Alec Graham: Teen Genius

Palisadian Alec Graham is well on his way to changing the world – or at least inventing a new one.

Only a high school senior, Graham has already made significant contributions to the world of science and has several big business ideas brewing.

Raised in the Alphabet Streets, 18-year-old Graham was 12 when he invented the gadget that would be his first patent.

When he saw his dad struggling with a knot in the drawstrings of his pajamas and watched his mother painfully try to untangle her jewelry, he created a handheld device that vibrates knots loose using newton’s third law of motion, dictating that for every force there is an equal and opposite force. Using that principle, the device can loosen knots until they are untied or until it is easy enough for anyone to untie them.

“It’s actually pretty simple. I just used a few things from around the house and implemented some basic physics principals,” Graham said of the device that can run on a single battery.

Not thinking too much of his new gadget at the time, Graham was browsing through his father’s legal journals years later when he realized a design patent could protect his idea.

After working with a lawyer, Graham became the legal owner the No-Knot patent at 17.

Inspired to create solutions to problems he sees around him every day, Graham’s second patent goes well beyond untangling pajama pants and has the potential to make a significant impact in cancer treatment.

“The problem with a number of cancer treatments is that when trying to kill the cancerous cells, the healthy cells fall under collateral damage,” Graham said. “I researched possible chemicals that wouldn’t kill cells, but stop their growth indefinitely.”

While he admits the treatment would require more research before he is able to take it to market, preliminary research shows it could have a number of side effects – positive ones.

Graham’s anti-cancer cure patent is a system comprised of micro-beads containing highly concentrated cannabinidiol designed to release over time via sustained release dissolution of a CBD compound which specifically targets the IA2 gene that governs cancer cell growth, and disables it.

In layman’s terms, the cancerous cells would cease to grow, allowing for the body to naturally deal with the cancerous cells and the immune system to take over in a greater capacity. The cancer-halting treatment would be slowly released as the micro-beads dissolved into the area affected by cancerous cells during tumor extraction surgery.

“As trivial as it sounds, I’ve always been into Legos and that’s really how I become interested in solving problems. After building the sets, I would try to improve them by adding on and changing them. I’d go a little Frankenstein and see what I could create,” he said. “I’m intrigued by opportunities that allow me to be creative while simultaneously implementing aspects of science and engineering.”

Hoping to tap into this intrigue and maximize his potential, Graham plans to study two types of engineering as well as entrepreneurial business when he begins college in the fall.

While Graham is likely to have a long list of job offers by time he tosses his tasseled cap into the air, he has already begun to create a company of his own.

“The idea is to eventually develop branches of scientific research in numerous fields. By combining engineering and creative design, I hope to create new items and goods and a business model for the overall betterment of society,” Graham said.

“Essentially, it’s a think tank plus applied science that allows for a broad range of solutions for a diversity of ideas. It’s the idea that ‘everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler,’ to quote Einstein.”

Einstein also said that only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile – and Graham has that covered too.

A soccer player himself, Graham coaches one of the teams in the AYSO Very Important Players Program for children with special needs.

“It’s very rewarding to see the joy on their faces when they score a goal. That’s what makes it worth it,” he said.

How does Graham find time to patent groundbreaking discoveries in cancer treatment between soccer, Latin Club and AP exams? He uses study breaks between homework to brainstorm and research.

“I spend all of my free time working on new ideas. A minute here, a minute there; I’m constantly jotting down new ideas in my iPhone. I manage,” he said.