Jack Andraka
Jack Andraka is an American high school student and the 2012 Intel Science Fair grand prize winner. Andraka was awarded the Gordon E. Moore Award for his work in developing a new method for detecting pancreatic cancer.[1]
Background
Andraka won the award as a 15 year-old high school freshman at North County High School in Maryland, United States. As part of his project he created a new diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer that is, according to him, 168 times faster, 26,000 times less expensive (costing around three cents), and over 400 times more sensitive than the current diagnostic tests. He says the test is also effective for ovarian and lung cancer.[1]
His inspiration to work on the project was brought about by the death of his uncle, who had suffered from pancreatic cancer[2]. In an interview with the BBC, he said the idea came to him when he was "chilling out in biology class", and read about analytical methods using carbon nanotubes.[3] He then did more Google research about them and cancer biochemistry, aided by free online scientific journals.
Subsequently, he began to think of various ways of preventing cancer growth and terminating the growth before the cancer cells become pervasive. He contacted around 200 professors from Johns Hopkins University with a plan and budget for his project in order to receive laboratory help from the professors. He received around 197 rejection letters until he received an acceptance from Dr. Anirban Maitra, Professor of Pathology, Oncology and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Officials at Intel have said that Andraka's method tests the level of mesothelin, a pancreatic cancer biomarker, in blood or urine, and his study resulted in more than 90 percent accuracy in detecting the presence of mesothelin.[1] The dipstick-sensor method costs 3 cents and takes five minutes to administer.[2]
Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology, gave Andraka use of his lab to craft his invention.[2]
References
- ^ a b c
"Top Honors Awarded at Intel ISEF 2012". Intel.
{{cite web}}: Text "isef_us_intel" ignored (help); Text "jnE446" ignored (help); Text "s" ignored (help) - ^ a b c Burris, Joe (24 May 2012). "North County student wins Intel Science Fair's top prize". Baltimore Sun.
- ^ "US teen invents advanced cancer test using Google". 20 August 2012.