Regional Winners Move on to Final Phase of Competition:
National Finals in Washington, D.C.
Sriharshita Musunuri (Mill Creek, WA) Wins Top Individual
Honor.
The Winning Individual for Region One is Sriharshita
Musunuri, a senior from the Henry M. Jackson High School, in Mill Creek, WA,
won the individual category and a $3,000 scholarship for her project titled,
“Computational and Experimental Design of MIP Nanoparticles: A Novel
Theranostic Solution to Detect and Neutralize Endotoxins.”
Sriharshita’s project addresses a difficult challenge faced
in U.S. hospitals every day: gram-negative bacteria that causes sepsis which
can cause organ failure in patients, and is the leading cause of death in US
hospitals. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are harmful biomolecules found on the
surface of gram-negative bacteria and are responsible for over 50% of sepsis
cases. Shriharshita designed a new polymer nanoparticle that captures the
harmful LPS bacterial endotoxins and could be used to treat and diagnose the
bacterial infection.
“Sriharshita’s research leads to faster diagnostic testing
in clinical settings that could reduce patient deaths from sepsis,” says Dr.
Brittany Needham, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. “She approached this problem
in a far more comprehensive way than others have and her method was
particularly impressive. She figured out a way not only to detect this
life-threatening bacteria, she also found a way to help prevent it.”
Past efforts to detect and extract LPS effectively have been
hampered by high costs or incompatibility with human body fluids. Sriharshita’s
research could make it easier to detect the presence of LPS and prevent the
resulting endotoxic shock syndrome that can lead to sepsis, multiple organ
failure, and death.
Sriharshita is also the founder of a non-profit organization
that raises sepsis awareness called InflammAid. She is also a Davidson Fellow
Laureate, a 2-time Intel ISEF finalist, winning Best-of-Category in Physical
Energy and the Innovation Exploration Award for her work on thermoelectrics.
Sriharshita’s mentor is Christopher Lausted at the Institute
for Systems Biology.
This year, for the first time, a new pricing structure will
ensure that national finalists will receive a minimum of $25,000, according to
Siemens.
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