photo: Argonne National Laboratory/ BY-NC-SA

Angela Zhang is one teenager who does not need to be told to “Dream big.” 17-year-old Zhang is the winner of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, and received $100,000 for the nanoparticle that she created.

What’s so special about the nanoparticle? It kills cancer. Her project is called, “Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifuntional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells.” According to Geekosystem, she spent 1,000 hours developing the particle since 2009.

Geek.com says:

Her creation is being heralded as a “Swiss army knife of cancer treatment.” Zhang managed to develop a nanoparticle that can be delivered to the site of a tumor through the drug salinomycin. Once there it kills the cancer stem cells. However, Zhang went further and included both gold and iron-oxide components, which allow for non-invasive imaging of the site through MRI and Photoacoustics.