As a teenager, Sahiba Ahmed sold bagels to raise money to fight cystic fibrosis (CF), a progressive disease that causes persistent lung infections, limits breathing \u2014 and also afflicts her cousin. Today, as a sophomore at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, the young scientist is spearheading her own research to help to find better treatments \u2014 and recently earned support from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for her studies on identifying and \u201cturning off\u201d genes to provide better targets for drug therapies for the disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m interested in this research because this is personal,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to do something that will benefit the cystic fibrosis community.\u201d<\/p>\n