A teen scientist's invention to help wounds heal | Anushka Naiknaware

Translator: Sara Fandiño Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

Ever since I was a young girl, I was always fascinated --

Dende pequerrecha, sempre me abraiou...

(Laughter)

(Gargalladas)

Oh!

Oh!

(Laughter)

(Gargalladas)

OK, I meant younger and more short.

De acordo, refírome a máis nova e baixiña.

(Laughter)

(Gargalladas)

If that's possible to imagine.

Se se pode imaxinar.

But ever since I was a young girl,

Pero dende pequerrecha

I was always fascinated with how the world worked exactly how it did.

sempre me abraiou a maneira na que o mundo funciona tal e como o fai.

So this, very early on,

E isto, dende moi cedo,

led me to the fields of mathematics and chemistry.

conduciume aos eidos da matemática e da química.

I would keep going further and further, and as I kept going,

Mentres afondaba nestes temas

I realized that all the fields of science are interconnected.

decateime de que tódolos campos da ciencia atópanse relacionados.

And without one, the others have little or no value.

E de que sen un, os demais teñen escaso ou nulo valor.

So, inspired by Marie Curie and my local science museum,

Emporiso, inspirada por Marie Curie e polo meu museo de ciencias local,

I decided to start asking these questions myself

decidín comezar a facerme estas preguntas

and engage in my own independent research,

e iniciar a miña propia investigación independente,

whether it be out of my garage or my bedroom.

xa fose no meu garaxe ou no meu cuarto.

I started reading journal papers,

Empecei a ler artigos científicos,

started doing science competitions,

a inscribirme en concursos,

started participating in science fairs,

participar en feiras da ciencia,

doing anything I could

e a facer calquera cousa

to get the knowledge that I so desperately wanted.

que me permitise obter o coñecemento que tanto cobizaba.

So while I was studying anatomy for a competition,

Deste xeito, mentres estudaba anatomía para un concurso,

I came across the topic of something called chronic wounds.

atopeime co termo “feridas crónicas”.

And one thing that stood out to me was a statistic

E chamoume a atención unha estatística

that said that the number of people in the United States with chronic wounds

que dicía que o número de persoas con feridas crónicas nos Estados Unidos

exceeds the number of people with breast cancer,

supera o número de doentes con cancro de mama,

colon cancer, lung cancer and leukemia, combined.

cancro de colon, cancro de pulmón e leucemia combinados.

Hold up.

Pero, agardade...

So what is a chronic wound?

Que é unha ferida crónica?

(Laughter)

(Gargalladas)

And why haven't I heard about a 5K walk for chronic wounds,

E por que nunca ouvín falar dunha andaina de 5 km polas feridas crónicas,

why haven't I even heard about a chronic wound in general?

por que nin sequera ouvín falar das feridas crónicas en xeral?

(Laughter)

(Gargalladas)

So after I got past those preliminary questions,

Así que unha vez superadas estas dúbidas iniciais,

and one that I will clarify for you,

e unha que vou aclarar enseguida,

a chronic wound is essentially when someone gets a normal wound,

unha ferida crónica, é basicamente cando alguén ten unha ferida normal,

except it fails to heal normally

que non cura,

because the patient has some kind of preexisting condition,

a miúdo porque o doente ten algún tipo de problema previo,

which in most cases is diabetes.

que na maior parte dos casos é a diabetes.

[O problema das feridas crónicas]

So more staggering statistics were to be found

Atopeime coas estatísticas máis desconcertantes

as I kept going on in this research.

segundo proseguín coa investigación.

In the year 2010 alone,

Só no ano 2010, destináronse 50 mil millóns de dólares USA

50 billion dollars were spent worldwide to treat chronic wounds.

para o tratamento das feridas crónicas no mundo.

In addition, it's estimated that about two percent of the population

Ademais, estímase que aproximadamente o 2% da poboación

will get a chronic wound at some point in their lifetime.

terá unha ferida crónica nalgún intre da súa vida.

This was absurd.

Era ilóxico.

So as I started doing more research,

Namentres investigaba,

atopei unha correlación

I found that there was a correlation

between the moisture level inside a wound dressing

entre o nivel de humidade dentro da vendaxe dunha ferida

and the stage of healing that the chronic wound would be at.

e a etapa de curación en que se atopaba.

So I decided, why don't I design something

E pensei, por que non deseño algo

to measure the moisture level within the wound

que me permita cuantificar a humidade na ferida

so this can help doctors and patients treat their wounds better.

e deste modo, axudar a médicos e doentes a tratar mellor as súas feridas?

And essentially, expedite the healing process.

E así acelerar o proceso de cicatrización.

E iso foi exactamente o que fixen.

So that's exactly what I set out to do.

[Atrancos e requisitos]

Being a 14-year-old working out of her garage-turned-lab,

Como tiña 14 anos e traballaba no meu garaxe, convertido en laboratorio,

I had a lot of constraints.

atopeime con moreas de atrancos.

Most being that I wasn't given a grant, I wasn't given a lot of money,

Sobre todo, debido a que non recibín ningunha bolsa, nin cartos,

and I wasn't given a lot of resources.

nin suficientes recursos.

In addition, I had a lot of criteria, as well.

Ademais, tiña que cumprir moitos requisitos.

Since this product would be readily interacting with the body,

Xa que este produto tería que interactuar directamente co corpo humano,

it had to be biocompatible,

debía ser biocompatible

it also had to be low-cost,

e ter un baixo custo,

as I was designing it and paying for it myself.

porque o deseñaba e financiaba eu mesma.

It also had to be mass-manufacturable,

Amais, debería poder producirse en masa,

because I wanted it to be made anywhere, for anyone.

porque quería que se puidese facer en calquera lugar e para calquera.

Thus, I drafted up a schematic.

Polo tanto, debuxei un esquema.

What you see on the left hand-side is the early schematics in my design,

O que ven no lado esquerdo é un bosquexo do meu deseño,

showing both a bird's-eye view and also one stacking variant.

mostrando tanto unha vista de paxaro coma unha vista lateral do conxunto.

A stacking variant means

A vista do conxunto mostra

that the entire product is consisted of different individual parts

que o produto atópase formado por varias partes diferentes

that have to work in unison.

que teñen que funcionar como un todo.

And what's shown there is one possible arrangement.

O que se ve aquí é unha posible distribución.

So what exactly is this?

Que é isto exactamente?

So I had gone on to testing my sensors

Cando comecei a probar os meus sensores

and as all scientists have stumbles along their work,

atopei, como todos os científicos, atrancos no meu traballo,

I also had a couple of problems in my first generation of sensors.

sufrín un par de contratempos coa miña primeira xeración de sensores.

First of all, I couldn't figure out

Primeiro, non sabía

como incorporar unha nanopartícula nun cartucho de impresión

how to get a nanoparticle ink into a printcheck cartridge

without spilling it all over my carpet.

sen derramar todo sobre a miña alfombra.

That was problem number one.

Ese foi o problema número un.

Problem number two was,

O problema número dous foi

I couldn't exactly control the sensitivity of my sensors.

que non podía controlar a sensibilidade dos meus sensores.

I couldn't scale them up or down,

Non podía aumentar nin reducir a súa precisión,

I couldn't really do anything of that sort.

non podía facer ren.

E quería solucionalo.

So I wanted something to solve it.

Resolvín o primeiro problema doadamente

Problem one was easily solved by some scouting on eBay and Amazon

cunha pequena expedición en eBay e Amazon

for syringes that I could use.

na busca de xiringas que puidese empregar.

Problem two, however, required a lot more thought.

O problema número dous, pola contra, requiriu máis esforzo mental.

So this is where this factors in.

Aquí é onde intervén este factor.

So what a space-filling curve does

Unha curva de Peano

is it aims to take up all the area it can within one unit square.

tenta abarcar a maior área posible dentro dun cadrado unitario.

And by writing a computer program, you can have different iterations

E, coa axuda dun ordenador, pódense obter as diferentes variantes

of the different curve,

das diferentes curvas,

which increasingly get close to one unit square,

que se achegan cada vez máis ao cadrado unitario,

but never quite reaches there.

non obstante, nunca o conseguen de todo.

So now I could control the thickness, the size,

Deste xeito, puiden controlar o grosor, o tamaño

I could do whatever I want with it, and I could predict my results.

e facer o que quixen con el, inclusive, predicir os meus resultados.

So I started constructing my sensors

Comecei daquela a elaborar os meus sensores

and testing them more rigorously,

e a probalos máis rigorosamente,

using money that I had gotten from previous science fair awards.

empregando o diñeiro que gañara participando en feiras de ciencia.

Lastly, I had to connect this data in order to be read.

Por último, tiña que transmitir estes datos para que puidesen lerse.

So I interfaced it with a Bluetooth chip,

Así que os liguei a través dun chip Bluetooth,

which you can see here by the app screenshots on the right.

que poden observar á dereita, nunha captura de pantalla da aplicación.

And what this does is that anyone can monitor the progress of their wound,

Deste xeito, calquera pode monitorizar a evolución da súa ferida,

and it can be transmitted over a wireless connection

e enviala a través dunha conexión sen fíos

to the doctor, the patient or whoever needs it.

ao médico, ao paciente ou a quen o precise.

[Revisión e perfeccionamento constante]

[Continued Testing and Refinement]

So in conclusion, my design was successful --

En conclusión, o meu deseño resultou.

however, science never ends.

Non obstante, a ciencia non descansa.

There's always something to be done, something to be refined.

Sempre hai algo que facer, algo que require mellora.

So that's what I'm currently in the process of doing.

E actualmente, atópome nese proceso.

However, what I learned was

Porén, aprendín que

what's more important than the actual thing I designed

máis importante cá miña propia invención

is an attitude that I had taken on while doing this.

foi a actitude que adoptei para levala a cabo.

And that attitude was,

E esa actitude foi a que,

even though I'm a 14-year-old working in her garage

a pesar de ser unha rapaza de 14 anos traballando no seu garaxe

on something that she doesn't completely understand,

nalgo que non entendía totalmente,

I could still make a difference and contribute to the field.

me permitiu marcar a diferenza e contribuír neste eido de estudo.

And that's what inspired me to keep going,

E iso foi o que me inspirou para continuar

and I hope it inspires many others to also do work like this

e espero que inspire a moitos outros para facer algo semellante,

even though they're not very sure about it.

aínda que crean que non poden.

So I hope that's a message that you all take on today.

Espero que esta sexa a mensaxe que leven hoxe para casa.

Thank you.

Grazas

(Applause)

(Aplausos)