A 16-year-old girl from Kentucky has found new ways to optimize the components of biomedical implants, promising a future of safer, faster, and longer-lasting versions of these critical devices.
Grace Sun won the top prize at the Society for Science’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, one of the largest and most prestigious in the world.
Bioelectronic implants, such as pacemaker, have been around for decades, but can suffer from compatibility issues when interfacing with the human body. Sun’s work focused on improving the capabilities of organic electrochemical transistors or OECTs, which like other devices made of silicon, are soft, flexible, and present the possibility of more complex implants for use in the brain or the heart.
“This was our number one project, without a shadow of a doubt,” Ian Jandrell, a judging co-chair for the materials science category, told Business Insider. “It was crystal clear that that room was convinced that this was a significant project and worthy of consideration for a very top award because of the contribution that was made.”
Sun says she is looking to develop the OECTs further, hoping to start a business in the not-too-distant future as a means of getting them out into the world and impacting real people as fast as possible.
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