Inspired by the pain, preparation and rehab that went into her moms retinal surgery, Anie Udofia, a 15-year-old Calgary student, thought there had to be a simpler, less invasive solution.
In less than a year, Udofia has found what she hopes can one day ease surgery-related complexities and is competing for thousands of dollars in prize money. As a participant in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, Udofia’s two minute video submission and research focuses on organoids.
“I stumbled upon retinal organoids and I had been doing a lot of research into that and seeing papers about it and the whole biology behind it. I eventually found how organoids are this field in general that isn’t just limited to the eyes, but to every single part of the body,” Udofia told LWC.
Organoids, or tiny lab-grown mini organs that help scientists study diseases and develop safer, more precise treatments, are made with stem cells, something Udofia calls the body’s ultimate shapeshifter.
“They can just become anything that the scientist caused them to be using special potions or just chemical signals that are derived from the actual cell that they’re supposed to exhibit,” she said.
“I use the story of Frankenstein as a metaphor, comparing its fictional stitched together life to the real scientific ability to grow living tissues from stem cells.”
Over the summer after doing loads of research in preparation for the competition, Udofia’s biggest obstacle was fitting all her information into a quick video format for a fall submission.
“I had to leave a lot of the things that I had wanted to say out due to how I just couldn’t speak it really fast and be super clear, which I’m still I’m grateful for the two-minute margin so that I’ll be able to say it in a way that other younger audiences can actually understand,” she said.
An honour to be considered: Udofia
Some months later, Udofia is one of 30 semifinalists worldwide and is in the running for $400,000 worth of prizes, including $250,000 towards a post-secondary scholarship, prize money for teachers and a state of the art school science lab renovation.
Even being selected as a semi finalist has been an honour for Udofia.
“I was really shocked, because I thought that my video could have been better in hindsight, since I tried to learn a lot of strategies to create cooler, more visually, nicer videos,” the Grade 10 student at William Aberhart High School in Calgary said.
“But then when I saw the result, I realized that people, or the judges at least, found my work to have a lot of meaning, even if I didn’t always see it the way that they did and I was really grateful for that and it just helped me see a new perspective of my work, Instead of always trying to put it down.”
Between now and Dec. 9, the general public can vote for a people’s choice winner in the Popular Vote Challenge, with finalists’ video already being uploaded to Breakthrough’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
Aside from the competition, Udofia’s research has all but solidified her post-secondary future.
“I hope to pursue biomedical engineering or a related field at a top university, given my passions, this field blends everything that I love, creativity, medical science, problem solving and impacts,” she said.
“The Breakthrough Junior Challenge has shifted my perspective on how many more opportunities that I have to truly realize this path and know that I’m not limited to just one sole institution that might just be local, but that I can possibly even go to institutions wherever I would like to given the funds that it provides.”
