A 15-year-old Sutton schoolboy who developed a potential test for Alzheimer’s disease is a finalist in a national science competition next month.
Krtin Nithiyanandam’s test, which already has international recognition from a Google Science Fair, could allow the condition to be diagnosed 10 years before symptoms appear.
The teenager, who attends Sutton Grammar School, won the Scientific American Innovator Award at the fair for his work in creating a test for earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
The Year 11 student, whose family moved to Britain from India when he was a baby, also took on complex research which allowed him to break down and combine two antibodies to create a drug for the disease.
He said: “I was researching with the intention to help get earlier diagnoses, but that lead into findings of a potential cure.
“I decided to take on the research because I knew, with an ageing population, the chances of people getting dementia is inevitably going to increase, and I thought it would have a real impact.”
He will join other nominees across the UK in The National Science and Engineering Competition in Birmingham in March.
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