TNJSF JEI Award Winner: Paridhi Tyagi

Paridhi Tyagi is an incoming 3rd-year student at Millburn High School. In her study, Paridhi characterized the ratio of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, a type of immune cell that can recognize and kill cancer cells, in determining the prognostic status for individuals with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). When reflecting on her research experiences with JEI, Paridhi shared that she was concerned about the aggressive nature of TNBC and limited treatment options. Furthermore, TNBC disproportionately affects populations marginalized in medicine. Therefore, Paridhi wanted to further our understanding of TNBC while working towards healthcare equity.

While conducting her research, Paridhi said it was difficult to find datasets that would answer her research question. One particular challenge, she shared, was that many datasets were private and unavailable for public use. However, Paridhi persevered and was able to obtain datasets that allowed her to progress in her research and also taught her the importance of data accessibility in science. Reflecting on her TNJSF experience, Paridhi was inspired by the feedback she received from scientists of diverse backgrounds and was challenged to grow her abilities to communicate her research to a broader audience. She hopes to take the lessons she has learned from this research experience to inform her future studies.

Congratulations to Paridhi and her success at TNJSF! We can’t wait to see what she does next!

The material on this page was prepared by Hannah Thompson, JEI Managing Editor and Claire Otero, JEI co-Editor in Chief. Paridhi Tyagi provided the photo and answers to standard questions which were lightly edited for clarity.