From treating heart disease to creating inventions that could revolutionize the medical industry, one young scientist is a step ahead in both scientific prowess and course studies.
Rifa Gowani, 16, is completing her last two years of high school at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) at the University of North Texas (UNT) and has been involved in some very significant projects.
She has worked on a thermoelectric generator for medical devices and is involved in research for treating heart disease.
“You just have to be passionate about something truly,” Gowani said in an interview with The Dallas Express over Zoom about her work ethic and success. “I know that I’m very passionate about research and medicine as a whole. So that’s what I always strive to do. I feel like the key to success is always just dedication and just if you have a passion for it.”
Gowani is working on research with her teacher, Dr. Douglas Root, to find better ways of using genetic engineering to combat heart disease.
The research is personal for Gowani because multiple people in her family have developed the disease.
“It’s kind of a long, long lasting family thing, and I just want to kind of create an impact in the scientific field,” Gowani said. “And if any inch of me making an impact can further on advancements in cardiology would be amazing.”
Heart disease and other cardiovascular issues are becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States, where obesity rates have been steadily climbing over the last decade. In Texas, where heart disease is the number one cause of death according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 38% of the adult population is obese.
Root explained in a phone call with The Dallas Express that he and Gowani have been working on a treatment for heart disease by designing peptides that can interact with muscle proteins, affecting their ability to pump blood.
Gowani has specifically been researching designing peptides that work with mRNA so that it can be delivered to a living being.
Root said the project is still in the design phase and has not been tested yet. He explained the significance of the project is that certain drugs work better than others for enhancing or reducing muscle contraction.
“That can be very important … because sometimes [current] drugs do not react completely in [a] way that is beneficial to a given patient,” Root said.
Root, an associate professor at UNT, said he has been teaching students for more than 20 years and that it is very interesting to interact with students of various ages. He said TAMS really helps students get a head start with applying to prestigious colleges.
“I would say they’re all usually very talented students,” Root said, calling Gowani “promising.”
TAMS describes itself as “the nation’s first early college entrance residential program for gifted high school aged students,” according to its website. Students who are admitted “tackle complex, real-world problems, working on solutions and breakthroughs in fields ranging from healthcare to energy consumption.”
After volunteering at a hospital and seeing the big batteries used by electric wheelchairs, Gowani started developing a thermoelectric generator for medical devices.
She said she did research into different types of generators but ruled out solar because she said it was too expensive and would not work all the time.
“So then I ended up with thermoelectric generators, which use a heat flux so the heat temperature between your body heat and the outside temperature will then directly produce electricity, removing the need for a battery at all,” Gowani said. “So then, I hooked it up to an IV infusion pump and it worked very [well].”
Gowani, who has won first place at the Fort Worth Regional Science Fair for Medicine and Health and the Yale Science and Engineering Award, said being a physician is something that is very important to her.
“My family lured me into that field,” she said. “Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a physician. And that is going to be my end goal. But I do also want to pursue research while I’m doing that as well.”
