one of my biggest hopes is that I can help inspire other LGBT youth to get involved in STEM. I didn't have many role models [who are gay scientists] besides Alan Turing."

In 2012, Andraka filed a "World Patent" under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which resulted in a preliminary search to determine patentability. The examination found "a lack of inventive step" and prior art in US Patents 7824925 and 8110369. No subsequent patent has been filed in any of the patent offices under the PCT and a "Code 122" (European Patent not filed) was issued on June 3, 2015.

Jack Andraka was born in Crownsville, Maryland and is of Polish ancestry. Andraka enrolled as a freshman at Stanford University for the 2015–2016 academic year.

Andraka has spoken about the inspiration for his work—including the death of a family friend—in forums including TEDx Nijmegen in 2013. He conducted his work under the supervision of Anirban Maitra, Professor of Pathology, Oncology, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

In October 2013, Andraka appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report to talk about his work.

Andraka has applied for a provisional patent for his method of sensing pancreatic cancer and as of 2012 was communicating with companies about developing an over-the-counter test.

A 2011 article published by Sharon et al. refutes many of Andraka's claims about specificity of using mesothelin as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Specifically, the group showed that mesothelin serum levels in healthy donors were not statistically different from serum levels in pancreatic cancer patients. Dr. Ira Pastan, who discovered mesothelin, said that Andraka's method "makes no scientific sense. I don't know anybody in the scientific community who believes his findings." George M. Church, professor of genetics at Harvard University, also raised concerns about the cost, speed, and sensitivity claims. The novelty of Andraka's work has also been questioned. In 2005, seven years before Andraka won the Intel ISEF, a group of researchers at Jefferson Medical College and the University of Delaware reported a carbon-nanotube based sensor for use in breast cancer diagnostics that uses a methodology nearly identical to Andraka's purportedly novel methodology. In addition, a carbon-nanotube based sensor similar to Andraka's was reported in 2009 by Wang et al., a group of researchers at Jiangnan University and University of Michigan, and a carbon-nanotube based sensor for applications in cancer diagnosis was reported in a 2008 paper by Shao et al. that used a methodology similar to Andraka's.

Andraka's father, Steve, is a civil engineer and his mother, Jane, is a Certified Anesthesiology Assistant. Andraka's older brother, Luke, won $96,000 in prizes at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2010, with a project that examined how acid mine drainage affected the environment. In 2011, Luke won an MIT THINK Award.

Jack Thomas Andraka (born January 8, 1997) is an American university student, inventor, and cancer researcher. As a high school student, he won the grand prize at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a method to possibly detect the early stages of pancreatic and other cancers. His work has been questioned by some scientists and writers because it has not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. As of 2018 he was enrolled at Stanford University as a junior majoring in anthropology and in electrical engineering.