Medical innovation: bright Windsor sisters lead the way

Article content

While their peers play video games or focus on summer plans, a pair of local sisters have dedicated themselves to advancing medical innovation.

Sohila Kaur Sidhu, a Grade 12 student, and her sister, Sehar, who is in Grade 8, are earning accolades, developing medical advancements, and picking up scholarships in pursuit of a healthier future. 

“It’s fulfilling that I finally have gotten to this point in my project where it could have real-life applications,” said Sohila, who will be studying neuroscience at the University of Windsor next year.

Article content

“This really could be brought to the market down the line,” she told the Star.

Sohila developed a method to convert urinary stem cells into beta-pancreatic cells, which could be used for stem cell replacement therapy to treat Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

This earned her a Silver Medal Excellence Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair held in Ottawa from May 25 to June 1.

“My end goal was to identify these specific transcription factors, which is like a protein that allows for the expression or the turning on of a specific gene, allowing for the conversion of stem cells into pancreatic cells,” Sohila said.

It’s not the first time the youth has won an award for pancreatic research related to diabetes.

In 2022, Sohila earned a bronze medal and the Sanofi Biogenius Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in New Brunswick for creating a prototype of an artificial pancreas.

She also received a Youth Can Innovate Award, which recognizes her project as innovative and original and demonstrates a practical application in advancing society. 

Sohila said she was inspired by her mother, who had gestational diabetes while she was pregnant with her younger sister, Sehar.

Article content

That experience, along with the knowledge that many people in Canada live with diabetes, made her want to do something about it. 

“I had to watch as she pricked herself every day to test her blood glucose levels,” Sohila said. “Watching her struggle, I was compelled to make a difference.” 

Sehar, who is about to graduate from Windsor’s Bellewood Public School, also received several awards at the Canada-Wide Science Fair.

Her project called “Delving Deep Into SARS-CoV-2” earned a Silver Medal Excellence Award, the Challenge Award in Disease and Illness, the Sanofi Biogenius Canada Award — and a Western University entrance scholarship.

The goal of this project, according to Sehar, was to find more efficient inhibitors to stop the replication of the virus that causes COVID-19.

“The virus continues to evolve with new mutations,” said Sehar, who will be attending Assumption High School in the fall. “New ways to treat COVID-19 are needed.”

Sehar is set to follow in the footsteps of her sister and attend the international baccalaureate program at Assumption — a two-year pre-university course of study designed to meet the needs of “highly motivated secondary school students.”

mholmeshill@postmedia.com

Article content