Curing cancer in a classroom? It sounds bizarre but North Texas high school students are putting their knowledge to the test, trying to find ways to help the medical community.
One of the ways to motivate others is with food, that's especially true with teenagers. So, a couple of pizzas and soda was the perfect after-school fuel to get some young minds pumping to research and design real-life medications.
"Some people are researching six variants or not and some people might be studying Van Gogh's paintings. I'm creating a vaccine," said Rohan Nepal, a student in the Harmony school district.
Nepal and his team of teenagers think they've found a way to help newborns who have trouble breaking down fats.
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"I was just scouring research papers one day, and I came across this disease. And to see very little research done on this," said Nepal.
The students came from schools within the Harmony school district; they brought in a University professor who designs vaccines to help work with the students and tackle issues.
"All of them are tasked with a different type of project involving some sort of health virus, some type of health outcome that's due to a virus, and they're really creating a vaccine, and they're actually making a vaccine, believe it or not," said George Scherfick, a CTE teacher at the school.
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Jacqueline Nunez has studied how drugs impact cancer cells and tumors, and all school year has tested and tried different things to try to stop and slow their progression, for Jacqueline it's personal.
"Since I was little, my mom did have cancer. So like ever since then, like I was always interested in like, pursuing a healthcare career. And I feel like this is just like another step forward," she said.
Most students here plan to work in medicine or medical research and plan to carry what they start here, all the way to college.
