Nineteen-year-old Adam Kovalčík, a student of the M. R. Štefánik Gymnasium in Nové Zámky, achieved extraordinary success at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2025 in Columbus, Ohio, USA, where he won the main prize of the competition – the George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award – and a financial prize of $100,000.
For his innovative research and development of the drug “Antivirals from Corn – A Novel Sereoselective Synthesis of Galidesivir from Furfuryl Alcohol”, he won the award in the Chemistry category, which can stop viruses from copying genes and control infections.
The Regeneron ISEF 2025 competition, held May 10-16 in Columbus, celebrated its 75th anniversary and welcomed nearly 2,000 finalists from more than 60 countries. Regeneron ISEF is considered the largest international science competition for high school students, offering prizes totaling more than $8 million.
Adam Kovalčík has developed a more efficient and cheaper way to synthesize the antiviral drug galidesivir, which is effective against RNA viruses such as COVID-19, Ebola and Zika. His method uses furfuryl alcohol extracted from corn husks, reducing the number of synthetic steps from 15 to 10, cutting production time from nine to five days, and lowering the cost from $75 to about $12.50 per gram. By utilizing inexpensive materials from corn stover, he proposed a shorter and more efficient way to produce galidesivir. In addition, he has created a new antiviral molecular derivative that, according to preliminary calculations, could be up to five times more effective than the original galidesivir. The simpler production of these drugs facilitates their research and, if approved, also improves their availability, which expands our options for treating viral infections.
Adam Kovalčík has already received valuable accolades during special awards ceremonies, where he was awarded 2nd place by the American Chemical Society and 1st place by The Drug, Chemical and Associated Technologies Association for his scientific contributions.
His research impressed the judges not only for its scientific value, but also for its elegant chemistry and confident presentation. Kovalčík has already submitted a preliminary application and plans to continue his research in collaboration with the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, where he will focus on the further development of drug synthesis and production processes.
More information:
ISEF: The project “Antivirals from maize – Novel seroselective synthesis of Galidesivir from furfuryl alcohol” can be found here.
Published 19.05.2025, slord
