1. A research team at MIT led by Professor Essigmann has been working on finding a way to destroy HIV. 2. Tiffany Amariuta, a 2011 high school valedictorian, joined the team as a freshman at MIT in 2011 and within a year helped discover a molecule that kills HIV by causing it to mutate itself to death. 3. The molecule, 8-oxo-deoxy-guanosine, increases HIV's mutation rate until the virus destroys itself.

1. HIV TO SELF-DESTRUCT. MIT RESEARCH
WITH TIFFANY AMARIUTA
07/04/2013

2. A research team at the Biological Engineering Lab at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
under the direction of Professor Dr. Essigmann, has
dedicated several years to an “out of the box” idea
with all its world-class resources.
Tiffany Amariuta, 2011 Valedictorian of the
Hasbrouck Heights High School, a Bio-Engineering
student at MIT, joined this elite research team in
November 2011.
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3. Not even one year later, in August 2012, Tiffany (age
18) was deeply involved with this project performing
one-dimensional Fourier Transform Infrared
Spectroscopy.
In the process, she observed and identified
unexpected spectra that had certain similarities
to other typical lethal mutagenesis activators.
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4. Thus, a molecule that kills the HIV virus was
discovered. The molecule 8-oxo-deoxy-guanosine is a
nucleoside that acts as an extreme catalyst and may be
used in HIV treatment via lethal mutagenis; in other
words, whis molecule will increase the rate of
reproduction of the HIV virus until the HIV produces
enough mutagenic protein and actually destroyes itself.
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5. Tiffany’s work on the project also included complex
geometrical optimizations for tautomerized
molecules using Gaussview and UNIX.
In October 2012, she finished her freshman year at
MIT with a 4.8 out of 5.0 GPA, and was approved for
another year of Undergraduate Research Opportunity
Program
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6. MIT is consistently ranked as the world’s top
engineering university, and offers amazing
opportunities. Tiffany has decided to pursue two
undergrad-uate degrees, one in Biological
Engineering and a second in Physics. Only 2.5 % of
MIT’s undergraduate engineering students attempt a
double degree.
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7. The discoveries of the MIT research project and
Tiffany’s findings have been submitted for publication
in Nature magazine, recognized as the world’s most
cited interdisciplinary scientific journal. The article is
entitled: “Tautomerism of 8-oxo-2'deoxyguanosine and
Its Mutagenicity.”
Tiffany is the daughter of Mrs. And Dr. Ion Amariuta
of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
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8. Music: NARCIS IUSTIN IANAU (an 18 years Romanian contra tenor)
MAY IT BE LORD OF THE RING
This article was published in “THE GAZETTE” from
USA, in January 13, 2013.
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