Teen Scientists Tackle Addiction: The Cali-Mod Story

Cali-Mod is a team of biology researchers studying one of humanity's biggest challenges: addiction. Despite securing thousands in funding and preparing for international competitions, these scientists are not PhDs or even college students—they're high schoolers.

“We started with the idea of bringing synthetic biology to California,” said Valerie Wu, a high school junior and co-leader of the team. “I attended an international school where we had competitions, and we thought it’d be cool to introduce synthetic biology and real lab experiences to schools here, where there's not a lot of opportunity aside from internships.”

When asked about how it feels to be pioneers in this field, Valerie responded humbly: “It doesn’t feel like anything special. It’s just something we decided to do together, and it resulted in something new.” She credits their progress to the dedication of the team members. “It’s the amount of times we've worked together during summer or even overnight. That dedication and commitment is what drives and inspires us.”

Cali-Mod’s journey began in February, and within two months, they had formed a team, raised over $5,000, and started their research. They’re now in the final stages of preparation for their competition in October.

The team chose to focus on addiction after brainstorming major issues in California, particularly in the Los Angeles area. They began exploring dopamine pathways to understand how addiction forms. “We had to do a lot of in-depth research because none of us had much background in this area,” said Angela. “We reached out to professors and experts to learn as much as we could.”

Each of the team’s three branches—research, business, and tech—has achieved significant milestones. Co-Leader Angela, who focuses on tech, shared, “We built our website from scratch, using three different programming languages and tools like GitLab. It's a whole other software we had to learn. We’re also looking into machine learning models, which isn’t done in California at all.”

On the business side, they’ve raised over $15,000 and grown their Instagram following, even building their own website.

“For research specifically, some of the biggest accomplishments are designing protocols from scratch, the in-depth research we've done, and just getting so much support and learning from this process. For a team with basically no experience, it’s been crazy!” exclaimed Valerie.

“We’ve done this from the ground up,” Valerie emphasized. “A lot of institutions or clubs are made with the support of parents or teachers. But for us, we are the foundation. Our team was the foundation. That’s our greatest accomplishment.”

When asked about their biggest challenges, Valerie pointed to credibility. “It’s hard to appeal to both experts and the public. We’re constantly explaining our research and seeking trust from people who will both help and critique us.” She also mentioned the difficulty of filtering through vast information, given their limited experience.

Cali-Mod has made many discoveries so far, but team member Joshua Wu’s connection with the company Onpatro was especially notable. “They are working in therapeutics, which are really similar to what we’ve been trying to do. After further research, we realized this kind of therapy rarely exists in society. It was crazy to see our work on addiction exists in real life, just on a different scale,” Angela said.

Working together has been a highlight for the team. “It has been so great learning from everyone. Everyone's work ethic on the team is so, so crazy. That's been really inspiring for us to watch as co-leaders. At the same time, interacting with them during team bonding or just hanging out filming reels has been fun.”

The story of Cali-Mod has inspired many high school students looking to start their own projects. To those students, Angela advises, “Just start somewhere, and be flexible with what you're doing. We began with nothing. We could have given up at any time, there were even times we questioned if we should keep going. But ‘just keep going’ is kind of our motto at this point.”

Valerie added, “I would say, find the right people. If you have an idea and someone you trust in terms of capability, work ethic, and ambition, just find the right person and get started.”

As for their future goals, the team is focused on performing well at the iGEM competition and establishing credibility in the scientific community. Long term, they hope to develop a therapeutic treatment for addiction and expand their organization to offer more students hands-on lab experience, whether in California or internationally.

Valerie and Angela concluded the interview with gratitude. “We would love to thank everyone on the team and the constant support we’ve been getting from parents and professors. Additionally, we’d like to thank the iGEM community, Lab Launch in Monrovia, Core Lab in Monrovia, and Mrs. Fung. We really appreciate it, so thank you so much,” concluded Angela.