Teen Inventor Designs Noninvasive Allergy Screen Using Genetics and Machine Learning

One of Ayush Alag's earliest memories is of biting into a chocolate bar with cashew nuts and suddenly feeling his throat get itchy. For most of his childhood, the Santa Clara, California resident avoided eating anything with cashews and other nuts that caused irritation as best as he could. By his middle school years, he and his parents wanted to know for sure: did he have a serious food allergy, like 32 million other Americans, or was it just a food sensitivity? They sought the help of an allergist, Joseph Hernandez of Stanford University. Hernandez told them that the difference between an allergy and a food sensitivity is huge.