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Aksum805, Santa Barbara, CA (2026)

01/30/2025

06/28/2023

Natasha Kulviwat is no ordinary high schooler. Starting last August, she spent six months in the lab at Columbia University studying the brain tissue of people who died by su***de.

Her research investigated if any biomarkers — physical and measurable substances in the brain — might help explain and, perhaps someday, prevent su***de.

Ultimately, her work won her the Gordon E. Moore Award for Positive Outcomes for Future Generations and $50,000 for college expenses at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, an international competition for pre-college students organized by the Society for Science.

Kulviwat found differences in the brains of 10 people who died by su***de compared to the control group: 10 people who died of other causes. The brains of those who died by su***de, which were donated for study by their next of kin, contained higher numbers of inflammatory cytokines.

Cytokines create inflammation as a normal part of your immune system's response to pathogens. But your body can also release them when there is no threat — during chronic stress, for example — and that can cause excessive inflammation.

Too much inflammation in the body over time can have many negative effects — it's implicated in conditions like heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune disease. In this case, Kulviwat's research suggests that inflammation affected a specific protein in the brain known as claudin-5.

Claudin-5 is usually found in cells that make up the blood-brain barrier (BBB) — playing an important role in regulating what substances can pass from the blood into brain cells.

But Kulviwat found elevated levels of claudin-5 in other parts of the brain — in the neurons and microvessels — of those who died by su***de, indicating there was a breakdown of the BBB.

That means foreign agents in the blood can now get into functional areas of the brain, which can be neurotoxic, she said. The results suggest elevated levels of claudin-5 in the brain might serve as a biomarker of su***de risk.

Read the full article on businsessinsider.com

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