Teen Inventor Changes Lives:

How Siddarth Nandyala’s STEM Innovations Bring Second Chances From a chance meeting in India to global impact, Siddarth Nandyala is inventing a better future. Have you ever met someone limited in life because they couldn’t afford something essential? During a family trip to India, thirteen-year-old Siddarth Nandyala met a boy about his age who was… Continue reading Teen Inventor Changes Lives:

Revolutionizing Antibiotic Discovery with Artificial Intelligence

The threat of antibiotic resistance has been growing rapidly, concerning medical professionals and hospitals. Applying AI to medical research now opens a new pathway for the discovery of antibiotics, meeting an essential demand in healthcare. Antibiotic resistance is a significant threat to global health, leading to harder-to-treat infections, increased spread of diseases. Acknowledged by the… Continue reading Revolutionizing Antibiotic Discovery with Artificial Intelligence

CRISPR:

From Bacterial Defense to Gene Editing Tool The implications of Doudna and Charpentier’s CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) discovery were monumental. Scientists realized that if they could program CRISPR-Cas9 to target specific DNA sequences in bacteria, they could use this technology in any organism. This adaptability transformed it into a gene-editing tool of… Continue reading CRISPR:

Future Work

Computational Biology A while back, I wrote a about how computational biology helps discover new medicines. Earlier, I chronicled the discoveries of Anika Chebrolu, a high school student well on her way to becoming a computational biologist. Since then I started wondering about this new hybrid career and what it offered. This post is an… Continue reading Future Work

AI vs. Lethal Superbugs

Artificial intelligence helped identify a promising new antibiotic. Researchers deployed AI to zero in on a chemical that might be the nemesis of the notorious Acinetobacter baumannii. The CDC reports that this drug-resistant “superbug” caused 8,500 infections and 700 deaths in hospitals during 2017 alone. In this pioneering work, they showed a potential antibiotic called… Continue reading AI vs. Lethal Superbugs

How She Did It

Anika Chebrolu’s Research Process Almost 7 million people around the world have died from the coronavirus since the beginning of this pandemic and just over 1 million in the United States as of this posting. You can see updates on the CNN link above. Anika Chebrolu, a Texas high school student, stands out among scientists… Continue reading How She Did It

Anika Chebrolu and Her COVID Research

Wondering Why do so many people die of viruses each year? wondered then-fourteen-year-old Anika Chebrulo. While recovering in bed from her own severe case of flu in 2019, the 8th grader from Frisco, Texas decided to learn more. Her question led to the discovery of a possible therapy for COVID-19. Learning and Entry Once recovered,… Continue reading Anika Chebrolu and Her COVID Research

Inside the Box

Gitanjali Rao’s Epione Gitanjali Rao, an award-winning inventor, was 13 years old when a family friend became addicted to her prescription opioid drugs. She learned that over 20 million Americans over the age of 12 suffer from some form of addiction to prescription drugs. Also, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, over 130… Continue reading Inside the Box