Teen Innovator Creates Blood Test Detecting Early Pancreatic Cancer with 87% Accuracy
Seventeen-year-old Audrey Zheng of Pennsylvania has engineered a blood-based assay that identified pancreatic cancer in 87% of cases and correctly excluded it in 87.5% of healthy samples.
A high-school senior from Wexford, Pennsylvania, Audrey Zheng has devised a novel bioengineering technique that isolates cancer-related extracellular vesicles using magnetic beads tagged with three antibodies. The captured vesicles are then screened for KRAS mutations, a hallmark of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, providing a dual verification system. In testing, the assay correctly identified 87% of patients with the disease and correctly ruled it out in 87.5% of those without it.
The breakthrough addresses the difficulty of detecting early-stage pancreatic cancer, which often lacks symptoms until it spreads. Zheng’s project secured her a place among the national finalists of the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search, run by the Society for Science. She also leads community initiatives, founding The Food Lounge Pittsburgh and pursuing a portable sensor for food allergens.
Why it matters
Early detection could dramatically improve survival rates for a cancer that is usually diagnosed too late.
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