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.
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Good for the kids, but the idea of using mosquitoes to intentionally inject people with a biologically active material sounds like it could be re-purposed for some pretty horrible effects.
Good for the kids, but the idea of using mosquitoes to intentionally inject people with a biologically active material sounds like it could be re-purposed for some pretty horrible effects.