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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."

15 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Lousy t-shirt by Artea · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cure cancer, only make 100k

    1. Re:Lousy t-shirt by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cure cancer, only make 100k

      Well, it's not like she's invented a flying car, is it?

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    2. Re:Lousy t-shirt by pntkl · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, it sure isn't. Maybe she just saved that hypothetical inventor's life, on the other hand. I feel those erudite, yet lacking innovation, they deserve to be leveraged against. That is, considering how often true innovators are stifled and devalued. Stuff like this, if a successful innovation can solve a trillion dollar problem with a few dollars--said innovator should feel free to offer it to all sides. Maybe you don't ask for a trillion dollars, although, you could ask for a lot more than $100K.

    3. Re:Lousy t-shirt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And football coaches get a million plus a year.

    4. Re:Lousy t-shirt by c0lo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Cure cancer, only make 100k

      ... and who owning the patent?

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    5. Re:Lousy t-shirt by dadioflex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, it sure isn't. Maybe she just saved that hypothetical inventor's life, on the other hand. I feel those erudite, yet lacking innovation, they deserve to be leveraged against. That is, considering how often true innovators are stifled and devalued. Stuff like this, if a successful innovation can solve a trillion dollar problem with a few dollars--said innovator should feel free to offer it to all sides. Maybe you don't ask for a trillion dollars, although, you could ask for a lot more than $100K.

      Your comment feels like a puzzle I must unravel.

      The 100k is a prize. There is probably an awful lot more development to do before this becomes an actual treatment, and there is nothing to say the talented winner won't earn ten times, or a hundred times the prize money by the time that treatment is fully developed. I'd say her career is almost assured at this stage, and that alone is probably worth millions.

    6. Re:Lousy t-shirt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The question I've been asking and can't seem to find an answer for is:

      By entering her particle as a project in this competition and accepting the 100k... Did she transfer any/all ownership of the IP to a drug company?

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

    It seems all prizes and research goes to Cancer and AIDS since they get the most newstime and general attention? But these two diseases seem to be extremely difficult to cure fully all the same when you consider the billions of dollars invested the last few decades.

    Would it be that hard to cure ulcerative colitis or crohns with serious money invested like what we see with cancer/aids? Or it's equally difficult? Just asking from a purely scientific standpoint to discover a new drug that works, not about the process of bringing a "cure" to market with trials and approvals.

    Having said that this girl sounds rather brilliant, so congrats to her!

    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 damonlab · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would argue that breast cancer receives disproportionate "newstime and general attention" compared to other types of cancer such as prostate cancer or skin cancer.

    3. 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.

    4. Re:Biology Question by mlow82 · · Score: 5, Funny

      To be completely fair, breast cancer is in the breasts whereas prostate cancer is in the anus.

    5. 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.

  3. Designed or Created? by edibobb · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe she only designed the nanoparticle. Actually creating it comes next semester.

  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