Jul. 16, 2026
Two smiling researchers wearing jackets sit on rocks at a sunny beach with shoreline homes and the ocean in the background.

A Georgia Tech student, Meghna Iyer, transformed her search to understand her mother's ALS into AI-driven research that could reshape how scientists study neurodegenerative diseases.

Meghna Iyer came to Georgia Tech determined to understand the disease that was slowly taking her mother's life. Working with researchers in the Georgia Tech Laboratory for Pathology Dynamics, she helped use AI to analyze 36 million biomedical research papers, uncovering biological connections among ALS, Alzheimer's disease, and frontotemporal dementia. After losing her mother, Meghna returned to the lab with an even stronger resolve to continue the work, earning first-author publication on the study and helping create a tool that could accelerate future research for families facing these devastating diseases.

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