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Texas Teen Awarded $25K for Developing Possible COVID-19 Treatment

Texas Teen Awarded $25K for Developing Possible COVID-19 Treatment

A Texas teenager might have found a treatment for COVID-19 and she’s already seeing monetary benefits from it.

Anika Chebrolu, 14, was awarded $25,000 for her coronavirus breakthrough. She’s a freshman at the Independence High School in Frisco and developed a molecule that binds to a protein on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and essentially stops the virus from functioning when she was in 8th grade.

Chebrolu used 682 million compounds and computer programs to come up with this.

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Anika was in middle school when she entered the contest and planned to center her project around combating the seasonal flu. But the life-changing opportunity came to her when the world was swept with the deadly respiratory virus.

Anika Chebrolu credits her grandfather who is a chemistry professor, for inspiring her to take on science.