<< Back Creative student starts building medical aid
Chris
Komanski is using a research award to devise help for hospital patients.
By Terry O. Roen |
Special to the
Sentinel
Posted
April 29,
2004
Johns
Hopkins
University
freshman Chris Komanski of Orlando is using money garnered as the first Ying
Scholar to start a company to create innovative medical solutions.
Komanski said he plans to use the $2,000 research award to start his own
company, Design Therapeutics Inc., and build a prototype of a urinalysis machine
for intensive-care unit patients.
The 19-year-old said he hopes to have a working prototype by the end of summer.
The device will be used next year in clinical trials on ICU patients at Johns
Hopkins University Medical School. Federal Drug Administration approval is
expected to take two to three years, Komanski said. The project is also funded
through grants from the National Kidney Foundation and the National Institute of
Health.
The biomedical engineering major got the idea for the urinalysis machine from
his 2,000-plus research hours working at the University of Central Florida's
Center for Education and Research in Optics and Lasers. He worked in the lab
while researching several high school science-fair projects. Komanski talked to
a nephrologist to discover a good working approach for the noninvasive device.
"The urinalysis machine will be attached to the patient and give doctors real
time information," Komanski said. "As soon as there is a change, the machine
will pick it up. Now, it takes 42 to 78 hours for doctors to wait for lab tests
for the same information that would tell if the patient is going into acute
renal failure."
Komanski said he got the idea for the urinalysis machine after talking to
professors and medical doctors about the need for the device.
"They pointed me in the direction of renal failure because it annually affects
one in five ICU patients and kills one in 30,000 each year -- the same number as
breast cancer. Renal failure has become the silent killer."
Nelson Ying, a philanthropist and nuclear physicist, chose Komanski as the first
college recipient of the $2,000-a-year research award after following his
progress winning county, state, regional, national and international science
fairs through high school.
"This was a culmination of a multiyear effort of watching how he developed,"
Ying said. His foundation took over sponsorship of the Orange County Science
Fair this year when the public school system ran out of money for the
43-year-old program. The adjunct professor at the University of Central Florida
is the chief executive officer of the China Group, which runs the China Pavilion
at Epcot. The foundation has donated more than a quarter-million dollars during
the past five years to science prizes.
"Youth represents the future," Ying said. "Science is responsible for all the
affluence we enjoy today and encouraging science is encouraging a better future
for all mankind."
This is not the first marketable invention for Komanski. While in high school,
he developed a new method of digital radiography to be used instead of
traditional film X-rays. He got the idea after being X-rayed in the hospital for
a break and decided there must be a more efficient method. His invention had
only a provisional patent and was leapfrogged by major medical companies.
Komanski describes the venture as "a great learning process for a high school
experience."
Komanski's resume is chock full with 21 local, national and international
science fair awards. His accolades include the U.S. Army's first-place award at
the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair and the Eastman Kodak
Outstanding Project Award in 2002. His science achievements helped him earn the
$18,000-a-year Bloomberg Scholar Award during the admission process at Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore.
"Not only was he a straight-A student across the board, but Chris was very
original and came up with his own ideas for projects," said Judy Legault, who
teaches the Advanced Science Program Emphasizing Research Experiences at Lake
Highland Preparatory School in Orlando. "He interviewed radiologists when he was
researching digital cameras and did incredible research as a high school
student."
Komanski's mother, Debbie, said she knew her son was destined for greater things
when he became the youngest to win the UCF Egg Drop competition at 8 years old.
The second-grader bundled his egg with layers of foam padding to keep it from
breaking in the drop.
"Chris has always been innovative but the funny part is we could never explain
any of his projects," said Debbie Komanski is executive director of the
Albin
Polasek
Museum
and Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park. Her husband, Walter Komanski, is an Orange
County Circuit Court judge.
Chris Komanski is no science nerd.
In 2003, he became the first Lake Highland student to be named to the Florida
Academic Athletes All-Star team. He was All Around Athlete of the Year his
senior year and competed in cross country, soccer, football and baseball during
high school.
Komanski was also selected to attend the 2002 Florida American Legion Boys
State.
In his spare time, he managed to earn the 2003 Fellowship of Christian Athletes
Award for the most community service hours. Komanski devoted more than 450 hours
mentoring middle school science students in a program he co-founded and also
volunteered with the Down Syndrome Foundation and the Special Olympics.
"It is extremely unusual to be able to accomplish what he has," said Jim Moharam,
professor of optics and electrical engineering at UCF. "He's very self motivated
and just amazing for someone of that age."
Komanski came to Moharam's lab in the seventh grade looking for advice on a
science fair project. The professor said he has never had such a young student
ask such engaging questions.
Komanski can reapply for the Ying scholarship each year he is in school.
Komanski was offered internships this summer to do research with the National
Institute of Health in
Bethesda,
Md.,
and with the Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering staff. Instead, he took a
summer internship for the second year at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire
Control Research and Development Department so he could live at home and
continue his urinalysis research.
"I'd like to be an entrepreneur someday," Komanski said. He plans to attend
graduate school, and then get his doctorate.
"I hope to create innovative medical devices because I want to help people."