Many students are most concerned about how to impress classmates and get rid of acne on their faces. But there are other teenagers who are trying to find a cure for cancer, flu, and other serious diseases 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 subdued and fascinated by artificial intelligence (AI). Another key moment in the girl's life occurred in the 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 ate yogurt and read the list of ingredients on the package. Among them, she found bacteria called lactobacilli (Lactobacillus). Interested in them, Serena conducted the first experiment for a school science fair. She used samples of E. coli that her father, who works at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Research Center, bought for his daughter. Fasano mixed 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 for E. coli, and managed to decompose this substance into five components. One of them was 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 discoveries in medicine made by young people were led by a 17-year-old student at New York University. He created a plant-based gel that freezes when it enters the bloodstream or tissue. A product called VetiGel can cover an internal or external wound in 20 seconds or less. In addition, since the gel is plant-based, it can be in the body without harm.
VetiGel is currently approved in the United States for use in animals, and in 2016 may be approved for use in humans. Its creator hopes that the gel will be included in first-aid kits worldwide.
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, which makes the flu infectious. Chen developed a computer program that nullified half a million possible inhibitors, leaving only six. In 2013, a 17-year-old boy won the Google Science Fair and received $ 100,000 from the Intel Foundation for his work on creating new drugs to treat the flu.
1. Angela Zheng
The first number in the ranking of talented adolescents 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 cure for cancer 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. Zheng believes that if you expose the tumor to infrared light, the polymer will melt and release the medicine. This will kill cancer cells without affecting healthy cells. Tests in mice showed that tumors almost completely disappear.
For her research, Angela received $ 100,000 at the Siemens national science competition.
