Visionary young scientist working on cure for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. She's 12

[Squigglenob]

Swathi Kompella is a fairly typical 12-year-old. She attends Campus Middle School in Englewood. She plays violin -- "but I'm not a pro," she says. She dances. She plays in school sports. She's thinking about college, and a medical career beyond that.

Oh, and she's designing stem-cell technology that might regenerate damaged cells in the brains of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients.

Kompella has a vision of a pacemaker-like device implanted in the brains of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients. The device would attract neural stem cells and use them as a recuperative force.

"I'm trying to see if we could create a device that attracts neural stem cells and regenerates them," she explains. Then the renewed stem cells would make their way to the disease site to replace dead and diseased cells.

Swathi says she sees plenty of opportunities for additional related research in the future, but she's not exactly sure where it will take her. "There are a lot of factors to take into consideration," says Kompella. "I'm only 12 years old." Swathi's age makes access to a clinical environment difficult, but she says she hopes to find a laboratory soon where she can expand on her current work.

Read full article at Confluence.

[Neoma]

1. Oh yeah I was totally doing the same thing when I was twelve.