LONGEVITY with Nathalie Niddam #380: Detecting Potential Cancer With TEARS: The Surprising Future of Early Screening With Omid Moghadam
Oct 21, 2025
Omid Moghadam, a biotech entrepreneur and inventor focused on cancer screening, shares his innovative journey driven by personal stories of loss. He discusses how groundbreaking tear-based testing for breast cancer works, revealing that tears provide clearer signals than blood. Omid highlights the affordability of this approach and the role of AI in its development. He also touches on expanding screening to other cancers and the future of personalized radiopharmaceuticals, showcasing a vision for accessible, effective cancer diagnostics.
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Personal Cancer Stories Sparked The Pivot
- Omid's mother was a 13-year cancer survivor and later the cancer returned, which deeply influenced his shift to biotech.
- Omid also had an early-stage cancer caught thankfully, and both experiences drove him toward early detection research.
Tears Provide A Cleaner Biomarker Signal
- Tears are a filtrate of blood with fewer confounding proteins, giving cleaner, concentrated biomarker signals.
- That cleaner signal makes inexpensive, sensitive cancer screening possible where blood tests struggle.
Make Screens Affordable To Scale Impact
- Design screening tests to be inexpensive so they can be offered to as many people as possible.
- Aim for prices in the low hundreds so mass adoption drives down costs and saves more lives.