When a family member was diagnosed with dementia, young student Myreen Ahsan began asking whether computing tools could help scientists investigate the disease.
Myreen Ahsan, an eighth-grade student from Friendswood, Texas, received a $10,000 Innovation Award in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, announced on 27 October.
From a personal concern to a research question
Myreen’s grandfather’s dementia diagnosis inspired her to study frontotemporal dementia. She focused on molecular processes involving tau, a protein whose abnormal behavior is associated with some neurodegenerative conditions.
Using computing to examine molecules
Her project combined high-throughput virtual screening, machine-learning techniques and molecular-dynamics simulations to investigate candidate small molecules that might affect disease-associated tau behavior. These computer methods can help prioritize ideas for scientists to examine in laboratory studies.
What the findings do—and do not—show
This is early computational research. A promising simulation does not show that a compound works in human cells, animals or patients. Potential therapies would need extensive laboratory research and clinical testing before any medical benefit could be established.
The achievement is nevertheless impressive: a young student used sophisticated computational methods to investigate a serious biological problem motivated by her own family’s experience.
Sources: Society for Science 2026 finalist profiles; Society for Science awards announcement.
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