Kannan is awarded for pioneering work in using biocomputational methods to analyze and comprehend the causes of higher infectivity in mpox disease
Our Bureau
New York City, NY
Saathvik Kannan, a 17-year-old Indian-origin student in Missouri has conducted research on the increased infectivity related to mpox virus and won the highly acclaimed Regeneron Young Scientist Award of $50,000.
Kannan is a student at David H Hickman High School in Columbia who used biocomputational methods to comprehend the causes of heightened infectivity of mpox post its re-emergence in 2022.
Kannan has deployed a combination of machine learning with 3-dimensional comparative protein modeling to underline the causes that enable mpox virus to replicate faster. This helped in identifying the mutations in the virus, causing it to be more infectious and resistant to antibiotics.
He gave the credit for this path-breaking research to his mentor, Kamlendra Singh, an assistant professor of veterinary pathobiology at the University of Missouri, for years of project guidance. “I was overjoyed and incredibly excited!” Kannan said about the prize. He believes Bioplex will help scientists in understanding the virus and contain its outbreak in the future.
Kannan was also a proud recipient of first place in the fair’s computational biology and bioinformatics division, garnering another $5,000 for his brilliant efforts.
The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, 2023 witnessed an impressive participation of around 1,600 young scientists and engineers from 49 states and 64 countries of the world.
As per Regeneron, a leading biotechnology company, the winners were selected on the basis of solutions that address the problems of tomorrow and their approach to innovation in confronting challenging scientific questions, backed by genuine and reliable research.
