ENTREPRENEUR SCHOOLBOYS
This Biotechnology Company Run By High Schoolers Is
Developing A “Flying Syringe”
Provita, a company staffed entirely
by kids under 18, is working on a project (with funding from the Gates
Foundation) to use mosquitoes to help carry important vaccines.
Joshua Meier, CEO of biotechnology company Provita
Pharmaceuticals, spends about 20 hours a week on research projects in the
various labs at his disposal. In January, the company gave a presentation to
the FDA on its work with the flying syringe, a tool that uses mosquitoes as a
vector to deliver vaccines to those who need them. Provita has also submitted a
grant idea to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But you might not
recognize Meier as a CEO if you saw him walking down the street--he’s 16. In
fact, everyone on the 15-plus person Provita team, from research and
development workers to finance officers, is in high school.
Provita
was founded in 2008, before Meier--a junior and a finalist in the 2012 Google Science
Fair--entered high school at the Bergen County Academies, a group of seven
magnet high school programs that each hone in on different subjects, including
a program focused on science and technology (where Meier is a student), a
business and finance program, and a medical science and technology program.
Provita emerged when some of the science-focused kids decided to collaborate
with the business-minded students on a business plan competition for their
research.
The
company’s first product, Coagula, aims to decrease the number of injections
that patients with hemophilia and von Willebrand disease have to endure. "Hemopheliacs have
uncontrolled bleeding, and they to have to take coagulants to make their blood thicker. The problem
with treatment is that they have to take it several time a week, and there are
issues of infection and having transfusions all the time," explains Meier.
"We came up with new method, so instead of taking treatment a few times a
week, you do it once every few months. We’re still working on that."
The
Provita team certainly has enough equipment at its disposal, including a stem
cell lab and a microbiology lab at the school. Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City has even indicated interest
in helping with future development.
More recently, Provita has started
working on the flying syringe. That project is still in the very early stages.
"We can’t really culture mosquitoes in the lab at our high school because
that’s dangerous, but we a have research advisor and ideas planned out, and the
next step is making a partnership, contacting other places that do have animal
facilities," says Meier.
The first goal: to genetically
engineer mosquitoes so that they can produce and deliver a vaccine (via their
saliva) for West Nile Virus. The mosquitoes, Meier explains, will be sterilized
to prevent any out-of-control problems. It’s a new twist on research being done elsewhere to
breed sterile mosquitoes in malaria-infested areas.
Meier hopes to keep up with
Provita’s research after he graduates, but "most of the hard work will
stay in the high school," he says. That’s partially because the school has
some control of Provita’s intellectual property since much of it was developed
on campus (one huge benefit of that: the school district pays for all of
Provita’s research).
In any case, says Meier, "it’s
not like we’re out here to get a profit. We’re doing this because most of us
want to start our own companies or go into research. We’re here as an
educational experience."
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681305/this-biotechnology-company-run-by-high-schoolers-is-developing-a-flying-syringe#1
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