Vivia Chow

Anila Madiraju is a 17-year-old student at Marianopolis CEGEP in Montreal, whose project, 'Silencing Cancer with RNA,' has been well received in both the national and international scientific community. The objective of her research was to develop a way to specifically induce natural cell death (apoptosis), in cancer cells without affecting normal cells. Current treatments are highly toxic and kill both normal healthy cells as well as cancer cells. Anila hypothesized that the recently discovered phenomenon of RNA interference could be used to treat cancer with minimal side effects.

As her project, she designed small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that would inhibit the production of a protein called Mcl-1L, a protein that had been shown to be necessary for the survival of many types of cancers, including breast cancer. She tested the effect of these siRNAs on multiple myeloma, ovarian, skin and breast cancer cells. The results indicate that targeting Mcl-1L protein with the RNA interference technique could effectively kill the cancer cells without much toxicity to normal cells. With more experimentation, perhaps this technique could lead to the development of a breast cancer treatment without harmful side effects.

Anila has been awarded the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award (For Best in Fair at Intel ISEF, Louisville, Kentucky) of a $50,000 scholarship and a high-performance computer; the Medicine & Health Intel ISEF Best of Category Award of $5,000; and the Glen T. Seaborg SIYSS Award which includes attencance at the Stockholm
rnational Youth Science Seminar during the Nobel Prize Ceremonies in December 2003.

In addition to her scientific interests, Anila is interested in dancing, painting, playing classical and popular music on the violin and writing. She is presently pursuing the possibilities of publishing her first novel while working on a sequel.

Anila's long-term goal is to conduct medical research and to better understand how cancer cells work. Based on her work, the scientific community may develop more effective treatments for breast cancer. Those of us dealing with this disease wholeheartedly applaud her accomplishments and wish her even more success in the future.