Indian-American Teen Indrani Das Wins 2017 Regeneron Science Talent Search

Five of the top ten winners in prestigious high school science and mathematics competition are of Indian origin

By Geeta Goindi

Washington, DC, March 15, 2017 – An Indian-American high school student, Indrani Das, 17, of New Jersey, has won the 2017 Regeneron Science Talent Search bagging the top award of 250,000 dollars.

Indrani, a student at the Academy for Medical Science Technology in Hackensack, won the prestigious high school science and mathematics competition for her new approach to neurological damage. The second place award of 175,000 dollars was conferred on Aaron Yeiser, 18, a senior at Perkiomen Valley High School, Pennsylvania, for his development of a new mathematical method to solve partial differential equations on complicated geometries. In third place was another Indian-American student, Arjun Srinivasan Ramani, 18, a senior at West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School, Indiana, awarded $150,000 for blending the mathematical field of graph theory with computer programming to answer questions about networks.

Indrani, Aaron and Arjun were among 40 finalists who over the course of a week, March 9 to15, presented their innovative research projects to eminent judges, displayed their work to the public, met with renowned scientists, and competed for 1.8 million dollars in awards. Winners of the top ten awards, ranging from 40,000 to 250,000 dollars, were announced Tuesday evening at a formal awards gala in the National Building Museum.

Among the other Indian-American winners were: Archana Verma, 17, in fifth place, awarded 90,000 dollars; Prathik Naidu, 18, in seventh place, awarded 70,000 dollars; and Vrinda Madan, 17, in ninth place with an award of 50,000 dollars.

It’s remarkable that of the top ten winners in this year’s competition, five or 50 percent are of Indian-origin. Furthermore, of over 1,700 applicants for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS), 300 semi-finalists were selected each receiving 2,000 dollars in addition to their school getting a grant of an equivalent amount. Of these ‘Top Scholars’, 40 finalists were announced January 24 of which 14 or 35 percent were Indian-American students. These are mind-boggling statistics given that Indian-Americans comprise a mere one percent of the US population.

Through science, the finalists have attempted to tackle compelling issues such as fighting cancer and other life-threatening diseases, combating climate change and protecting the environment, among others.

About her project, Indrani told us the purpose is to treat traumatic brain injury which could lead to a stroke, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases. “In all these injuries, there is an insult to brain tissue which on the one hand causes neurons to die, but on the other hand causes supporting cells to calm these neurons”, she explained. “In my model, I found one of the problems which is contributing to the disease condition and then I also helped to treat it”.

Indrani was optimistic that her work provides “a big, strong possibility of future research on how we can repair brain injury”.

She informed us that she has been working on her project for three and a half years which was longer than most other finalists we spoke to. “These diseases are so prevalent, so debilitating, it really matters to me that I continue to work on this”, she said.

Arjun Ramani stated that his project is about network analysis, noting that the most common network is social media giant Facebook. “I basically developed an algorithm that can more efficiently generate a random network to compare it to the real world data”, he said.

How will this benefit society, we asked. Arjun replied that finding abnormal patterns could identify potential problems with our bodies including cancer, neurological disorders, among others. Noting that data is getting very big, he emphasized the need for more efficient patterns so diseases can be identified more quickly, and treatments found expeditiously.

About the competition, Arjun said, “I had a good time interacting with my peers. I’ve learnt a lot talking to them. It’s been a great learning experience for me”.

Archana, a student of Jericho Senior High School in New York, informed us that her project focuses on the chemistry behind energy efficiency. Among other factors, it examines what happens when light gets absorbed, and where does that energy go. About the potential benefit she mentioned integrating the solar cells into windows for a better solar energy source.

Prathik, a senior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, developed a number of algorithms to identify new therapeutic targets for treating cervical cancer, leukemia and breast cancer.

“I developed the software that is able to analyze new aspects of cancer genome”, he told us. “It deepens our understanding of how cancer forms, and opens the doors to a new class of cancer therapeutics that can target cancer from a genetic level as opposed to chemotherapy”.

Prathik has been working on his project for nine months now and has started piloting his tool with the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Vrinda, a student of Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, Florida, discovered that current drugs are losing their resistance when it comes to malaria, a disease caused by a plasmodium parasite, transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes.

“We need new and novel drugs that can be used to combat the parasite that causes malaria. That is what I am trying to find in my project”, Vrinda told us. “I stopped the parasite growth at the latest stage possible which is really unique because currently no drugs on the market do that”, she said, adding, “One of the compounds I found does that”.

Vrinda admitted her project has limited applicability in the US where malaria is very rare, “but in developing countries like India, Africa and those in South America, it will be a huge step towards eradication”, she said.

Congratulating the top winners, Dr. George Yancopoulos, Founding Scientist, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron, said, “My experience as a Science Talent Search winner led me to embark on a career in science, and I hope it will inspire these exceptional young scientists to become the next generation of innovators that will improve the world and solve some of our most pressing challenges as a society”.

Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science and the Public, emphasized, “Now more than ever, we need our nation’s best and brightest young minds to pursue their interest in science and use their talents to solve our world’s most intractable problems”. Applauding all the finalists, she noted, they are “poised to become our future scientific leaders”.

The STS, a program of Society for Science and the Public since 1942, was formerly known as the Intel Science Talent Search (1998-2016) and earlier was supported by Westinghouse (1942-1997). Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading biotechnology company headquartered in New York, took on the STS from this year when it will be giving over 3.1 million in awards. Founded by STS alumni and a true champion of science, the company has committed 100 million dollars in funding over the next decade.

Throughout its 75 years, the criteria for selection in the STS has remained the same: students are chosen from across the nation for their scientific prowess and overall potential to become future leaders of the scientific community. Alumni of the program have made extraordinary contributions to science and are recipients of over 100 of the world’s most prized honors in science and maths including the Nobel Prize and the National Medal of Science.

The other Indian-American finalists of the Regeneron STS were: Sambuddha Chattopadhyay and Rohan Dalvi, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland; Krithika Iyer, Plano East Senior High School, Plano, Texas; Vineet Edupuganti, Oregon Episcopal School, Portland, Oregon; Apoorv Khandelwal, Tesla STEM High School, Redmond, Washington; Evani Radiya-Dixit, Manan Ajay Shah and Arjun Subramaniam, The Harker School, San Jose, California; and Jessika Baral, Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, California.

An online link:
https://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2017/03/17/nj-teen-indrani-das-who-won-regeneron-prize-says-future-of-brain-research-is-bright423632/