Record-holding doctor brings youthful vigor to research, treatment

AUGUSTA - Doctor Balamurali Ambati&#39;s patients are routinely shocked when they learn his age. <br> <br> So were professors at the Medical College of Georgia, where the 25-year-old Ambati recently joined the faculty. <br> <br> Ambati, who graduated from medical school at age 17, is in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest person ever to become a doctor. Now he&#39;s looking forward to researching eye diseases while helping his patients. <br> <br> Now, Ambati has turned out to be just the type of recruit the Medical College&#39;s chairman, Julian Nussbaum, was hunting: a doctor who combines clinical skills with a love of teaching and a good mind for research. <br> <br> Nussbaum didn&#39;t learn of Ambati&#39;s age until well into the recruiting process. After all, Ambati&#39;s achievements are more telling of a doctor with years of experience. <br> <br> Ambati published a paper last month in the medical journal the Archives of Ophthalmology on the use of the compound angiostatin to curb the abnormal growth of blood vessels in the corneas of mice. Ambati said the abnormal growth is also a key component of eye diseases such as macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness. <br> <br> Ambati said he was like any other boy when he moved to New York with his family from India when he was three, starting school at age six. <br> <br> Ambati said, ``And then what happened is I did two years of school every year.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Attending medical school became a goal for Ambati when he saw a news story on a student in Israel who graduated at age 18. He attended college at age 12, breezing through it in two years; he topped the previous record three years later. <br> <br> Ambati still experienced some of the normal parts of growing up, such as playing basketball or table tennis, because he had friends his own age. <br> <br> He said, ``I don&#39;t think I really missed out on much. I didn&#39;t go to the prom. I didn&#39;t drink during college. Aside from those frivolous things, I don&#39;t think I had much difference from everyone else.&#39;

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