While their peers were playing video
games or panicking about the prom, a group of
young whiz kids has been prioritizing medical
innovation.
From Maryland to Dubai, these social-minded
prodigies are winning prizes at international
science fairs, developing medical innovations
and picking up advanced degrees in hopes of
saving lives.
Here are eight of the most impressive kids from
around working towards a healthier tomorrow.

Joshua Meier, 18, New Jersey
Stem cells are valued for their ability to develop
into specialized cells, and have the potential to
treat Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury and
other conditions. But artificially generated stem
cells have short lifespans that limit their medical
usefulness.
Joshua Meier's award-winning
research , which started off as a class
project when he was just 14,
identified the genes linked to this cell
aging process. Meier, who will begin
studying biology and computer
science at Harvard this fall, hopes
that his research can be applied to
other cells, and eventually lead to real-world
solutions, like treating cancer.
"Cancer is a disease where cells keep growing
and growing and growing," Meier says. "But if
we age cancer and stop its growth, then that's a
potential treatment."

Adeeb Alblooshi, 10, Dubai, United Arab
Emirates
It was a trip to the beach that sparked Adeeb
Alblooshi's inventing career. When his father --
who had suffered from polio -- could not go
swimming because of his prosthetic leg, Adeeb,
then six, made him a waterproof alternative
using an enhanced medical wax coating. Soon
after, he created a small vibrating robot to help
his mother clean small spaces. It wasn't long
before the media, and subsequently the Dubai
government, came calling.
With the government's supervision and funding,
he's come up with five more inventions since
then, including a seat belt that monitors a
passenger's heart rate and alerts the authorities
when it's too high or low.
Since April, he's been on an international
scientific tour with the Emirates Institution for
Advanced Science and Technology, which has
had him attending academic conferences,
meeting with researchers, and even attending
space camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center
in Alabama.
"I've learned a lot, but most importantly, I'm
having fun while doing it," he says.


Samantha and Michelle Marquez, 18
and 15, Virginia
For Samantha and Michelle Marquez,
science is a family affair. The
daughters of a chemist and a
chemical engineer, the two were
always encouraged to ask questions
and hunt down answers.
A school project when she was in seventh grade
led Samantha to create "celloidosomes," three-
dimensional structures built out of living cells,
which act as a container for other particles. She
suggests that these capsule-like structures could
be used for organ repair and as innovative way
to deliver drugs to the body, but anticipates that
there could other applications too.
"I like to think that the celloidosomes is really
just one very small pebble in the beach," she
says, "a very small grain of sand in the beach
that's going to be the movement towards
bottom-up engineering for medicine."
Michelle, on the other hand, decided to explore
elements that couldn't be touched: music and
emotions. Her research analyzed brain activity
and found that highly complex sounds -- or
chaotic noise -- triggered the part of the brain
associated with negative emotions, while low-
complexity music triggered the part of the brain
associated with positive emotions.
Both sisters were recognized at the prestigious
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
(Intel ISEF), but there's little sibling rivalry at
play.
"I think it's been really great to see Michelle
blossoming into the young woman, the young
scientist that she is," Samantha says. "I think
she's kind of paving her own journey."

Sandile Kubheka, 21, Newcastle,
South Africa
While others his age were just
getting into the swing of university
life, Sandile Kubheka, then 20, had
become South Africa's youngest
doctor, four years ahead of
schedule.
Since then, Kubheka, now 21, has been honored
with a slew of awards for his community work
and medical achievements, and was nominated
for an MTV Africa Music Award for leadership.
These awards acknowledge not just his obvious
precocity, but the time he's put in outside of
the classroom, especially when he was a
student. On weekends, he was helping under-
serviced communities, taking care of patients at
a student-run clinic; during his December
holidays, he was volunteering in the labs of
rural hospitals, to serve the community and
hone his own skills.
These days, he's had to cut back. He spends
most waking hours completing an intensive two-
year internship at Grey's Hospital in
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, but he finds time
to act as an ambassador for the South African
National Blood Service, and set up a trust fund
to help youth in developing nations and rural
regions get into engineering and medicine.
"Now that I've started working, it's harder to
balance that," he says laughing. "But as soon as
I've got that balance, I want to get back to the
community."


Tony Hansberry, 20, Jacksonville,
Florida
Tony Hansberry was likely the only
14-year-old boy making a difference
in gynaecology. Attending a high
school with a program geared
towards medicine gave Hansberry the
chance to intern at the nearby UF Health Shands
Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. There, he was
challenged to improve how the vaginal cuff (the
top of the vagina) is sutured after a
hysterectomy. Typically, the cuff is sewn
together with a horizontal stitch to decrease the
risk of infection after surgery, but Hansberry
suggested that a vertical stitch might be faster.
When demonstrating his method on
a mannequin, he was able to suture
the area three times faster than the
traditional method. It proved so
much more effective that the
supervising doctor still uses his
method today, having nicknamed it
the "Hansberry Stich."
Now 20, Hansberry is studying
chemistry at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
University. He hopes to become a surgeon
someday, and make a difference in the lives of
others.
"That's what I love about the idea of medicine,"
he says. "The fact that you can change so many
lives with just your hands."


Jack Andraka, 17, Maryland
Jack Andraka was aged just 14 when he started
developing an easy early-detection test for
pancreatic cancer. By the end of the school year,
he succeeded.
The test, developed under the guidance of a
Johns Hopkins professor, takes just minutes to
complete, and Andraka claims it is faster,
cheaper, and more sensitive than the current
medical standard.
Though his invention has yet to undergo peer-
review or rigorous testing, it earned Andraka not
only the $75,000 grand prize at the Intel ISEF in
2012, but also the attention of every major
news organization, frequent speaking gigs (check
out his TEDTalk here ), and a seat on "The
Colbert Report." It seems the whole world is
waiting to see what he does next.


Andrew Almazán Anaya, 19, Mexico
City, Mexico
Andrew Almazán Anaya is best
known for becoming a qualified
psychologist at 16, but in his eyes,
he still has a lot to accomplish.
"[I studied] not only because I
wanted to learn more, or I liked the
subject -- I have to make this
knowledge useful for future," says
Almazán Anaya, who is also an MD.
This is why, for the last five years, he's been
part of a team trying to perfect islet cell
transplantation in diabetics -- working to
prevent the cells from being rejected by a
recipient's immune system.
While the team awaits the OK to move from
testing on mice to larger animals, Almazán
Anaya has more time to dedicate to "Centro de
Atención al Talento" (the Talent Attention
Center), a group that pushes for the early
identification and support of gifted children,
where he serves as head of psychological
research. He hopes his internationally
recognized work will spread awareness about
gifted kids, and equip them to make the most of
their potential, as he has.[b]While their peers were playing video
games or panicking about the prom, a group of
young whiz kids has been prioritizing medical
innovation.
From Maryland to Dubai, these social-minded
prodigies are winning prizes at international
science fairs, developing medical innovations
and picking up advanced degrees in hopes of
saving lives.
Here are eight of the most impressive kids from
around working towards a healthier tomorrow.

Joshua Meier, 18, New Jersey
Stem cells are valued for their ability to develop
into specialized cells, and have the potential to
treat Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury and
other conditions. But artificially generated stem
cells have short lifespans that limit their medical
usefulness.
Joshua Meier's award-winning
research , which started off as a class
project when he was just 14,
identified the genes linked to this cell
aging process. Meier, who will begin
studying biology and computer
science at Harvard this fall, hopes
that his research can be applied to
other cells, and eventually lead to real-world
solutions, like treating cancer.
"Cancer is a disease where cells keep growing
and growing and growing," Meier says. "But if
we age cancer and stop its growth, then that's a
potential treatment."

Adeeb Alblooshi, 10, Dubai, United Arab
Emirates
It was a trip to the beach that sparked Adeeb
Alblooshi's inventing career. When his father --
who had suffered from polio -- could not go
swimming because of his prosthetic leg, Adeeb,
then six, made him a waterproof alternative
using an enhanced medical wax coating. Soon
after, he created a small vibrating robot to help
his mother clean small spaces. It wasn't long
before the media, and subsequently the Dubai
government, came calling.
With the government's supervision and funding,
he's come up with five more inventions since
then, including a seat belt that monitors a
passenger's heart rate and alerts the authorities
when it's too high or low.
Since April