Browse 95 real Cellular and Molecular Biology projects entered in 2026, with abstracts, awards and links to the original entries.
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Junior Division)
CDK4/6 inhibitors are used to treat hormone receptor–positive (HR+), HER2-negative breast cancer by blocking cell-cycle progression. Although several CDK4/6 inhibitors are approved, further…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Resistant hypertension affects billions of people globally, however despite improvements in science and drug discover, hypertension remains one of the most deadly causing over 10 million dea…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Currently, small-molecule drug discovery for diseases such as Alzheimer’s (AD) remains challenging due to the inefficiency and costliness of traditional high-throughput screening (HTS), regu…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Flavonoids, a subclass of polyphenols, are known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, potentially reducing the risk of cancer. This experiment tested the ability of five s…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Rapid viral evolution continues to outpace conventional vaccine development, particularly for highly variable pathogens such as Influenza A, Norovirus, and HIV. Although epitope-based vaccin…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division) Honorable_mention Award
This project sought to explore accessible means for extracting horseradish peroxidase (HRP), an enzyme commonly utilized in chemical and biological experiments. While purified HRP can be eas…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Interactomes provide a framework for mapping the cellular interactions that drive essential biological processes, revealing how their disruption leads to diseases like cancer. Analysis of su…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
?9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is among the most prevalent psychoactive drugs in the United States, with nearly 20 million users each day. Yet, detection capabilities remain limited for roads…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
By 2050, food production must rise to meet the needs of a global population of over nine billion people. However, plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) are a leading cause of annual agricultural…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Many neurodegenerative diseases involve progressive neuronal dysfunction associated with mitochondrial impairment, protein aggregation, and axonal pathology, leading to detrimental motor and…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Junior Division)
Title: Blue in Orange Juice This project studied how quickly vitamin C degrades when oranges are stored in a freezer, refrigerator, or at room temperature. It was hypothesized that freezing…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Airway diseases are known for the excessive production of mucus and inflammatory levels. Nonetheless, most of the current literature has been on intracellular pathways rather than on the ext…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer (BC) in the US, and peripheral nerves are present in upwards of 85% of BC cases. Adrenergic signaling, regulated by stress neurotransmitters lik…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
The vast number of mutations within a genome makes it a central challenge in genomics to determine the process behind how mutations result in phenotypic diversity. Humans have bred dogs over…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer and has over 300,000 cases globablly, rapidly progressing in the blood and bone marrow. ALL affected cells often overexpress…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Junior Division)
Medulloblastoma is a fast-growing brain tumor that mostly affects children. Current treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can hurt healthy cells and cause bad side effects, sometime lea…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Hypoxia is common in solid tumors, and Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 Alpha (HIF-1a) plays a key role in adaptation to low-oxygen environments. This year’s research focused primarily on the intr…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Depression is a serious mental health disorder that affects individuals of all ages, including high school students. Social stress and ongoing emotional development contribute to a growing r…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division) First Award
Reliable characterization of cell states, which encompass a cell’s function, environment, and structure, is fundamental to comprehending healthy cell function and molecular pathways driving…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Many melanoma patients who initially respond to targeted BRAF-inhibitor therapies develop drug resistance that is often fatal. While current research has identified phenotype switching in ma…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase that preserves chromosomal integrity by extending telomeres, yet it is upregulated in over 85% of cancers, enabling indefinite replica…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Biosensors are an innovative technology that use fluorescence to visualize protein expression and activity in eukaryotic cells primarily using a Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) syst…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Junior Division)
Oxidative stress is linked to many human diseases, including aging, cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. It occurs when too many reactive oxyge…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division)
Diabetes is characterized by dysregulated glucose homeostasis due to reduced quantity and quality of functional insulin-producing beta-cells in the pancreas. Accumulation of DNA damage in pa…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Everyday behavior is shaped by both conscious and unconscious processes. While neuroscience research has traditionally focused on brain activity associated with conscious perception, far les…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Junior Division) First Award
To combat cancer and address drug resistance, there is growing scientific interest in plants that produce compounds with therapeutic potential. CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism) plant Kalan…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Solid tumors contain a tumor microenvironment (TME) with high levels of immunosuppressive metabolites that interfere with T cell activation. While CAR T cells are effective in blood cancers,…
ISEF · 2026
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Cancer immunotherapy seeks to harness the immune system to selectively target tumor cells. This study investigated whether human T cells could be engineered to recognize melanoma cells expre…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Junior Division) Third Award
Vitamin C is a crucial variable needed in the human body in order for it to fruition accordingly. However, when food is cooked, the concentration level of vitamin C can be significantly decr…
CSEF · 2026
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Senior Division) Fourth Award
Cervical cancer is the 2nd largest among all gynecological cancer cases reported worldwide and is a challenge to treat. Immunotherapy remains a widely recognized treatment option but suffers…