The “Innovators Under 35 Award” seeks to honor technical experts, researchers and scientists below 35 years of age

Jeddah: A Saudi Engineer, Dana Al-Sulaiman, who works as an Assistant Professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), has won the “Innovators Under 35” award, for developing a chip that detects different types of cancer in human body.

“It is a small chip made of micro needles covered with a substance that is placed on the skin, and it is able to absorb liquid, and detect cancer biomarkers in an easy and non-invasive way”, Saudi Gazette quoted Eng. Dana citing Al Ekhbariya channel.

“The reason that prompted me to create the slide is the painful and tedious process of the traditional way where a sample is taken from the patient”, Dana, Asst Prof of Material Science and Bioengineering at KAUST, a private research university located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, said.

Before joining KAUST, Prof. Alsulaiman was a Post-Doc in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT and had a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Imperial College London.

Dana Al Sulaiman pointed out that the chip she created reveals different types of cancer, adding that the innovation will save a lot of effort, money and time.

“American Patent”

She added that the innovation was granted an American patent, and the technology is currently being developed and manufactured from sustainable materials at King Abdullah University and then it will be delivered to doctors in all hospitals soon.

The “Innovators Under 35 Award” seeks to honor technical experts, researchers and scientists below 35 years of age.

The conditions for nomination for the award include a wide range of fields, including biomedicine, computing and communications, energy, materials science, software and even transportation, the Internet, and more, where the innovations and research they have accomplished can make a qualitative leap in our contemporary world.

The selected innovators will give a brief presentation on their work of no more than 3 minutes per innovator. Candidates must also be citizens or residents of a country in the Middle East and North Africa region, or of Arab origin to be eligible for inclusion in the MIT Technology Review “Innovators Under 35” MENA list.