Angela+Zhang

=**Angela Zhang**=

**The story:**

 * By: Georgina Valdovinos**

Angela Zhang,a 17 years old and a senior from Cupertino, California, won a scholarship of $100,000 from the National Siemens Science contest. She developed nanoparticle (a small object that behaves as a whole unit in terms of its transport and properties), a treatment that can detect cancer cells, destroy the cancer cells, then it observes the treatment response.

In freshmen year Angela started reading doctorate level papers on bio-engineering. In sophomore year she convinced herself to go to the lab at Standford. By junior year she was doing her own research.

Her idea was to mix cancer medicine in a polymer (a naturally occurring or synthetic compound consisting of large molecules made up of a linked series of repeated simple monomers) that would attach to the nanoparticles. Those nanoparticles then attach to cancer cells and show up on the MIR (magnetic resonance imaging), and for that the doctors could be able to see precisely where the tumors are at. Then she also thought that if you directed an infrared light at the tumor to melt down the polymer and let the medicine go, so killing the cancer cells while leaving the healthy cells with no harm at all.

The science...
The science behind Angela's story is curiosity. If it wasn't for her curiosity and effort for learning new things she would of not came up with a treatment that can detect cancer cells.

References:
Ernst, A. (2011, December 06). //Whiz kid of the week: Angela zhang, cancer buster//. Retrieved from http://cupertino.patch.com/groups/schools/p/whiz-kid-of-the-week-angela-zhang-cancer-buster

CBS Interactive Inc. (2012). //Calif. hs student devises possible cancer cure//. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57358994/calif-hs-student-devises-possible-cancer-cure/