Thread by @EricTopol

My interview w/ Manu Prakash @PrakashLab, a hero of mine, who I think is one the great innovators of our era. With global impact for frugal, ingenious inventions as you'll see in this thread medscape.com/viewarticle/92… @Medscape w/ transcript @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford

@PrakashLab @Medscape @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford Last month, over 1 million people around the world, in ~140 countries, have gone Foldscoping with his origami-based microscope invention. First published @PLOSONE in 2014 journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

@PrakashLab @Medscape @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford @PLOSONE In 2015, Manu was profiled @NewYorker
newyorker.com/magazine/2015/… by @carolynkor Then he had turned into house into a lab; now he's got young kids doing experiments there😉
He's the modern version of Antoine van Leeuwenhoek

@PrakashLab @Medscape @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford @PLOSONE @NewYorker @carolynkor His next major invention was the Paperfuge, a 20-cent centrifuge that goes 125,000 rpm. Published @natBME nature.com/articles/s4155…. It can used to pull out parasites, such the diagnosis of malaria in < 5 minutes. He's working on 1 M rpm, < 1 min diagnosis

@PrakashLab @Medscape @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford @PLOSONE @NewYorker @carolynkor @natBME Next up is the Octopi=Open Configurable Hi-Thruput Imaging biorxiv.org/content/10.110… @biorxivpreprint in 2019 which combines microscopy, spectroscopy and flow cytometry and modular for TB, malaria dx and many others

@PrakashLab @Medscape @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford @PLOSONE @NewYorker @carolynkor @natBME @biorxivpreprint Here is a recent profile @TheAtlantic by @edyong209 on Manu and the Octopi theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Just keep in mind he's only 39!

@PrakashLab @Medscape @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford @PLOSONE @NewYorker @carolynkor @natBME @biorxivpreprint @TheAtlantic @edyong209 The 100 Octopi Program is next, not yet public, but discussed, involves real-time, raw, unidentified image sharing from 100 sites to build better #AI algorithms for this autonomous system to make accurate diagnoses

@PrakashLab @Medscape @TeamFoldscope @StanfordEng @Stanford @PLOSONE @NewYorker @carolynkor @natBME @biorxivpreprint @TheAtlantic @edyong209 One last reflection. Manu immigrated to the US after graduation @IITKanpur to go to @MIT. Later awarded @macfound. I wonder how many geniuses would have come to the US, but do not/cannot due to current xenophobic gov't policies.