As scientists around the world race to find a treatment for the coronavirus, a young girl among them stands out.

Anika Chebrolu, a 14­year­old from Frisco, Texas, has just won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge ­­ and a $25,000 prize ­­ for a discovery that could provide a potential therapy to Covid­19 (or SARS­CoV­2 virus).

Anika's winning invention uses in­silico methodology to discover a lead molecule that can selectively bind to the spike protein of the SARS­CoV­2 virus.

"The last two days, I saw that there is a lot of media hype about my project since it involves the SARS­CoV­2 virus and it reflects our collective hopes to end this pandemic as I, like everyone else, wish that we go back to our normal lives soon," Anika told CNN.

The coronavirus has killed more than 1.1 million people globally since China reported its first case to the World Health Organization (WHO) in December. The United States has more than 219,000 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Anika, who is Indian American, submitted her project when she was in 8th grade ­­ but it wasn't always going to be focused on finding a cure for Covid­19. Initially, her goal was to use in­silico methods to identify a lead compound that could bind to a protein of the influenza virus.

"After spending so much time researching about pandemics, viruses and drug discovery, it was crazy to think that I was actually living through something like this," Anika said.

"Because of the immense severity of the Covid­19 pandemic and the drastic impact it had made on the world in such a short time, I, with the help of my mentor, changed directions to target the SARS­CoV­2 virus." Anika said she was inspired to find potential cures to viruses after learning about the 1918 flu pandemic and finding out how many people die every year in the United States despite annual vaccinations and anti­influenza drugs on the market.

Chef Bruno Abate owns one of the best pizzerias in Chicago. His restaurant makes thin pizzas, heated in an oven with a wood-burning fire. They come with fillings like mushrooms, onions, olives, tomatoes and Italian meats. Each pizza sells for between $12 and $18 at Abate’s restaurant, Tocco. But do you know you can get a similar pizza for half the price at the Cook County Jail (监狱) in Chicago?

Abate leads a cooking school at the jail. He shows prisoners how to make pizza, pasta, and Italian ice cream, called gelato. The cooking school is called “Recipe for Change.” There, behind the jail’s barbed wires and security barriers, a number of students, including Shaquille Slater, are making pizzas. “I like everything I do,” he says.

Slater makes pizza dough (面团), and then adds fillings to the dough. He makes sure the pizza and its fillings look just right before they come out of the oven. He says working with food makes him forget about being in jail. “It brings up memories of days when you were free and when you were having a good time,” he says.

Workers at the cooking school make about 200 pizzas every week. The pizzas are sold to other prisoners in the jail for about $7 each.

Abate says he is teaching cooking skills to the prisoners, and how to use good, fresh in-gredients (佐料). When they finish the class, the Students have skills they can use to find jobs when they are released from prison.

Abate says his program teaches more than how to make food. He helps the students learn that they need to have a plan for their future so they do not return to prison once they leave the prison. “Through food, I try to teach, you know, how to change in life,” Abate says.