Meet Iris Shen, 17, who tested blood cancer drugs in clams and won $150,000
High school student Iris Shen won a major science competition for developing a clam-based model to test blood cancer drugs. Her research suggests that clams could serve as a more ethical and cost-effective alternative to traditional vertebrate animal testing.
Why it matters
This innovation addresses the high failure rates and ethical concerns associated with current animal testing models in pharmaceutical research.
In what is dubbed America's longest-running and most distinguished science and math competition, a 17-year-old has won the third prize. Iris Shen, a native of Woodlands, Texas, received $150,000 for testing a potential cancer drug in clams to see if they could serve as an animal model for blood cancer drug discovery. In the clams, the drug had a similar effect to what researchers observe in human cells. She also tested a mix of other potential cancer drugs, which slowed the clams’ tumour growth, according to a statement by the Society for Science.Shen, a student at The Woodlands College Park High School, studied whether a marine clam with a naturally occurring blood cancer can be used to study human leukaemia drugs for her Regeneron Science Talent Search animal sciences project. Typically, animal models of cancer are costly, time-sensitive and have ethical implications.
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