Reminds me of this drug company I was pitched a while ago:
Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
31–40 of 160 posts
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#32This would be incredibly cool if it works in reality and not just simulation. Remarkable that the author is just 17.
Seeing articles like this is almost hard to read. My kids are very smart but this girl is 1000 times what they are doing. This girl is 1000 times what I am doing.
Maybe it is just imposter syndrome but sometimes I read articles like this and think I fell short in life. But I am also top of my peers at work and I am a health care provider and my clients all request me so I know I am doing good. Sometimes I just wonder what mark I will leave on this world.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#33This would be incredibly cool if it works in reality and not just simulation. Remarkable that the author is just 17.
Seeing articles like this is almost hard to read. My kids are very smart but this girl is 1000 times what they are doing. This girl is 1000 times what I am doing. Maybe it is just imposter syndrome but sometimes I read articles like this and think I fell short in life. But I am also top of my peers at work and I am a health care provider and my clients all request me so I know I am doing good. Sometimes I just wonder…
My experience is that stuff like this isn't because someone is wildly smarter than everyone but because there are connections, support, and resources of some form.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
It never is, the winner of this competition is in astral radio telescopes. Something tells me he didn't launch the satellite.
With mentorship from Caltech and access to data from NASA’s NEOWISE mission, Matteo created a machine learning algorithm and compiled a groundbreaking database called VarWISE. https://www.societyforscience.org/regeneron-sts/2025-student...
I knew someone who reached the final stage of one of these science fairs. Project was done at a lab in an Ivy League university over a couple of summers. Relative was a senior scientist at the lab and guided them every step of the way. Not to discount what these kids are doing, but the reality is that these science fairs have largely become a contest about how well your family is connected to science-fair-friendly research facilities and how good your presentation skills are. I mean, do we really think 17 year olds are out there doing human trials on novel cancer therapies? I’m sure there are some projects that are genuinely thought of and done by the students themselves, but looking at a lot of these PhD level research that are supposedly done as after school projects of high school kids, I can’t help but think the whole thing has become a bit of a farce.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#35This would be incredibly cool if it works in reality and not just simulation. Remarkable that the author is just 17.
Seeing articles like this is almost hard to read. My kids are very smart but this girl is 1000 times what they are doing. This girl is 1000 times what I am doing. Maybe it is just imposter syndrome but sometimes I read articles like this and think I fell short in life. But I am also top of my peers at work and I am a health care provider and my clients all request me so I know I am doing good. Sometimes I just wonder…
it's just a four step synthesis. with the help of a phd chemist you could probably learn the steps in three months, and if you put your mind to it you could learn the ochem in a year. this project is the culmination of at least a year-maybe even up to three-of work.
whats surprising is that parents let their kids do ochem at 17!! thats some toxic shit :). safety is why chemistry is not a super popular field at high school level science fairs.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#36so is this already patented by Regeneron?
They would need to show efficacy to patent it. It seems like this is all computational.
no she did the synthesis and the yields are averaged? over >5 replicates <== just doing that is pretty (spiritually?) impressive, most phd chemists wouldn't do that kind of reproduction of results.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#37She didn't even break the top 10 in this content: https://www.societyforscience.org/regeneron-sts/2025-student... I'm impressed beyond words by these kids, though I think I'd give her the top prize. Watching my grandfather's final days taken away from him by the effects of morphine has always made me wish so much that we had much more effective non-narcotic painkillers
Reversible computing, materials science, genetic research… it’s insane that these kids are doing this level of work in high school.
They aren't doing it on their own. Most of these kids are working with established researchers who give them the shape of the project, as well as the tools and the expertise to accomplish it.
More recently the US scientific funding bodies have had summer programs for kids who wouldn't otherwise get that kind of access, but it's still the exception. It takes more than a summer to do this kind of work.
Edit: quick search for the father's name brings up this professor of biochemistry at UT Tyler:
https://www.uttyler.edu/directory/chemistry/lee-jiyong.php
and mom's name brings up this professor of pharmaceutical science:
https://www.unthsc.edu/college-of-pharmacy/eul-hyun-suh
I don't mean to take anything away from the kid or suggest that they don't work hard, are smart, etc., but these kinds of science fairs are fundamentally about access.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#38She didn't even break the top 10 in this content: https://www.societyforscience.org/regeneron-sts/2025-student... I'm impressed beyond words by these kids, though I think I'd give her the top prize. Watching my grandfather's final days taken away from him by the effects of morphine has always made me wish so much that we had much more effective non-narcotic painkillers
Reversible computing, materials science, genetic research… it’s insane that these kids are doing this level of work in high school.
Science projects are a family affair, more often than not. Ask me how I know.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#39The same website is also for the excellent Science News print magazine, which will ship you top notch science reporting right to your door. My father was a subscriber since, well, whenever blue LEDs were invented, because I recall reading about them in Science News. Strong recommendation for any science-lover.
Science News is a big part of my childhood. My stepdad's dad was a subscriber and every issue was handed down to us gently used. I have thousands of back issues.
Same. My highschool library in the 70’s had a subscription and I would read through them with relish.
Re: Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy
#40[deleted]