Jana Kerbaj Puts the Cornerstone for Early Diagnosis of Kidney Damage Project
Fascinated by science, computer and communications engineering major Jana Kerbaj from Lebanon keeps on delving into science research and discoveries while observing its magic and its vast use in all fields of human life. While doing her research routine, Kerbaj found an opportunity to join the Tomorrow’s Leaders College-to-Work Pipeline (TLP), a project initiated by MEPI aiming at increasing the demand-driven entrepreneurial skills of TL students that lead to startup development. Kerbaj did not think twice to apply for this « golden opportunity » -as she mentioned- and chose to put her knowledge and skills for the TLP’s project: Early Diagnosis of Kidney Damage: a project featuring a mechanism for the development of a highly sensitive urine-on-chip test to diagnose kidney damage. Kerbaj worked passionately on this project because of the kidney problems her father suffered from for a long time. She found this project as an opportunity to try to mitigate and manage chronic kidney disease.
Through the TLP program and its multilayered components, Kerbaj learned the basics of startup concepts, and the methodology of evidence-based entrepreneurship; attended research and prototyping classes that enabled her to overcome technology barriers. All those phases helped Kerbaj tailor a concise and comprehensive project that she pitched to key professionals in multidisciplinary domains during the TLP VIP+ Industry-Academia workshop. As a result, the project was invited to the Inas’ Academic Awards Foundation (IAAF) and it won the LAU VIP Runner-Up Innovation Award.
Kerbaj attributes this important milestone she reached to the TLP project that not only empowered her to launch a potentially successful start-up model but also accentuated key soft skills like teamwork, resourcefulness, flexibility, adaptability, and creativity.