LOS ANGELES: Each year the Intel Science Talent Search (IntelSTS) finds and encourages the nation's most talented high school seniors, furthering their pursuit of research and careers in the science, math, engineering, and medicine disciplines. At 194 high schools across the country on January 16, Intel STS, America's oldest and most prestigious science competition called '' Junior Nobel Prize" brought together the best and brightest young science scholarships.

Kanika Agarwal spent her summer at CCIS /ITI, "Exploring the role and effects of Toll-like Receptor Ligands on B cell and T cell mouse lymphoma cell lines", in the lab of P.J UTZ M.D, Associate professor, Immunology and Rheumatology, Stanford University along with Angela L Andrigan.' Non -Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) is the 5th most common cancer in United States, and more effective therapies are needed .It is thought that Toll-Like Receptor Ligands (TLR-Ls) play a role in the death, proliferation, and activation state of two B cells, and three T cell mouse lymphoma cell lines" said Kanika.

"Our results show that TLR-Ls have direct effect on lymphoma cell lines and future experiments will elucidate underlying mechanisms through examination of signaling at alternate time points" she said. Kanika is a senior at Vivian Webb high school in Claremont, Ca, and is a straight A student and has been on Dean's list with high honors, a qualified competitor in AMC, CAML, College board AP scholar with honors, ranked 8th in southern California and 10th in nation in national Spanish exams. Kanika is founder and editor-in chief of World Wide Web newspaper, VP of math club, varsity tennis player.

She served as a junior volunteer at Pomona valley hospital. She has been accepted to Caltech, Pasadena, but is awaiting decision from Stanford, Columbia, Upenn, and Brown. Kanika has been awarded a $1000 scholarship along with $1000 to her school and is in the running for the National Finals, - An honor to be selected from 1602 entrants hailing from 45 states. Past finalists hold more than 100 of the world's most coveted science and mathematics awards.On January 30, she will be one of the 40 finalists competing for $1.25million in scholarship. We wish Kanika good luck and all the best.