An incoming Duke student's ambitious exploration of the basic mechanisms underlying addiction received top honors in the new Addiction Science category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world's largest science competition for high school students.
The project, The Novel Role of the GluCl α; Ion Channel and Diazepam Binding Genes in Alcohol Addiction, was developed by Kapil Vishveshwar Ramachandran, a 16-year-old senior from Westwood High School in Austin, Texas, who is now enrolled at Duke. The new Addiction Science award is co-sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company. This is the first series of awards given exclusively for projects that advance addiction science.
The winning young scientist determined that when a specific protein (Diazepam binding inhibitor) is deleted in fruit flies, the flies may lose their tolerance to alcohol. Although the protein had been previously identified, these findings are a strong indication that it may play a role in addiction.
"The judges were particularly impressed with the winner's enthusiasm and innovative approach to exploring the neurological underpinnings of addiction," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. "He developed a simple, sensitive, elegant instrument to measure tolerance in fruit flies, and ended up possibly contributing to the knowledge needed to find biological changes at the root of addiction."
This year, nearly 1,500 students from more than 40 countries competed in Atlanta in the ISEF competition, which is coordinated by the Society for Science and the Public. Winners of the Addiction Science Award received cash awards in a ceremony Thursday night, with a $2,500 scholarship provided by Scholastic for the first-place honoree.