Lee County Public Schools is very proud to announce that Samantha Prabakaran, a freshman at Fort Myers High School, participated and excelled at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held in San Jose, California, is the world’s largest pre-college science and engineering competition. Approximately 1,600 young scientists and engineers from nearly 60 countries competed this year.

The title of Samantha’s project is “Treatment of Diabetic Vascular Disease by Targeting the TGF Beta 1 Gene.” Samantha worked on this research for two years and spent countless hours perfecting her presentation.

When all was said and done, Samantha won Second Place in Medicine and Health (there were more than 200 competitors in this category from across the globe.) In taking Second Place, Samantha earned the following awards: a cash prize of $1,500; the U.S. Air Force Award for research presentation, which also had a cash prize of $1,500; and the Endocrine Special Award with a cash prize of $ 500.