A 17-year-old high school student from Texas has earned one of the top honors in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search after exploring an unusual question in cancer research: Could clams help scientists test potential blood cancer drugs?
Iris Shen, of The Woodlands, Texas, won third place and $150,000 for her research into whether marine clams with naturally occurring blood cancer could serve as an alternative animal model for studying leukemia drugs.