When I'm older, I want to be a medical researcher and potentially a doctor.

At just 14, Annika Shabrolu is one of the top scientists of her age.

She won three M's Young Scientist Challenge of 2020 for her discovery that could lead to

a potential therapy for COVID-19.

Her passion for science started years before the pandemic hit, but she was inspired to

focus her research on the coronavirus once its impact became clear.

But today I'm going to do something different.

I'm going to hand things over to Annika to talk about her award-winning project and what

she plans to do next.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, and this is coronavirus, fact,

versus fiction.

I am Annika Shabrolu.

I'm from Frisco, Texas and I'm 14 years old.

My grandfather actually used to live with us for a long time and living with him was really

fun for me because I always go to his room and we used to talk about science.

He used to kind of let me learn about the periodic table of elements, being a chemistry professor.

And he used to bring home science experiments, the little ones like building a volcano in

your backyard or making salt crystals.

And it was really interesting because of the vastness of it and there are so many places

to discover and there are so many places for invention and curiosity.

So that kind of pushed me forward and got me thinking of new ways to indulgence science

and get to know it more.

...