A 16-year-old Canadian student conducted two years of research into a treatment using injections of gold nanoparticles. As a result, he succeeded in improving cancer therapy
Researcher at 16. This is the fabulous story of Arjun Nair, a young student from Calgary, in western Canada who received Tuesday April 9 the first prize of the 2013 edition of the Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada competition,
A prize awarded for his research into a therapy using gold nanoparticles which, when injected into a cancer patient and heated, kill diseased cells. The high school student advanced this so-called “photothermal” therapy, by demonstrating that an antibiotic (17-AAG) could make it possible to counter the defenses of cancer cells against nanoparticles and thus make the treatment more effective.
Before arriving at this result, the young researcher spent two years working on his idea, conducting tests to demonstrate the viability of the therapy. Last year he was even able to use the facilities of two University of Calgary labs and benefit from the advice of their leaders, Simon Trudel and David Cramb, a rare favor for a high school student. Asked by AFP, he reconsidered being interested in this subject after learning that his grandmother was suffering from cancer. “She suffered a lot during therapy, so I started studying cancers in general and read a lot about treatments,” the teenager confides. Noticing that these treatments occupied an important place in scientific competitions in Canada, the young high school student decided to take up the challenge himself.
However, further research is needed for the method outlined by Arjun Nair to reach the commercialization stage. But the boy is confident and says “this is a realistic perspective that I want to continue to develop”. After presenting him with his award, Jon Fairest, President of Sanofi Canada declared “this is the start of a fantastic research career for this young man”.
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