An Indian American teen has won the top award, worth $250,000, in the oldest and most prestigious science and math competition in the U.S., for her research on preventing death of neurons due to brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases. \u2013 @Siliconeer #Siliconeer #SiliconValley #Tech #IndianAmerican #Regeneron #ScienceTalentSearchAwards<\/p>\n
Indrani Das, a 17-year-old resident of New Jersey, and four other Indian-origin students were among the top ten finalists to be honored at the annual Regeneron Science Talent Search Awards Gala for their research projects demonstrating exceptional scientific and mathematical ability.<\/p>\n
Forty finalists took home more than $1.8 million in awards.<\/p>\n
A contributor to neuron death is astrogliosis, a condition that occurs when cells called astrocytes react to injury by growing, dividing and reducing their uptake of glutamate, which in excess is toxic to neurons.<\/p>\n
In a laboratory model, Das showed that exosomes isolated from astrocytes transfected with microRNA-124a both improved astrocyte uptake of glutamate and increased neuron survival.<\/p>\n
Arjun Ramani, an 18-year-old student from Indiana won the third place honors worth $150,000 for blending the mathematical field of graph theory with computer programming to answer questions about networks.<\/p>\n
Typically, these questions require statistical comparisons to hundreds or thousands of random graphs, a process that can take a relatively long time.<\/p>\n
He developed an algorithm that greatly accelerated the process by reducing the time required to generate these graphs.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations to the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2017 top winners,\u201d said George D. Yancopoulos, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 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,\u201d said Yancopoulos.<\/p>\n
Archana Verma, 17, from New York, received a $90,000 award for her study of the molecular orbital energy dynamics of dyes, which may someday result in windows that produce solar energy.<\/p>\n
Prathik Naidu, 18, from Virginia, received a $70,000 award for his creation of a new machine learning software to study 3D interactions of the human genome in cancer.<\/p>\n
Vrinda Madan, 17, from Florida, received a $50,000 award for her study of 24 potential compounds for the treatment of malaria, in which she found two potential candidates that appear to target the disease-causing organism in a novel way and may warrant further study.<\/p>\n
Of more than 1,700 high school seniors who entered the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2017, roughly 300 were named scholars in January.<\/p>\n
Of those scholars, 40 students were named finalists and invited to Washington, D.C., to compete for the top 10 awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Indian American teen has won the top award, worth $250,000, in the oldest and most prestigious science and math competition in the U.S., for her research on preventing death of neurons due to brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases. \u2013 @Siliconeer #Siliconeer #SiliconValley #Tech #IndianAmerican #Regeneron #ScienceTalentSearchAwards Indrani Das, a 17-year-old resident of New Jersey,…<\/p>\n