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!"
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
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.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"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.
