Elena Niculescu

Best Woman Inventor in 2010 The Romanian Raluca-Ioana van Staden won this year the Golden Trophy of the World Intellectual Property for the Best Woman Inventor at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva. She invented a sensor that determines the existence of cancer in humans at the molecular level. Astonishing is that the sensor detects cancer in less than six minutes and the estimated cost would be less than one euro. Raluca-Ioana van Staden said that lack of funding has allowed the approach of only four types of cancer, because bio-markers are very expensive and all the tests to be made require a fairly large quantity of bio-markers. The device produced on large-scale would be very easy to use, as easy as a glucometer. „We’ve already done experiments on various types of cancer, as ovarian, breast, gastrointestinal and prostate cancer, as well with general markers of cancer. We make a determination before the disease is triggered in the body”, she said in an interview. The device can be reused, there is no danger of contamination from one person to another, and last more than six months. Raluca-Ioana van Staden (b. Ştefan) was born on July 16, 1969, in the city of Câmpulung, Argeş County. She obtained the baccalaureate in his hometown, then she followed the college. She has a doctorate in chemistry and a masterate in music composition. Raluca-Ioana is married with the scientist Jacobus Frederick van Staden, both working in the sole laboratory for analytical technology of processes in Romania, PATLAB, located in the Institute of Electro-Chemistry and Condensed Matter in Timişoara.