A Mexican doctor has created a "smart" scalpel in Brussels that detects cancerous tumors

David Oliva Uribe has gained international recognition for creating a "smart" scalpel detecting tumor tissue in the patient's body.

He worked for more than a decade to be recognized not only in Mexico but also in Brussels.

After a brilliant engineering career, he decided to leave everything to devote himself fully to research. With this, he created a smart scalpel that removes brain tumors with great precision without harming the patient.

David was born in Mexico City in 1975 and has lived in this city for 30 years. Since 2005, he lives in Europe and is recognized as a pioneer of neurosurgery..

He got his first job while he was studying in high school, when he asked his uncle to let him enter the lab. where he made gels and creams, in an almost artisbad process.

In the following years, he devoted himself to continuing his studies untiland graduate in electronics engineering at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and He specializes in manufacturing systems.

He asked to join a research group from Leibniz University of Hanover, Germany.

David says that when he moved to Germany he did not speak a word of that language. "The cultural and linguistic differences are very strong, it ensures that it was difficult for Europeans to understand that the Mexican is a professional, they do not know that there are good universities in Mexico, they did not know not that we had Nobel Prizes, "he said.

The team was only composed of Germans. "[Al principio] It was David, the one who comes from an unsafe country with drug trafficking "After a while, he was appointed director of a group of four people and a year later he had 12 investigators under his charge. "Then people no longer saw my nationality, I saw my abilities," he said.

David describes himself as a curious person, whose philosophy is based on a principle: The problems solved by engineering are not just about machines or processes, but about society. "I like to travel, talk with people, learn from others, help young people find a way to reach their professional goals."

Since 2009, David has been promoting cooperation between highly qualified professionals from Mexico and Europe via the EUMex-Connect Agency. He is convinced that Mexicans have everything to succeed abroad through their creativity.

"[En México] there are many obstacles and it makes them think outside the box; they have to improvise. Thus, they generate innovative solutions that compensate for the lack of resources ".

He said that although Mexicans are distinguished by their creativity, there is still a lack of structure to help them achieve their goals. "That's why it's important for young people to get a mentor to guide them in achieving their dreams," he said.

The EUMex-Connect agency, founded by David, joins Mexican scientists with research teams to improve their projects and bring benefits to their places of origin.

"If your community needs technology in agriculture and this person will start a PhD in Agricultural Technology [en el extranjero]he can go back to Mexico and apply everything he has learned, "he said.

David's work is an example. In Germany, he obtained his PhD in mechanics from the University of Hanover, where He led a research team and earned a second Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Every year, they occur around 260,000 new cases of brain and nervous system cancer. This makes it the twenty-second most common cancer and ranks 12th among the deadliest, according to the report. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide.

In addition, according to the British badociation The Brain Tumor Charity, nine out of ten people who have undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor have had sequels on their mental health.

Given that, "We made a smart scalpel that could identify the boundaries between tumor and brain, so that you can achieve 100% elimination while reducing to zero the probability of cutting something healthy. "

David and his team hope that eventually the device will be acquired by a transnational medical industry that will be responsible for bringing it to Mexico.

"But it will take another three or four years," he says.
"The idea is that all Latin American hospitals can acquire it. It is a low cost technology, a person can not buy our device, but hospitals will not have to invest a lot of money. "

However, he specifies that this implies a greater amount of evidence, because the technology must be extremely precise.

For David, a scientist or inventor is not the one who made the least mistakes, but the one who learned the most. For his work in medical technology, he received the award for Best Visiting Scholar at the University of Hannover in 2009.

Young people are encouraged to take advantage of available technologies to find a mentor to guide them.

"Social networks bring us closer to those who have already followed the path we want to follow, address one and explain your idea and the path you want to take. Do not reveal much at first, because there is also cannibalism of ideas, "he suggests.

And although he has struggled to achieve this, he is now helping young Mexicans to reach the places they have always dreamed of.