Top ten finish for aspiring medics and scientists in Imperial competition

Six Year 13 pupils reached the finals of an Imperial College medical competition, ranking among the top ten teams nationally.

The QE sixth-formers, who mostly hope to become medics and scientists, scored strongly with their innovative approach for treating vasculitis – a rare inflammatory autoimmune condition affecting 40 million people globally.

Biology teacher Hinesh Shah said: “Our team should be extremely proud of what they have achieved, as we all are in the Biology department.

“Thanks to their strong teamwork and organisational skills, they produced an excellent e-poster, which, uniquely, considered financial and economic sustainability, providing sufferers with real-time data and intervention.

“I am sure the skills gained in this competition will aid them in their future careers. Whilst many teams tried to improve current treatment, their bold approach of thinking ‘out of the box’ reflects the skills we are trying to help the students develop,” added Mr Shah, who helped organise their entry into the Science in Medicine Schools Team Prize competition.

The team comprised Hadi Al-Esia, Dhaivat Gohel, Zaki Mustafa, Anshul Nema, Rahul Ranjan, and Jason Tao.

Their scientific poster saw them shortlisted for the finals, where they presented their project to a joint panel of Imperial College professors and representatives from Vasculitis UK, the country’s leading charity for the condition.

Their proposed treatment was a wearable patch that could monitor levels of specific biomarkers in tissue fluid, then treat the affected areas using red light therapy.

Additionally, they designed a companion app that provided an accessible interface for patients to track their current risk level. By using red light therapy instead of standard steroids, the patch avoided many of the harmful side effects that come with sustained use of steroids, which normally feature in treatment for vasculitis.

The team followed a multi-disciplinary approach, with Anshul and Rahul responsible for the data-analysis and companion app design, and Zaki Mustafa calculating the costs of producing sustainably and on a large scale.

Although not among the winners at the finals, the team were praised by the judges for their novel approach, which was both non-invasive and affordable.

As part of their reward for securing a place in the finals, team members received a mentorship session with one of the judges, Professor Frederick Tam, Chair of Renal Medicine at Imperial College.

Team member Jason, who intends to pursue a career in Medicine, said “I really enjoyed the research aspect of the competition – learning in-depth about disease pathways and developing clinical trials made me think about which area of medicine I want to go into.”

Anshul enjoyed the technology side of the project: “Using algorithms and other tools in conjunction with traditional approaches helped me to better understand the wide variety of scenarios in which technology and data can be leveraged effectively.”

And Dhaivat, who plans to study Biomedical Sciences at Imperial College, described Professor Tam’s mentor session as “a great insight into life there… it was something that stuck with me when choosing to commit to Imperial”.

• You can view the poster for the Imperial competition here.