Mercy Asiedu

After witnessing healthcare inequalities in her home country of Ghana and parts of the U.S., Mercy Asiedu dedicated herself to solving women’s health issues. While researching for her PhD, she decided to focus on cervical cancer – a disease that is highly preventable with early screening. 

Her work culminated in the invention of Callascope, an affordable and user-friendly device that captures cervix images for diagnostic purposes. Paired with her algorithm — which uses machine learning to determine whether images are pre-cancerous or not — the Callascope has the potential to change how cervix cancer screening is done across the world and overcome healthcare disparities for women in the field of cervical cancer. In 2019, she received a Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for her invention.

Asiedu received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and was a Schmidt Science Post-doctoral fellow, a program that aims to develop science leaders. She founded the Duke African Graduate and Professional Students Association, has volunteered to teach STEM to elementary-school-aged girls, and mentors recipients of the Zawadi Africa Education Fund.