Preya Shah
NEW YORK
Preya Shah, 17, of Setauket, designed and synthesized a novel
tumor-targeting conjugate drug for cancer treatment that she believes represents
a new generation of chemotherapy agents for her chemistry entry in the Intel
Science Talent Search. Her project addressed the problem of drug-resistant
cancer and the difficulty of targeting only cancer cells while protecting normal
tissue. In developing her drug conjugate, she used two anticancer agents
("warheads") to attack cancer cells on two different fronts. She chose biotin, a
vitamin consumed in large quantities by cancer cells, as the tumor-targeting
molecule to guide the cytotoxic warheads into malignant cells. She believes her
approach has the potential to treat multidrug-resistant cancer without causing
significant side effects. At Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, Preya is president of the Science Bowl Club and co-captain of the Science Olympiad. She has received numerous awards for academics and music
composition and has perfect SAT scores. Preya plays the oboe and the violin and
has sung at Carnegie Hall. The daughter of Ajay and Shilpa Shah, she hopes to
continue her studies at Harvard or Princeton.
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