It seems everyone is looking for the magic bullet to grow their company, improve their sales, or answer a personal problem. But for Dr. Jim Kress, the last thing he believes is that there’s a single approach to solving any problem.
Determined to find a reliable, consistent cure for various forms of cancer — his sister, after being in remission for 25 years, recently died due to complications from Ewing’s Sarcoma — Kress set up a foundation to converge science, mathematics, and systems engineering in the pursuit of a solution.
“When my sister passed, her treatment wasn’t targeted; rather, the treatment was a one-size-fits-all approach,” says Kress, chairman and CEO of KressWorks, a technology consulting firm, and president of The KressWorks Foundation, both located in Northville Township. “It solved one of 10 problems, and the other nine aspects of the treatment were left to her body to manage. It’s not the most efficient solution.”
Working with a team of biologists, research-ers, and scientists, Kress is setting up a math-ematical model of various cancers that can be used to tailor personalized treatments. Using gene therapy and medical methodology, the goal is to assess each patient’s traits and design a specific treatment plan.
“I’m not saying cancer treatment today is bad, but it could be better,” he says. “We see a future where a person’s unique body chemistry is factored into a computer modeling program so that you have a very targeted solution, rather than a shotgun approach where you’re killing good cells and cancerous cells at the same time, which is what radiation and chemotherapy do.”
Kress hopes to complete a prototype of a treatment plan in the next three years, at a cost of $2 million. “If we can accomplish this, people with cancer will be treated more efficiently, they will live longer, and we can eliminate the (factors present in the body) that can cause cancer. db
