![\"Michaela\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/924f1a37672b2df920dace95549fa2c2d71aa006.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cFor that, it only achieved 70.6 per cent accuracy, which is somewhat high, but definitely not ready for clinical deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaela\u2019s model also yielded a finding that was supported by recently emerging research.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy AI model detected the gene transferrin [essential for moving iron through the body] as having quite a potentially significant impact when it comes to breast cancer development and gene dysregulation involved in breast cancer. I found all this secondary research that validated the results yielded by my model.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it. I was like, \u2018Oh my god, oh my god.\u2019 I woke my Mum up!\u201d<\/p>\n
The project took nine months. \u201cI call it my little baby,\u201d Michaela said.<\/p>\n
Michaela has a lifelong passion for STEM. When she was eight, she moved a boys\u2019 periodic table T-shirt to the girls\u2019 section of a clothing store because, as she said, \u201cWhy are we entrenching these gender biases?\u201d<\/p>\n
In primary school she joined a lunchtime coding club, organised by a female teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of saw myself in her \u2026 It really inspired me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In high school, she realised she could combine her software skills with her love of science, particularly biology. She was partly inspired by her father, who has had four different cancers over his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just confused because we\u2019ve got all this science and theory behind cancers \u2026 but why are we so stagnant with our treatment options?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Michaela\u2019s father is doing well now, but he teases her about her focus on breast cancer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michaela\u2019s award-winning research project. Credit: Edwina Pickles<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Dad says to me, Michaela, out of all the cancers I have had, of course you choose the one I don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n
She shrugs. \u201cIt was the data set that was most easily accessible,\u201d but she was also motivated after watching her friend\u2019s mother wait months to find out what type of breast cancer she had, and what treatment would be best.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBy the time you actually receive the information as to whether or not radiation or chemo will be best for her, the cancer\u2019s already progressed, and it\u2019s so costly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless we can find a way to deliver these treatments in a way that can ensure equitable access globally, we are not going to see the advances in healthcare and in our human health as a society that we strive for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaela will find out her HSC results next week and hopes to study a bachelor of engineering in bioinformatics at UNSW.<\/p>\n