Most 17-year olds nowadays would most likely be going out with friends all the time, listening to music, eating out, and living a generally carefree life. Others would also spend most of the time online, chatting with their friends, following celebrities on Twitter, or posting photos on Facebook. Many parents would probably call these activities a "waste of time", and would rather see their teenage child doing something else.
In that case, most parents would probably want to have this 17-year old as their daughter.
Angela Zhang, a high school senior at the Monta Vista High School in the United States, recently won a $100,000 prize at the 2011 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology at the George Washington University held recently. Here, she successfully presented her research on a created nanoparticle which could cure cancer before a panel of judges made up of renowned scientists and mathematicians.
Her project, entitled "Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells", looks into the development of a gold and iron-oxide based nanoparticle which would be delivered to where the tumor is located through a drug called salinomycin. The gold and iron-oxide components would allow MRI and photoacoustic imaging of the tumor site for easier monitoring. Her work has been dubbed as the "Swiss Army Knife of cancer treatment" by the competition's judges, which she has been working on since 2009. According to Angela Zhang, her work could be made available to cancer patients within 15-20 years.
The award she recently received isn't exactly the first one for Ms. Zhang, an aspiring research professor. She has already won a number of awards for her other works. In 2010 and 2011, she has won the grand prize for medicine and health science at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. She also won a $3000 college scholarship at the Siemens regional contest held in November.
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