An Indian student has won a USD 5,000 for his research in drug synthesis at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world's largest high school science research competition. Raghavendra Ramachanderan, a student of St John's International Residential School in Chennai along with two Indian American students won three of the 17 "Best of Catagory" awards. More than 1,500 young entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists competed recently at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles. They qualified at 443 affiliated fairs in 65 countries, regions and territories, and more than 400 finalists, including many Indian Americans, received awards at the competition. Ramachanderan's groundbreaking work could help in developing drugs to fight cancer, bacteria and fungus. Winning three of the 17 "Best of Category" awards and USD 5,000 were: Nithin Reddy Tumma of Fort Gratiot, Mich, for cellular and molecular biology research; Ramachanderan of Chennai in chemistry; and Nathan Kondamuri of Dyer, Ind, in energy and transportation.All Best of category winners also received USD 3,000 first place prizes and had an asteroid named in their honour. The Intel Foundation awarded a USD 1,000 grant to each winner's school and to the Intel-affiliated fair they represented. Tumma, a junior at Port Huron Northern High School in Port Huron, Mich submitted the project "Identifying Novel Mechanisms of Cy tochorome-P450 2E1 regulation". While studying the metabolism of the liver for a drug used to treat diabetes, he found that micro RNAs in Metformin depress a tumour-forming gene in the body. Kondamuri, 16, who attends Munster High School in Munster, Ind offered "A Novel Biofuel Cell Based on Direct Electron Transfer-Type Bioelectrocatalysis Incorporating Photophosphorylation to Efficiently Create Sustainable Electrical Energy".
-PTI
