Why didn’t Theranos work? (and could it have ever worked?)

Question

I’ve heard of PCR before (polymerase chain reaction) where more copies of a DNA sample can be rapidly made. If the problem was that the quantity of blood that Theranos uses is too small, why wasn’t PCR used/ (if it was) why didn’t it work?

Also if I’m completely misunderstanding PCR, if someone could for that too, I’d appreciate it, thank you!

In: 148

Answer 1

There were tons of impossibilities with how the product would work, but the simplest issue is:

Imagine looking for a four leaf clover. You can usually find them in a big field of clovers. But if you only had a small patch of grass to look for one, then can you really say that it four leaf clovers don’t exist?

Theranos take such a small sample of blood that it’s near physically impossible ( mathematically improbable) that you’d find whatever antibody/chemical markers of the disease you’re looking for. Some diseases are easily found, but others have such small traces that you’d need a lot more blood to test.

Answer 2

There were tons of impossibilities with how the product would work, but the simplest issue is:

Imagine looking for a four leaf clover. You can usually find them in a big field of clovers. But if you only had a small patch of grass to look for one, then can you really say that it four leaf clovers don’t exist?

Theranos take such a small sample of blood that it’s near physically impossible ( mathematically improbable) that you’d find whatever antibody/chemical markers of the disease you’re looking for. Some diseases are easily found, but others have such small traces that you’d need a lot more blood to test.