A leader in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Aditya Mohan is already making a difference in the world through his scientific research and passion for problem solving.
International First Place Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. National Grand Prize and First Place Winner of the Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada. Best Overall and Gold Medal at the Ottawa Regional Science Fair. International First Place Award from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Accolades such as these are impressive no matter your age but when they’ve been bestowed upon someone just beginning their second year of post-secondary schooling and is accompanied by a list much longer but equally as impressive, it’s all the more remarkable.
A leader in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Aditya Mohan is already making a difference in the world through his scientific research and passion for problem solving.
Beginning in grade 11, Mohan started learning about HIV and immunology. “My first year in the lab, I really started to appreciate just how amazing the body’s immune system is,” he says. It didn’t take long before his research project that developed a novel HIV treatment was winning many regional and national awards. “In grade 12, I started a new project,” he tells DARPAN, “where I was trying to apply what I learnt about viruses and HIV and apply that to cancer, an issue that I really wanted to pursue further.”
Mohan explains how he began work on reengineering the common cold virus and, through this research, he was able identify cancerous cells versus those without cancer. “That project certainly helped me understand more about science and the immune system and biology,” says he. “I think that project was really what helped trigger my passion for science and passion for biomedical research.”
It also spurred his current studies which began when he realized one of his biggest challenges: the immune system was always recognizing the viruses before they had a chance to really start working. Mohan explains how his research is now two-fold; through checkpoint inhibitors, which block normal proteins on cancer cells, and chimeric antigen receptors, which essentially indicate to immune cells what harmful cells they are looking to identify ahead of time.
“I’m very excited about the future,” says Mohan in regards to the direction his research is headed. “Immunotherapy is the new frontier when it comes to cancer research.”
“When I entered the field as a researcher in grade 11, the word that I was taught never to use was the word ‘cure’. At that point, it was impossible; cancer was a disease that you could not cure. What’s exciting for me now is that, in scientific circles and literature, people are now not shying away from using that word just because I think we’re definitely getting so close to finally curing cancer once and for all. I think it’s just a matter of time.”
Mohan believes great things are in the works for cancer research and, despite his already long list of accomplishments, has big goals in mind for his future as well. “As far as my career goes, I have three objectives that I’d like to accomplish to some varying degree at this point,” Mohan says. He is certain he will continue as a researcher where he dreams of starting his own lab that can really take his research forward. “The other part of that is that I’d like to become a doctor.”
“I think it’s exciting to see medical results from behind the scenes,” he says, referencing the examination of graphs and the satisfaction of seeing changes expressed in numbers, “but then to be on the other side of things, to be that first line of defence, and actually interact with patients hands on, I think that’s pretty exciting.” Ideally, Mohan says, he would like to pursue an MD-PhD.
In terms of his research, Mohan looks to pursue business as well. “Research is great as research but I think if you really want to help bring that into the hands of other people, you really need to have a focus in terms of commercializing that and really building a model such that it reaches the hands of patients as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I think business is the perfect way to go to do that,” he says.
The young scientist attributes the mentality of Elon Musk to be inspiring in his own pursuit of excellence. “His mentality in terms of how he views the world is inspirational because I don’t think he takes ‘no’ very easily. The moment he takes on a challenge, rather than just settling at ‘this is the end’ or if someone says ‘no,’ he’s always thinking creatively and coming up with new solutions,” Mohan explains.
“If I can learn anything from Elon Musk, it’s that I’d like to eventually have that same mentality, which is to keep on being persistent and using creativity to solve problems, just not accepting them at its face value.”
If his early years are any indication of the problems he will solve, the future looks to be in good hands.
