Teenage Cancer Researcher of the Day: 17-year-old Angela Zhang, a high school senior from Cupertino, CA, took home the $100,000 top prize in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.
Her project, which she started at age 15, is a targeted chemotherapy delivery system that hits tumor cells without damaging the surrounding healthy cells. And, while it’s working, her gold-iron-oxide nanoparticle system also allows non-invasive imaging of the tumor area.
Zhang tested the treatment by injecting tumor cells in mice and then attacking them with her nanoparticles, delivering a payload of cancer-fighting salinomycin. Tracking the particles with an infrared laser, she saw the tumors begin to shrink.
Her research was conducted mostly at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where she volunteered as a molecular lab assistant when she was in ninth grade. Although she was deemed too young for the job at the time, professors let her read and attend seminars.
Suddenly, beating all those Final Fantasy games in high school doesn’t seem like such a big accomplishment.
[mercurynews / image: reddit]
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