Anika Chebrolu, a 14-year-old from Frisco, Texas, won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a $25,000 prize for her discovery of a lead molecule that can selectively bind to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for covid-19.
According to her biography on the 3M Young Scientist Challenge homepage, Chebrolu, an Indian American 8th grader attending Nelson Middle School, has been “drawn towards finding effective cures for Influenza disease after a severe bout of the infection last year.”
Her award-winning project used in-silico methods to identify a lead compound that would hold together with a protein of the influenza virus.
“After spending so much time researching pandemics, viruses and drug discovery, it was crazy to think that I was actually living through something like this,” Chebrolu said in a statement to CNN.
Dr. Cindy Moss, a judge for the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, boasted about Chelbrolu’s work and gave praise to her work for being comprehensive, and to her for being a “masterful communicator.” In her biography on the Young Scientist Challenge’s website, Chelrolu said her favorite invention of the past one hundred years was the Internet because of its explorability.
“I am amazed at how vast and profound it is and cannot imagine a world without the internet. When coupled with proper judgement and use, we can achieve so much more and I am enthused at its potential each time I use it,” she said.
Outside of her passions in the world of science and technology, Chebrolu spends her time training for the Indian classical dance, called Bharatanatyam. She aspires to become a medical professor and researcher. She calls her project a simple, “drop in the ocean” in comparison to the remainder of efforts in the drug development for a COVID19 cure and hopes to continue working alongside scientists fighting the pandemic.
