Mythreya Dharani
Bergen County Academies
Hackensack, NJ
I2-CISSP: An Interpretable Machine Learning Model for Cisplatin Response Prediction in Human Tumors
Mythreya Dharani, 18, of Paramus, created an AI model to predict how well a type of chemotherapy will work against specific tumors for his Regeneron Science Talent Search computational biology and bioinformatics project.
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AI can analyze large genetic datasets to estimate treatment effectiveness, but doctors hesitate to use these models because it’s unclear how they reach their conclusions. For his project, Mythreya built I2-CISSP, which uses machine learning to predict how tumors will respond to cisplatin, a common chemotherapy.
I2-CISSP analyzes data from two sources: genes from a patient’s tumor and published data from cancer cells already tested with cisplatin. The model was more accurate than several existing prediction methods and gave insight into its calculations, including which genes mattered most. Mythreya believes I2-CISSP offers doctors a more transparent way to tailor cancer care and help predict outcomes. It could be expanded to other chemotherapies.
The child of Anuradha Rammdass and Dharani Ajithdoss, Mythreya attends Bergen County Academies (Hackensack), where he co-leads the math team and plays varsity volleyball. He also co-founded and runs CerealCodes, a free global programming contest for high schoolers.
Beyond the Project
Mythreya is an advocacy member of the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative. He has helped promote legislation to expand access to lung cancer screening in California and Massachusetts.
FUN FACTS
Mythreya is co-founder and president of CerealCodes, a free summer programming contest themed around pandas eating cereal. CerealCodes welcomes over 500 participants from 72 countries.
