Jack Andraka is one of the most brilliant minds of his generation. The 16-year-old student from Maryland has developed an invention that can detect pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal cancers with a suvival rate on par with lung cancer and ovarian cancer. The young prodigy has been honored by Pope Francis in a ceremony at the Vatican on Saturday, November 16 where he was presented with the International Giuseppe Sciacca Award. This is an incredible honor for such a young scientist, particularly when you consider Andraka is openly gay.
Jack Andraka's invention is a small paper sensor that costs three cents and is capable of detecting three types of cancer in five minutes: pancreatic, lung and ovarian. The 16-year-old whiz kid made the discovery when he was just 13: by searching information on Google and Wikipedia, Andraka was able to isolate a single protein which is common to patients infected with pancreatic cancer. The invention is 400 times more sensitive than current products, 26,000 times cheaper and 168 times faster than the current detection models, as well as being non-invasive.
Andraka received the award at the Vatican and even had a private meeting with Pope Francis. Following his stay in Rome, Andraka is flying to Berlin where he will be promoting open access to tax=payer funded scientific journals at the Max Planck Society. The 16-year-old genius is also openly gay, although the vatican did not comment on this fact.
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