17yearold

Meet Ashka Shah, the 17-year-old New York student who studied how a cancer-driving protein enters the cell nucleus and found a way to block its harmful signalling while preserving its normal function

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Meet Ashka Shah, the 17-year-old New York student who studied how a cancer-driving protein enters the cell nucleus and found a way to block its harmful signalling while preserving its normal function

Ashka Shah (Jericho Senior High School, Jericho, NY) A 17-year-old student from New York has developed a targeted method to stop cancer cells from growing, earning national recognition for tackling one of the biggest challenges in cancer research. Ashka Shah, a senior at Jericho High School on Long Island, developed a method that blocks the … Read more

Meet Alyssa Yu, the 17-year-old Maryland student who built a mathematical model for what happens when 2 interacting infections spread at once and how vaccination could target the resulting hot spots

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Meet Alyssa Yu, the 17-year-old Maryland student who built a mathematical model for what happens when 2 interacting infections spread at once and how vaccination could target the resulting hot spots

Alyssa Yu (Poolesville High School, Poolesville, MD) A 17-year-old student from Maryland has developed a new mathematical framework to predict how multiple infectious diseases interact and spread through connected populations at the same time. Alyssa Yu, a senior at Poolesville High School in Montgomery County, created the computer model to address a major gap in … Read more

Meet Leon Wang, the 17-year-old Connecticut student who found 2 FDA-approved drugs that reduced Alzheimer’s-linked damage in lab-grown brain cells

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Meet Leon Wang, the 17-year-old Connecticut student who found 2 FDA-approved drugs that reduced Alzheimer's-linked damage in lab-grown brain cells

Leon Wang, the 17-year-old Connecticut student (Image Credit: Society For Science) Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the most difficult neurological disorders to treat, partly because the processes behind it can begin damaging brain cells long before symptoms become apparent. Now, a project by 17-year-old Connecticut student Leon Wang has drawn attention for exploring whether medicines … Read more

Meet Jerry Xu, the 17-year-old Massachusetts student who built an AI program that turns protein structures into strings of numbers; he won $90,000

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Meet Jerry Xu, the 17-year-old Massachusetts student who built an AI program that turns protein structures into strings of numbers; he won $90,000

Jerry Xu’s AI model is designed to compare the structures of proteins and amino acids rapidly. The structure of proteins gives important clues to how these molecules function. (Images: istock and Society for Science) Imagine, what if a protein’s complex 3-D structure could be converted into a simple string of numbers—and that string could help … Read more

Meet Connor Hill, the 17-year-old Pennsylvania student who wrote a computer program to classify noble polyhedra; he proved there are 146 isolated examples and won $250,000

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Meet Connor Hill, the 17-year-old Pennsylvania student who wrote a computer program to classify noble polyhedra; he proved there are 146 isolated examples and won $250,000

Connor Hill (Delta High School, State College, PA) By writing a custom computer algorithm that mapped every possible version of a rare class of geometric shapes, 17-year-old Connor Hill from Port Matilda, Pennsylvania, has won the top $250,000 prize at the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search.His computational proof classified a complex group of three-dimensional shapes … Read more