Alcuin School junior Rohan Jagarlamudi assigns his own homework. He has spent months researching whether there is a common link between three diseases: Crohn's disease, cancer, and diabetes.
"There are family members who have the diseases that I was writing about," Jagarlamudi said. "It just inspired me to figure out more about these diseases."
He wrote about his findings, and that got the attention of the peer-reviewed UCI X GATI Science Journal from the University of California-Irvine.
"When UCI reached out to me, they said we read your paper and we're interested in publishing in our journal," Jagarlamudi said. "That was extremely surprising!"
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Alcuin School is a combination Montessori and International Baccalaureate school in North Dallas. Jagarlamudi was not assigned his research. He worked on the passion project in his free time.
"I had to do a lot of reading and researching to find this connection to write about," Jagarlamudi said. "It's a review paper about short-chain fatty acids in the gut microbiota."
Jagarlamudi said they appear to be a link between the diseases.
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"You know, for a teacher, this is a gift," Dr. Cecelia Mir, Alcuin School biology teacher, said laughing. "I have [former students,] now they're doctors, and so maybe now they will discover something, or they will do something impressive. And I was their teacher!"
Jagarlamudi said he wants to follow in his parents' footsteps one day, and go into the medical field.
"To feel that I am not just standing by," Jagarlamudi said. "I can actually do something and provide for the world."
To read Jagarlamudi's paper, click here.
