Winner: Shreya Adapa
Project: Treating pancreatic and ovarian cancers by utilizing shRNA to target synthetically lethal gene RMT1.
Personal Statement: My name is Shreya, and I am a grade 11 student. When I was in second grade, I saw the cover of an Animorphs book of a girl turning into a rat, and I asked my parents if humans evolved from rats. After a long discussion, I learned that humans actually evolved from apes, which blew my 7-year-old mind. This was where my interest in biology was sparked, and it has only grown since then. I find it fascinating how we can explore the depths of the oceans or the vastness of space, yet there’s so much that’s undiscovered about our own bodies. I chose this project after having witnessed the suffering of cancer patients not only from the cancer itself, but also from the treatments used against it. After discussing with Professor Franco Vizeacoumar, I wondered how one can create a treatment which exclusively kills cancer cells.
Project abstract: Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, affecting around every 2 in 5 Canadians. Although current cancer treatments such as surgery or chemotherapy succeed at killing cancer cells, they also kill healthy cells in the process, which can be potentially detrimental to the patient. The key characteristic which makes cancer cells so hard to treat is known as tumor heterogeneity, meaning not all cancer cells are alike, even within the same tumor. My project focuses on using gene editing to create a treatment which exclusively kills different cancer cells in a single treatment, while sparing healthy cells.
