17-year-old Mohammed Suhail Chinya Salimpasha from Karnataka invented a method of diagnosing pre-symptomatic Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM), which is a form of malnutrition arising from lack of dietary protein just using a piece of paper.
He says, "Till date, a blood test has been the only way to identify malnutrition. For a country like India, this method leads to financial and environmental burden, as the medical waste is not disposed of properly. But I use a paper to conduct these tests. A child's saliva sample is taken on the paper. If the colour of the paper changes, it is a sign of lack of proteins and nutrients. For this, I have developed a mobile app as well. One can scan this paper through the app. It shows the percentage of protein or the level of malnutrition. This was a very important part of my research as I identified this biomarker in saliva and correlated it to the level of protein in one's blood. The method costs Rs 2 and even the results just take two minutes. It is a breakthrough in terms of cost and results in zero biomedical waste."
He was Awarded Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar by President Ramnath Kovind in January 2019.
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