14-Year-Old Indian-American Anika Chebrolu May Just Find The Cure For COVID

Indian-American teenager, Anika Chebrolu, has been awarded $25,000 for her Coronavirus treatment research. The 14-year-old from Texas, won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge for her work on a potential drug to treat COVID-19, reports CNN.

Chebrolu has developed a molecule that can bind to a certain protein of the Coronavirus and prevent it from functioning.

“I developed this molecule that can bind to a certain protein on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This protein by binding to it will stop the function of the protein,” the eighth-grader was quoted as saying by ABC News.

“It’s exciting. I’m still trying to process everything,” she said of her big win.

Chebrolu wasn’t always focused on the Coronavirus. When the year began, she was working on ways to fight the seasonal flu. Her plans changed when the pandemic hit. In order to find a potential drug for the highly infectious virus, the 14-year-old used multiple computer programs to identify how and where the molecule would bind to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Chebrolu used in-silico methodology for drug discovery to find a molecule that can selectively bind to the Spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in an attempt to find a cure for the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to ABC News, it is not clear whether her research has been tested on a live model.

Anika Chebrolu hopes to be a medical researcher and told ABC News, “My grandpa, when I was younger, he always used to push me toward science. He was actually a chemistry professor, and he used to always tell me to learn the periodic table of the elements and learn all these things about science, and over time I just grew to love it.”

She told CNN that the media hype around her science project is indicative of the fact that everyone wants the pandemic to end. “I saw that there is a lot of media hype about my project since it involves the SARS-CoV-2 virus and it reflects our collective hopes to end this pandemic as I, like everyone else, wish that we go back to our normal lives soon.”

Proud of all South Asian girls in STEM!