This Biotechnology Company Run By High Schoolers Is Developing A “Flying Syringe”
Fast Company
Editor's Note: On March 7, 2013, the following message was received correcting numerous errors in the original article.
To the Editor:
My name is Maria Dvorozniak, and I am the Project Coordinator at the Bergen County Technical Schools District in New Jersey. I am writing to inform you of errors and misleading information contained in the story “The Biotech Company Run by High Schoolers Is Developing a "Flying Syringe".
First and foremost, there is no company called Provita Pharmaceuticals. Provita is a “virtual” company, a school project established in 2009 as a real world, hands-on experience for students interested in scientific research and marketing. Joshua Meier, a student involved in the Provita project, enacts the role of CEO.
The Bergen County Academies, where the Provita project is based, is part of the Bergen County Technical Schools District. Neither the District nor the school receives funding from the Gates Foundation for any of its or its students’ scientific research projects, and no formal request for funding for the Provita project has been made by the District.
Our school district has been fortunate in establishing a relationship with the FDA, whose representatives have presented information to students on our campuses involved in scientific and medical research. They recently visited the BCA campus to give students an overview of the regulations involved in testing and marketing products that result from scientific research. It was in this context that students involved in the Provita project were able to present their research on the Flying Syringe concept.
As a student of the Academies, Joshua Meier has access to research labs during school hours, and may access the labs after hours, with permission, under the supervision of an instructor. This policy applies to all students in the District. The labs are not at this particular student’s disposal, or reserved in any way for the students working on the Provita project.
Only students currently enrolled in the Bergen County Academies are working on the Provita project. While we encourage students to return after graduation to offer their expertise and advice, the project itself is for the students of the Academies only.
The school district offers students many research opportunities, of which Provita is one. Research at the Academies is an important component of the curriculum; projects are not funded as separate entities. I think a reader of this article could construe that Provita receives funding above and beyond what is allotted in the overall school budget for science research.
We are justly proud of our students’ accomplishments. The school’s facilities, which include a Stem Cell and Microscopy lab, afford students opportunities to perform scientific research usually seen only at a research university level. In the past few years, three of our students have been honored as Intel finalists. While we are happy to have the Provita project receive recognition, it is important to us that the description of the project be as accurate as possible.
I would appreciate if you could update the online article to reflect these corrections, and thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Maria Dvorozniak
Project Coordinator
Bergen County Technical Schools and Special Services
327 East Ridgewood Avenue
Paramus, New Jersey 07652
_______________________________________________________
Original article is posted below for reference.
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 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.
Meier in the school’s stem cell lab.
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."
Ariel Schwartz is a Senior Editor at Co.Exist. She has contributed to SF Weekly, Popular Science, Inhabitat, Greenbiz, NBC Bay Area, GOOD Magazine and more.
