Windermere Prep junior sets sights on cancer research

Suvir Talamas, a Windermere Preparatory School junior, always has had a passion for science and coding. 

He saw the perfect opportunity to combine his passions while also contributing to something bigger. 

Since July, Talamas has been researching how to design ribonucleic acid-based medicine to tag biomarkers on a glioblastoma cell. Glioblastomas are highly aggressive and malignant brain tumors. 

Talamas always has been interested in cancer research, particularly brain cancer.

“Cancer has always been an alarming subject to get the idea that every day there’s sometimes going to be an outlier cell and that outlier cell will multiply so much that it will kill you,” he said. “I’ve always found it so interesting that the fascinating things that can occur in our body at the same time can be detrimental. I’ve always been very alarmed with how deleterious it is and how many people get their life taken away every year because of cancer and the external factors that actually lead to the rise in cancer.”

Talamas’ hard work on his research paid off when he presented his work and won the competitive poster presentation portion of the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium Feb. 2 through 4 at the University of Florida. 

Talamas now will present his research at the 63rd National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, which takes place April 22 to 26 in Chantilly, Virginia. 

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” Talamas said of winning. “I’ve been working on this since July to December, and I was really happy to have the ability to present at this research competition and be acknowledged by one of the professors who’s also working on something really similar to what I’m working with, where they also are attacking brain cancer but with nanoparticles. I just found it really interesting.”

At the symposium, Talamas was able to meet students from around the state and learn about their research projects. He also was able to meet University of Florida professors and tour the campus, giving him an opportunity to see if he would like to attend the university. He said he was happy to meet with people from all over the state, learning about them, their research and more.

“I’m a very curious person by nature, and I just love hearing what people were doing and what else interests them,” Talamas said. “I did have some people who had very similar ideas that I had with cancer and found different types of remedies and therapies for that. … I thought I learned a lot, and I got some more insight that day about how many people at my age are taking it upon themselves to explore things, and for me, it’s really rejuvenating to know that curiosity is still a thing and at the end of the day, the drive to learn is also among us.”

Talamas competed against 19 other people in the poster presentation competition of the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. 

Talamas said he essentially has created a blueprint for a possible medicine as a nucleic acid-based therapy. Once tested in a lab setting, researchers can use the blueprint to find possible different types of RNAs they can generate to test on a specific cell to see how well the aptamers bind. The aptamers can carry drugs to directly attack a cancer cell, he said. 

“It will really help with treating or attacking a cancer in general,” Talamas said.

When it was announced that Talamas won first place, he said his response was dramatic. 

“I screamed, ‘What the heck,’ when I saw my name on the board that I won; I did not expect that,” he said. “To be honest, it was alarming; it was very shocking. At the same time, I was very thankful. This compared to other different projects, I was just in awe, and I felt so proud of myself that day. I also felt very thankful that I had a mentor to go and assist me, I had my family go and assist me, motivate me and allow me to continue doing the things I love.”

His first-place win has earned him a spot to compete at the national symposium. 

“I’m excited to go and take it out to nationals and see what other people have been doing, not just across Florida but now across the United States,” Talamas said. 

He’s proud of the progress he’s made on his own research and pushing himself to go outside his comfort zone in participating in the competition.

If successful at the national competition, Talamas could receive scholarships. 

Talamas plans to continue working on his research as he said he knows progress takes time. 

“It’s my personal belief that research cannot happen in one day; research happens in time,” he said. “It’s 90% of the effort and information that you’re learning about something and then 10% of the real contributions you’re making to the research. To know I was able to receive and create fruitful information in such a long amount of time is just really nice to me.”

He hopes to find a nanoparticle or nano vesicle that an aptamer can hold to be able to transport drugs or other therapies to attack the cancer cells and at some point, test his research in a lab setting where he can isolate a single glioblastoma cell and inject the aptamer to assess it over time on how it attacks that glioblastoma cell.

He thinks researchers are on track to find different types of therapies as well as more safe, reliable and permanent remedies for various types of cancer in the future. 

“I’m beyond thankful that I’m able to go and make an impact of this type in the cancer community,” he said.