Meet Alumni:

Sydney Zhang

2021 3M Young Scientist Challenge Finalist
2026 Alumni Grant Recipient

Sydney was awarded the Continuation of 3M Young Scientist Challenge Project Grant for his work on “EyeScore,” an artificial intelligence–assisted smartphone app designed to enable early, accessible diagnosis of dry eye disease and improve eye care outcomes for millions of people worldwide.

About their Project

Dry eye disease (DED) is the most common eye disease, with more than 16 million patients in the US and over 128 million patients worldwide. The limitation of proper medical access makes DED significantly underdiagnosed and inefficiently treated. In recent years, the widespread use of electronic devices and contact lenses, plus the COVID-19 pandemic, has significantly increased the prevalence of DED. It is estimated that the prevalence of DED will be up to 50% of the global population in the coming years. Due to increased medical costs and lowered productivity of DED patients, the global economic impact of DED amounts to more than 55 billion dollars per year. Thus, DED has become a major health challenge in our society with significant unmet medical needs.

The current diagnosis of DED is based on a combination of signs and symptoms. The lab tests require an expensive visit to an eye doctor’s office, which often causes significant delays. Since early diagnosis is the key to preventing DED progression, an easy-to-use, in-home diagnostic method is essential to fill the gap, providing objective results to eye doctors and DED patients at the early stage of DED.

Since 7th grade, my goal for science projects has been to develop a low-cost, point-of-care diagnostic assay for the early detection of DED.

What was the inspiration behind your project?

When I was eight years old, I started experiencing blurry vision and couldn’t see the words on the whiteboard in my class. That was when I had to wear eyeglasses, and I found that more than 30% of my classmates wore either glasses or contact lenses. For the first time, I realized that vision is very important in daily life.

Both my mother and grandmother were diagnosed with dry eye disease. At the senior house where my grandparents live, I notice many seniors experiencing dry eye symptoms. I want to help seniors and low-income families with limited access to eye care services.

This was when I learned that dry eye disease is the most common eye disease, with more than 16 million patients in the US and more than 800 million patients worldwide. Thus, dry eye disease has become a major health challenge in our society. Because many factors contribute to its onset and there are no effective treatments, I chose to develop an early-detection kit for dry eye in my garage lab.

Becoming a 3M YSC finalist is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I still remember the summer of 2021, when I worked tirelessly on my 3M YSC project. With the help of my 3M mentor, Dr. Jonah Shaver, I overcame many challenges and developed a low-cost, point-of-care assay for the early detection of biomarkers in tear samples from patients with dry eye. The results from my 3M project and my EyeScore app have led to two first-author peer-reviewed publications. This unforgettable experience inspires me, a budding young scientist, to pursue an undergraduate education today at the forefront of regenerative stem cell research at Stanford University.