Jack Andraka, 15, Wins Intel Science Competition For Pancreatic Cancer Research

Another amazing teen scientist is making headlines for developing advances in cancer research in his after-school hours. Fifteen-year-old Jack Andraka from Maryland, winner of the world's largest high school science research competition, developed a test for pancreatic cancer that is not only 28 times cheaper and faster than current tests in place, but also 100 times more sensitive. Astoundingly, the urine and blood test that he developed can detect this type of cancer with 90 percent accuracy.

Jack received the Gordan E. Moore award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his groundbreaking research, earning a $75,000 prize. He beat out over 1,500 students from 70 countries to claim the award.

Two runners-up -- Nicholas Schiefer of Ontario, Canada and Ari Dyckovsky of Virginia -- earned $50,000 prizes for their innovations. Nicholas's "microsearch" research used information like tweets and Facebook status updates to improve search engine capabilities, while Ari looked into the atomic basis for quantum teleportation.

Seventeen other Best of Category winners at the week-long Pittsburgh event took home $5,000 prizes for their research.

Like Jack, another group of teen scientists was able to develop a low-cost and high-accuracy development in health research. After learning that drinking unpasteurized milk was leading to greater rates of disease and miscarriage among Nicaraguan women, four girl scounts from Rochester, New York who call themselves the "Hippie Pandas" created a viable milk pasteurization system using beeswax.

And earlier this year, 17-year-old Angela Zhang won $100,000 in the national Siemens Science Competition for devising a potential cure for cancer.

"I'm excited to learn just everything possible," she told CBS News. "Everything in the sciences -- biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, even computer science -- to make new innovations possible."

Are you inspired by these young innovators? Share your thoughts in the comments below or tweet @HuffPostTeen!

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Comments

[Cherie Mathews]

10:56 AM on 02/20/2013

Just amazing! Let's hear it for your young brilliant Americans

[Jason Wey]

12:00 PM on 02/16/2013

nice job kid, now all you have to do is avoid the big drug companies. dont let them buy your research and loose it.

[Studioin Thebarn]

07:49 AM on 02/16/2013

Nice and kudos for fighting the good fight!
BUT has journalism gone astray? Or am I the only one who is more interested in the method then in someones financial rewards?

[Jamie Hibbs]

05:26 AM on 02/16/2013

This is what happens when people are motivated by results instead of just trying to feed the bottom line. When profit is the sole aim only those who stand to make money gain anything. Kudos to these kiddos for top notch research that didnt cost billions and wasnt tied down by bureaucratic boondoggling for special interests.

[Wes Baggett]

11:54 PM on 02/08/2013

But can they play football----just kidding folks, if we invested in scholarships for these kids the way they do for athletics it would be a different world

[Adam G79]

09:18 AM on 02/08/2013

wow could it be that having an intelligent human being, maybe even a scientist (!) operate in a non-profit motive, non risk-averse environment actually allows them to think.

[jerseyj08]

05:47 AM on 02/16/2013

Progress in defeating or curing disease makes no profits for medicine and all related. Cancer, Diabetes and other organizations who collect money to "find" cures - also lose when illness is defeated. Slow progress and still deaths.

[Loveofknowledge]

09:07 AM on 02/08/2013

Rick Simpson Oil made from Cannabis/Marijuana can cure most cancers as well. It shrinks and in many cases completely removes all traces of tumors too. It is used for a plethera of medical uses. Science is just starting to take notice of the real benefits of Cannabis. Look up; Rick Simpson's "Run from the Cure" on Youtube. You will be educated and amazed!

[TooWonky]

07:01 AM on 02/16/2013

You need a fan!

[FCF]

04:18 AM on 02/08/2013

awesome

[Cynthia Duncan]

12:04 AM on 02/08/2013

Way to go kid.

[Jake Witmer]

05:17 PM on 02/07/2013

Remind me again why a genius busts his ass to bring a new idea to market, and we all simply accept the arbitrarily-imposed FDA delay of TEN UNNECESSARY YEARS FULL OF DYING PEOPLE WHO COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED? The person who develops a cure for unfreedom will save far more lives than the person who develops any one single test or cure, because tyranny is systemic and unquestioned, in this day and age. Brave New World (mixed with an unhealthy dose of "1984") has already arrived. I'm glad Jack's getting a well-rounded education.

I wonder when he'll read "Atlas Shrugged," "Send in the Waco Killers," "Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine," "The New Libertarian Manifesto," and "Unintended Consequences"?

What I wrote I don't intend as a slight in any way. It makes my heart sing to see someone so intelligent that they resemble a real life "John Galt." It is my wish that he developes a keen comprehension of organizational and systemic hierarchy, and seeks to solve the most important problems first. Has he read "Engines of Creation" or Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines," and "The Singularity is Near"? Those books sound like they might contain religious mumbo-jumbo, but they do not.

The future belongs to people like Jack, let's hope he doesn't allow the government (coercive) mentality to do him any more damage than it (as a net negative) possibly already has.

[Oli Hayden]

08:25 AM on 02/08/2013

well said

[Kit Kimberly]

12:29 AM on 02/13/2013

"let's hope he doesn't allow the government ... do him any more damage"

You mean like it did when it funded research that eradicated yellow fever, smallpox, polio, etc?

When it funded research that developed treatments for HIV and many cancers?

Government can do a LOT of good things, and has done, and will continue to do so. Just because it also does some not-so-good things (often because of the pressure from "free market" corporate influence) doesn't make everything it does bad.

I hope he reads Shakespeare and Thoreau, Dickinson and Austen, Plato and Hildegarde von Bingen, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker and James Baldwin, Dee Brown and Barbara Kingsolver, Isabel Allende and Chinua Achebe, Arundhati Roy and Vaclav Havel, so that he has a strong and broad understanding of human knowledge, experience, and inspiration, which will better inform his desire to solve human-created problems.

[jerseyj08]

05:55 AM on 02/16/2013

I think that as long as Jack's research and brilliant findings do not come under Government control, he will go on to great things. If,when and once he does, his brilliance will be stifled.. I do not believe the Status quo is looking to find cure for any illness, it's not profitably good for business..

[TooWonky]

07:03 AM on 02/16/2013

Of course :-)

[Mary Kaye Waterson]

09:40 AM on 08/22/2012

I think part of it is these kids don't have preconceived notions about anything. They don't think of something and dismiss it with "Well, no, that's not going to work." Instead, they think, "What the heck, I'll try it, the worst that can happen is it won't work." Children's minds are more open to experimentation than those of adults. And thank goodness for that, huh? Congratulations to Jack Andraka and the other free thinkers in this contest!

[NameUnknown]

08:50 PM on 06/22/2012

This is one instance where the overused term "awesome" is appropriate!

[wackyusa]

11:07 AM on 06/22/2012

If a 15 year old can develop a test for pancreatic cancer detection, how hard is everyone else trying? Doesn't it amaze everyone that for so many years and after so many millons of research dollars, not many forms of cancer are curable. Does big pharma really want a cure? Thank goodness for 15 year olds that have not been so jaded.

[signgrrl]

05:13 PM on 08/07/2012

because it's more profitable to ''treat '' pancreatic cancer than it is to cure it ? btw, that's what killed my grandfather.

[Mary Kaye Waterson]

09:42 AM on 08/22/2012

I don't see how it's more profitable to treat pancreatic cancer than to cure it - everyone I've ever known who had it died in less than a year from diagnosis because there was no treatment. All their doctors could do was make them comfortable until the end.

[alereflammam]

02:08 AM on 02/08/2013

We should be ashamed of this. Profits more important than actually making some progress as a race overall.

[Carole May]

04:39 PM on 02/16/2013

There will never be a cure for cancer as long as oncologists are making 2 million dollars a year treating it. Remember what happened when they found a cure for polio? Suddenly, doctors who specialized in it, companies that made crutches, iron lungs, etc. no longer had any business. Big pharm is not going to let that happen again.

[LouisC31]

10:55 AM on 05/29/2012

Unbelievable story! Very inspirational. Here is a cool video interview with Jack Andraka discussing his breakthrough science fair project: http://www.bradaronson.com/jack-andraka/

[Jeffre y]

03:24 AM on 05/26/2012

I think the article is understating the real breakthrough.
Creating the test is just like making a home pregnancy test: ELISA's been around for ages.
Its finding the link between urine and mesothelin would be the real challenge and accomplishment, and I wonder how he did it.....

But if my memory of the intel project serves me right, he probably used a mentor's data and found a way to sell it....
Kinda like how Edison found out a way to market the light bulb after using the information that other people gave him

[Matthew Broderick]

11:50 PM on 06/03/2012

You are right. It has been known since 2008 that mesothelin is linked to those cancers. He just made the test. However, mesothelin is also linked to benign forms of those cancers. This is not as big of a deal as people are making it, but cool nonetheless.

[Klaudia Patricia]

07:13 PM on 02/07/2013

eg, Tesla.