An 18-year-old student from Mexico has designed a bra that can help in the early detection of breast cancer and has won top prize at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA).

Julian Rios Cantu said he was inspired inspired by his mother’s battle with the disease which eventually lead to both her breasts being removed.

The bra, otherwise known as EVA, was developed with three friends through his company Higia Technologies, and was created primarily for women with genetic predisposition to cancer.

So how does it work?

Equipped with around 200 biosensors, the bra maps the surface of the breast and is able to monitor changes in temperature, shape and weight.

“Why a bra? Because it allows us to have the breasts in the same position and it doesn’t have to be worn more than one hour a week,” he said in an interview with El Universal.

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Rios Cantu says that the biosensors are able to determine thermal conductivity by specific zones. In some instances, heat can indicate more blood flow, which therefore indicates that those blood vessels are ‘feeding’ on something – typically some type of cancer.

“EVA is a network of biosensors that covers the woman’s breast, takes the temperature data, analyses them, and sends the information to an application or any computer,” Rios Cantu said, as quoted by Infobae.

“As soon as there is a malformation in the breast or a tumour, there is an over-vascularization; so to more [flow of] blood, the higher the temperature,” he added.