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WATCH: Bergen Student Talks About Her Revolutionary Brain Injury Treatment Discovery

Indrani Das, 17, a student at Bergen County Academies, developed a new approach to treating brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.

Indrani Das, a student at Bergen County Academies,won $250,000 for developing a new approach to healing brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.

Das figured about a way to keep neurons from dying after a brain injury by supporting astrocytes, cells that support neurons. She developed a way of undoing the cells not metabolizing glutamate after a brain injury.

She used microRNA on mouse neurons in a petri dish and it worked. The microRNA helped the astrocytes metabolize more glutamate.

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RELATED: Bergen Student Wins $250,000, Nation's Top High School Science Competition

Nowthis.com, a news website, featured a video of Das explaining her award-winning idea. Check it out below.

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Photo: Indrani Das holds up some of her research and findings at a display of her project. She studied a possible approach to treating the death of neurons due to brain injury or neurodegenerative disease. — Courtesy of Society for Science & The Public

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