What she did
Cummings created a fruit-fly model of STAC3 disorder, also known as Native American myopathy, according to the Society for Science's announcement of the 2025 awards. She then tested nettle herb, on its own and paired with the experimental drug Tirasemtiv, and found that both improved movement in adult flies and in larvae.
Building the model is the substance of the work. A disease model is an organism engineered to carry the same broken machinery as the patient, so that candidate treatments can be tried at speed and at scale. Drosophila, the common fruit fly, has been the workhorse of that approach for more than a century because it breeds fast and its genetics are unusually well mapped.
The disease she chose
STAC3 disorder is rare, and rarity is the problem. A condition that affects a small number of families draws little commercial research money, and the people who live with it wait longest for a treatment. Work that opens a cheap, fast experimental route into such a disease is worth more than its size suggests.
What the sources used here state is narrow and should be read narrowly: an improvement in the movement of flies and larvae. That is a laboratory result in an insect, not a therapy, and nothing in the record claims any effect in people.
The 2025 competition
The 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search was the 84th edition of the contest. It honoured 40 finalists, awarded $1.8 million among them and $3.1 million in total across the competition, with the final ceremony held at the National Building Museum in Washington on 11 March 2025.
First place and $250,000 went to Matteo Paz, 18, of Pasadena, California, for machine-learning work on 200 billion entries of infrared survey data that classified celestial objects and flagged 1.5 million possible new ones. Third place and $150,000 went to Owen Jianwen Zhang of Bellevue, Washington, for a solved problem in hypergraph mathematics. Cummings's $175,000 sat between them.
What is documented, and what is not
Documented: the placement, the prize of $175,000, her age of 18, her home town of Smithfield, North Carolina, the fruit-fly model of STAC3 disorder and the finding on nettle herb and Tirasemtiv.
Not documented in these sources: her school, her mentors or laboratory, how she came to the disease, whether the work has been published in a journal, and where she has gone since March 2025. The Society publishes summaries, not the underlying research.
Why the Science Talent Search counts
The contest, run by the Society for Science, is the oldest science research competition for American high-school seniors. Entrants submit original work and defend it before a panel of scientists; the placements are decided in Washington on that defence as much as on the paper.
The prize structure explains the attention it draws. A second-place award of $175,000 covers an undergraduate education outright. For a student who has already built a working animal model of a rare disease before leaving school, the money is the smaller part of what the week in Washington provides.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sawsan Ahmed | United States | Broward College's youngest graduate, at 12, in December 2021 | Age 12 |
| Arvind Mahankali | United States | Won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Kerry Close | United States | Won the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Shania Muhammad | United States | Langston University's youngest graduate, at 15 | Age 15 |
| Ava Grace Cummings | United States | Second place, Regeneron Science Talent Search 2025 | Age 18 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- She took second place and $175,000 at the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search
- She built a fruit-fly model of STAC3 disorder and tested nettle herb and Tirasemtiv
- She was 18 and from Smithfield, North Carolina
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Her school, mentors and laboratory
- Whether the work has been published in a peer-reviewed journal
- Any effect of the compounds beyond flies and larvae
- Where she is studying now
Questions people ask about Ava Grace Cummings
How old is Ava Grace Cummings?
The Society for Science recorded her as 18 at the March 2025 awards; her birth year is given as 2007. No date of birth appears in these sources.
What did Ava Grace Cummings win?
Second place and $175,000 at the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search, announced on 11 March 2025 in Washington.
What was her project?
A fruit-fly model of STAC3 disorder, a rare inherited muscle disease also called Native American myopathy, used to test nettle herb alone and with the experimental drug Tirasemtiv.
Did she find a cure?
No. The documented result is improved movement in adult fruit flies and larvae. No effect in humans is claimed by any source used here.
Where is she from?
Smithfield, North Carolina.
Who won first place that year?
Matteo Paz of Pasadena, California, who took $250,000 for machine-learning analysis of infrared survey data covering 200 billion entries.
Where is Ava Grace Cummings now?
No source used here reports her university or later work. Nothing after March 2025 is documented on this page.
Is Ava Grace Cummings on Wikipedia?
She has no article of her own in the sources used here. Her award is recorded on the Society for Science's own site.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Ava Grace’s story?
What animal did Ava Grace Cummings use to model STAC3 disorder?
How much did she win in 2025?
Which substances improved movement in her flies?
Sources
- Regeneron Science Talent Search 2025 Awards More Than $1.8 Million to High School Seniors — Society for Science, 2025-03-11
- Regeneron STS 2025 (top 10) — Society for Science
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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