Many schoolchildren are most concerned with how to impress classmates and get rid of acne on their face. But there are other teens who are trying to find cures for cancer, flu, and other serious illnesses that have plagued people throughout history.
Introducing you top 5 teenagers who made a discovery in medicine.
5. Brittany Wenger
When Brittany was in seventh grade, she said she fell in love with computer science. She was captivated and fascinated by artificial intelligence (AI). Another key moment in the girl's life came in 10th grade, when her cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer. Because of this event, Brittany decided to create an AI that can detect breast cancer. She developed a program called AI Cloud4Cancer that processes samples from FNA tests (fine needle aspiration biopsy). The reliability of the results is 99.1%. Brittany Wenger won the Google Science Fair in 2012 and was invited to the White House to meet with President Obama.
4. Serena Fasano
In 2013, thirteen-year-old Serena Fasano was eating yogurt and reading the ingredient list on the package. Among them, she found a bacteria called lactobacillus (Lactobacillus). Curious about them, Serena conducted the first experiment for a school science exhibition. She used E. coli samples that her father, who works at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Research Center, bought for her daughter. Fasano mixed the samples in yogurt, and it turned out that where there was more yogurt, there was the least amount of E. coli.
Later, the girl discovered that lactobacilli secrete a substance that is fatal to E. coli, and was able to decompose this substance into five components. One of them turned out to be a previously unknown protein, which was the main enemy of E. coli. In February 2006, Serena received a patent for this protein.
3. Joe Landolina
The top 3 medical discoveries made by young people were led by a 17-year-old student at New York University. He created a plant-based gel that hardens when it gets into the bloodstream or onto tissue. A product called VetiGel can close an internal or external wound in 20 seconds or less. In addition, since the gel is plant-based, it can remain in the body without harm.
VetiGel is currently approved for use in animals in the US and may be approved for use in humans in 2016. Its creator hopes the gel will be included in first aid kits around the world.
2. Eric Chen
The flu virus is changing rapidly and can lead to a deadly epidemic at any given time. Eric Chen realized this in 2009 when he was only 13 years old. He began looking for inhibitors of an enzyme called influenza endonuclease that makes the flu contagious. Chen developed a computer program that nullified half a million possible inhibitors, leaving only six. In 2013, the 17-year-old won the Google Science Fair and received $ 100,000 from the Intel Foundation for his work on new drugs for the treatment of influenza.
1. Angela Zhang
The first number in the ranking of talented teenagers who presented advanced inventions in medicine is a seventeen-year-old girl who developed her own theory of cancer treatment. Her idea is to mix a cancer drug with a polymer. The polymer will be attached to the nanoparticles. In turn, these nanoparticles will be introduced into the body, where they must find cancer cells. Then, when the patient undergoes an MRI, the doctor will see exactly where the tumor is in the body. Zhang believes that if a tumor is exposed to infrared light, the polymer will melt and release the drugs. This will kill cancer cells without affecting healthy cells. Tests in mice have shown that the tumors almost completely disappear.
For her research, Angela received $ 100,000 at the Siemens national science competition.