Fountain Valley teen develops idea for cancer-detecting toothbrush

After losing his grandmother to cancer in 2020, one Fountain Valley teen became determined to do what he could to help anyone else from experiencing that pain — by detecting it first through a unique but everyday means.

James Phuc Nguyen, 18, immigrated to the United States from Vietnam with his mother in the summer of 2019. Just as he began to settle in, he and his family learned his grandmother, still in their homeland, had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor. With his family in dire financial straits and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, neither Nguyen nor his mother were able to return to Vietnam as it banned all foreign visitors by April 2020 to prevent the spread of the disease.

“It was an emotionally difficult time,” Nguyen said. “I couldn’t do anything but witness her slowly die. [My grandmother] means a lot to me because she basically made up who I am today. All the food she made when I was a kid, the time she spent playing with me, words of advice, all her stories that she told me — all those things that she did that contributed to my childhood.”

“So, she meant a lot to me and when she got diagnosed with this deadly disease at a very late stage, it was very depressing and frustrating. You’re about to lose somebody, something that you don’t want to lose and ... the most soul-crushing thing is that you lose them in such an unfortunate way.”

When his grandmother died, Nguyen threw himself into research.

Nguyen, a sophomore at Westminster’s La Quinta High School at the time of her death, said he started looking into cancer research in an effort to try and understand the disease, how it had taken his grandmother and what therapies and remedies already existed to treat it. It was in his reading and writing that he learned of microfluidic chips, which can process or visualize tiny amounts of liquid.

James Nguyen immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam in the summer of 2019. His grandmother was diagnosed with brain cancer just a few months later.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

“It basically separates different types of cells in a liquid, Nguyen said, adding that the chip is essentially a filter. “How I made the connection between putting that chip into a toothbrush is a very fun story,” Nguyen said.

The “ah-ha” moment came after a visit with family members. Nguyen had been brushing his teeth, which he does three times a day, when his cousin teased him about how often Nguyen practiced that bit of oral hygiene.

One image that kept circling Nguyen’s mind after that visit was his aunt putting toothpaste on a toothbrush and handing it to that cousin, who promptly ignored it in favor of playing video games. Nguyen said he didn’t know why the image didn’t leave his head, but he kept thinking about it until the two ideas clicked together.

“I realized that some of our most brilliant ideas come when we’re walking our dog, taking a shower, washing the dishes,” Nguyen said, laughing. “When we’re not forcing it, [the ideas] just come.”

Nguyen believed it was important to make cancer cell detection convenient for the average person. Since most people brush their teeth on a daily basis, putting a microfluidic chip inside a toothbrush seemed like a reasonable idea. The chip could theoretically be programmed to separate out cancerous cells from saliva.

Nguyen has been working with a biomedical start-up in Southern California for the last two years on the idea and has been recognized by Rise, a philanthropic initiative that aims to identify promising young minds working to solve the world’s most difficult problems. Nguyen is part of the 2022 cohort for Rise Global Winners.

While his ideas are still theoretical, Nguyen said he feels grateful and lucky to be recognized. He said he knew that hard work would lead to success, but that he felt the “journey went the way it did” because he was able to receive help from his friends, mentors, Google and his mother, who he said sacrificed a lot for him to be successful.

“I would not have been as strong of a person as I am today [without such support]. The grit is harnessed through hard times ... so I’m grateful for everything I’ve received — the feedback, the advice — but I’m also grateful for the pain along the journey,” Nguyen said.

As for what lies ahead, Nguyen said he planned on going to college, though things may change if the technology on his idea comes through. He said he already has ideas for other inventions in nonmedical fields.

James Nguyen is a senior at La Quinta High School and is developing a cancer-detecting toothbrush.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.