Samhitha Bodangi
Samhitha Bodangi’s idea for a school science project grew from something she knew little about: organ transplants.
“I went down a rabbit hole and learned that there have been so many advances in kidney transplants but also that transplant science has reached a plateau,” says Bodangi, a graduating senior at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI. “Doctors prescribe drugs to suppress the immune system in organ recipients, but chronic organ rejection continues to happen in about half of all kidney transplants five years after transplant. I became interested in using my computer science and coding experience to advance the field.”
The result was PIPSA, which stands for Predicting Indirect Peptides with Solvent Accessibility. PIPSA is a model that predicts a patient’s risk of organ rejection by analyzing peptides from donor organs and offering doctors guidance on personalized treatments that could prevent rejection.
Transplant rejection occurs when a patient’s immune system reacts to a foreign organ or tissue, causing symptoms such as inflammation. Sometimes, rejection can develop soon after transplant. Chronic rejection, however, usually shows up months or years after transplant and can lead to a cascade of health problems.
Bodangi worked on PIPSA with Mass Academy teacher Kevin Crowthers and with professors at UMass Chan Medical School. Mass Academy is a tuition-free, coeducational school that enrolls 11th and 12th grade students from Massachusetts. Students take classes at WPI, which prepares them for college academics.
For her presentation at WPI’s 2024 Demo Day, which was organized by WPI’s i3 Lab, Bodangi received a $1,500 prize. The i3 Lab—i3 stands for ideation, innovation, and incubation—encourages student entrepreneurship through education, extracurricular activities, advising, mentoring, showcases, and competitions.
Bodangi, who has committed to attend Case Western Reserve University, continues to refine her prototype model. She also wants to talk to more doctors about organ rejection and learn more about existing organ-matching models and antirejection treatments.
“My model focuses on the long-term risks of organ rejection, and my goal is to develop a licensable product that doctors or hospitals could use to help with organ matching and risk assessment,” Bodangi says. “A product like this could potentially help a lot of transplant patients and make their treatments and their lives healthier. That is something I’m very passionate about.”
