Meet Iris Shen, the 17-year-old Texas student who tested potential blood-cancer drugs in clams and her research won $150,000

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. In her project, Shen tested how clams respond to a potential cancer drug. She found that in clams, the drug had the same effect it does in human cells: fewer cancer cells stayed alive, tumours had a smaller proportion of cancer cells and the cells' fat levels changed in similar ways.In a second experiment, Iris test...