Kerala Born Student Bags won the top honor

11 April 2013
Kollam

Arjun Nair, a native of Neeleswaram in Kasaragod district who is a high school student of Webber Academy at Calgary in Alberta province of Canada, won the top honour on Tuesday in the 2013 ‘Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada.’ A 16-year-old Kerala-born student in Canada has amazed experts with cutting-edge research into an experimental therapy that deploys nanoparticles of gold to kill cancer cells.

Arjun was awarded the top prize of $5,000 by a panel of eminent Canadian scientists at the Ottawa headquarters of the National Research Council of Canada. The prize was presented to him by Canada CEO of Sanofi Jon Fairest. His research, which a panel of expert judges called “world class master’s or PhD-level quality,” also won a special $1,000 prize that is awarded to the project with the greatest commercial potential.

He showed how an antibiotic could overcome the defences cancer deployed against therapy and make the treatment more effective. Using light, the gold nanoparticles rapidly heated up in the tumours, killing only the cancer cells. Arjun will now compete for Canada on April 22-23 at the International BioGENEius Challenge, conducted at the annual BIO conference in Chicago, U.S.

Source – http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/keralaborn-student-strikes-gold-with-cancer-research/article4603779.ece

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