Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

17-Year-Old Wins $100K For Creating Cancer Killing Nanoparticle

Posted by samzenpus on from the does-this-count-as-extra-credit? dept.

An anonymous reader writes "17-year-old Angeloa Zhang was recently awarded the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Individual category of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Her project was entitled 'Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells.' The creation is the so-called 'Swiss army knife of cancer treatment,' which allows a nanoparticle to be delivered to a tumor where it proceeds to kills cancer stem cells."

4 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Biology Question by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Colitis and Crohn's disease are autoimmune, so yes, they're going to be very difficult to cure. Cancer and AIDS at least have well identified targets. Wipe out all the cancerous cells or virus particles and you're done. Most autoimmune diseases have the complication that you're still not sure exactly what's wrong, and even if you did know, the cells that are causing the problems are usually also necessary for staying alive.

  2. Re:Biology Question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Crohn is not an autoimmine disease, it's a bacterial infection, if you wish to call it anything you can say it's an autoinflammatory disease.

    The fact that there is still this level of confusion means there needs to be more research.

  3. Re:Biology Question by thasmudyan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Crohn is not an autoimmine disease, it's a bacterial infection

    While this is technically not a lie, it's at least a very misleading statement that obfuscates the underlying problem. Crohn is a disease of the immune system. Newer research indicates that it might be a deficiency in some immune cells' ability to produce immuno-modulating agents that are needed for a coordinated response to bacteria occuring inside the colon. This allows those bacteria to stage an attack on the colon's tissue. The bacterial infection itself is, however, just a symptom of the immune defect.

  4. Re:Golly! by sociocapitalist · · Score: 5, Informative

    From TFA http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/competition/2011_winners.htm#7 linked to by TFA:

    Angela Zhang
    $100,000
    Monta Vista High School, Cupertino, California
    MENTOR: Dr. Zhen Cheng, Stanford University

    Both of which were in the US last time I looked...

    --
    blindly antisocialist = antisocial