INTEL Award for Indian-American High School girl

An Indian-American High School girl has bagged a whopping $ 100,000 Intel scholarship for developing a model to identify early stage colon cancer patients with a high risk for recurrence, beating competition from 1,600 others.

Shivani Sud, 17, of North Carolina won the Intel Foundation's top award aimed at honouring the next generation of scientists and innovators in the US.

For her research project, Sud developed a model that analysed the specific ''molecular signatures'' of tumors from patients with stage II colon cancer.

She then used this information to identify those at higher risk for tumor recurrence and propose potentially effective drugs for treatment, Intel said in a media release.

''That proud feeling comes from doing what I do and not just the acknowledgment of it,'' Sud, who attends Jordan High School, was quoted as saying by The News and Observer of Durham.

Sud said her interest in cancer research started very early on as a result of a relative developing cancer.

''I saw how hard that was for my family, I saw how that kind of changed my outlook on life, because when you're six years old, you don't think about topics such as death or dying from this type of cancer -- having your life change drastically,'' she said.

This year's Intel Science Talent Search finalists came from 19 states and represented 35 high schools throughout the United States.