DURHAM, N.C.-Ava Grace Cummings, a member of the Lumbee and Coharie tribes in North Carolina, recently placed second in the national 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search.
The 18-year-old high school senior's prize-winning project was researching Native American myopathy, also known as the muscle disorder stac3. Cummings told WTVD reporters in Raleigh, N.C. that the subject was near to her heart. She said her goal was, "Just bringing more resources and more advocacy and more awareness to medicine within these areas. I was able to contribute to that by looking at this disease that's specific to my tribe and also using our traditional practices and finding a solution."
She says her research combined western medicine and traditional Indigenous practices to test adult flies and larvae. She combined an experimental amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug called Tirasemtiv with a nettle herb and found that the pair improved movement.
Cummings plans to use her $175,000 prize to help her go to Yale University, where she wants to major in bio-medical engineering.
