James Nguyen is a 17-year-old who is working to create a cancer-detecting toothbrush. Vikki Vargas reports for NBC4 news on Dec. 9, 2022.
What if all it took was a toothbrush to detect cancer in your body?
One Orange County teen believes it could happen and he’s well on his way to inventing such a device.
A diagram on a whiteboard with the potential to change medicine as we know it.
James Nguyen, 17, explains how a microchip placed within an electric toothbrush could lead to the early detection of cancer.
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“You run your body fluids through the chip. Everything's going to go through except the cancer cell will stay on top and not because it's big but because it has certain characteristics the chip can attract,” Nguyen said.
No trip to the doctor’s office or lab, instead just open wide.
“Just brush your teeth as if it is a normal toothbrush then stick it down to the stand and if there is cancer you’ll hear beep beep beep or something,” Nguyen said.
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His inspiration came from the death of his 79-year old grandmother. He keeps her scarf as a reminder that now he’s working to help others.
“When my grandma died then I had the question of like ‘so why did that happen?’ even though she did receive some treatment. I just wanted to get the answer for that question first,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen was born in Vietnam and admits the sciences have always intrigued him.
Only three years ago he immigrated to this country because his mother believed he’d get a better education.
“Anybody who takes on a project like that, anybody who has the vision to see that’s even a possibility is somebody special,” Stefan Dirghalli, a biology teacher said.
There are 2,300 students at La Quinta High School where Nguyen Is a senior. His teachers say he is among the brightest but not alone.
“There are many James here at LQ but James has something that stands out compared to the other kids. He's driven, fiercely driven,” Lawrence Lai, a chemistry teacher, said.
That drive got him a full ride scholarship and seed money to start his toothbrush project.
His teachers say the way he focuses on a math or science problem shows a maturity beyond his years.
Nguyen says he has proven in a lab that his idea can work. The next step is to build the toothbrush into more than a prototype, into something that perhaps could have saved his grandmother.
“I'm sure she’d be happy, like proud that there's positivity in the negativity,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen is working with some biotech startups to turn his dream into a reality. As for college, he’s applied to an ivy league school and expects to hear back in a few weeks.
