Some patients wait for an interpreter. Others wait for evidence that includes them. I build for both.
I study how gene variants shape autoimmune disease, and I build tools and programs that help my community. So far that has meant a computational pipeline ranking disease variants across 20+ loci, a food-rescue app that has matched 15,000+ meals to shelters, and a teaching network across nine countries delivering 30+ classes a week.
Thirty-four thousand GWAS variants that no one has ranked, a shelter three miles from surplus food with no way to connect, and a rural clinic with no specialist on any continent. I start where infrastructure ends.
A computational pipeline running on AWS GPUs, three published apps on the App Store, and a 501(c)(3) that has earned Candid Platinum transparency.
Train 30+ volunteer instructors so one person’s class becomes 1,600. Recruit 35 corporate professionals so one teenager’s idea has enterprise talent behind it. Open-source the code so the next researcher doesn’t start from zero. Build it so it scales past me.
Present at ASHG, report the null result, file the patent, publish the preprint with open data, earn the Candid Platinum seal, and let NBC, the Tribune, and NaperToday tell the story independently.
Founder and Independent Researcher · 2024 to present
Autoimmune GWAS studies point at about 34,000 candidate credible-set alleles across diseases like MS, rheumatoid arthritis, IBD, type 1 diabetes, lupus, and psoriasis. Most do nothing. At Karmyx Biolabs, my independent computational-genomics lab, I built a pre-registered pipeline (SuSiE fine-mapping, Enformer deep-learning variant scoring, locus-matched null calibration) that ranks candidate regulatory variants at 20+ loci across multiple ancestry groups, run on AWS EC2 GPU instances.
It recovered the 17q gold-standard positive control, and when my initial CTCF insulator hypothesis failed, I reported the null result with open code, because a clean no saves the next researcher months. The work is a preprint on Research Square, open data on Zenodo, an accepted ASHG 2026 poster, and a U.S. provisional patent application.
Before the pipeline, I authored a meta-analytic review, “Somatic Mutations as Biomarkers for Autoimmune Disease,” surveying 15 published cohorts (2,500+ patients) with a focus on TET2 and STAT3. The question that started everything was whether what oncology already knows can help autoimmune disease.
The pipeline, the data, and the code are open. Any lab can rerun, extend, or challenge the analysis.
Four programs over three summers, the same tools professional labs use. These are the methods I later applied in my own project.
All three are free on the Apple App Store, and each one grew out of a problem I watched go unsolved.
Sole developer, published on the App Store as a coordination tool. The app stores no patient data, and treating providers keep all clinical records.
App Store →
Sole developer, live and in daily use, handling meal-matching logistics with no personal data collected.
App Store →Sole developer, published on the App Store. The app sends audio to a speech-to-text API and discards it after transcription.
App Store →
Founder and President
In 2021, I taught one English class to one group of students in Mexico. By 2024, that single class had grown into a 501(c)(3) delivering free STEM and literacy education to 1,000+ students across 9 countries, with a Rwanda launch in progress. I recruited and trained 30+ volunteer instructors from 8 companies so the classes run across multiple time zones. A 20+ member core operating team coordinates the operation, and 35+ skilled corporate volunteers from Walmart, Microsoft, Humana, Morningstar, Costco, and LPL Financial contribute their expertise.
EmpowerEats, our food-rescue program, has rescued 15,000+ meals for Chicagoland shelters, with about 6,000 going to domestic-violence and community shelters in 2025 and about 9,000 so far in 2026, including roughly 150 weekly to Hesed House. The network started after 60+ restaurant pitches earned the first yes and has since grown to 6 recurring restaurant partners, with Bridge 2 Meal handling the matching and a partnership with Illinois State Senator Laura Ellman on the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act addressing donor-liability concerns. In 2026, the foundation hosted Senator Ellman as speaker at our Compassionate Kitchen Awards, our recognition program for partner restaurants.
I also served as Student Leader on the Naperville Sister Cities Commission, representing youth across 16 City Council commission meetings in 2024.
About 450 hours · Grades 9 through 12 · Three specialties
Under staff supervision, I handled patient check-in and intake and shadowed surgeons and cardiologists for about 450 hours across orthopedic and hand surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and cardiology. I recorded histories and vital signs, relayed updates to physicians, and supported the physician assistant during clinic visits. Over two weeks in the operating room I observed surgeons manage osteoarthritis and oral/maxillofacial conditions, and I followed a cardiology practice through evaluation, diagnostic workup, and outpatient management.
What I paid the most attention to was how physicians walk patients through pain management, treatment options, and shared decision-making.
Founder and President · 2025 to present
I built a 30+ member research-methods program at Neuqua Valley that takes students from question to defensible finding. The curriculum covers framing falsifiable hypotheses, distinguishing exploratory from confirmatory aims, selecting controls and sample strategy, and pre-specifying analysis plans before data collection. It comes from first-hand practice in literature review and citation discipline, variable isolation, interpreting negative results, and documentation to IJAS/ISAS/JSHS submission standards. I mentor members one-on-one through full competition cycles, and several have advanced to regional and state competitions.
State-certified · 2023 to 2025
Tutored non-native adult immigrants in English literacy and communication, designing a personalized curriculum for each learner covering vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, conversational fluency, and job-interview preparation with culturally responsive teaching.
Grant-Review Committee Member · In partnership with North Central College
A selective two-year program carrying 4 transcripted college credits. Year one involved training in nonprofit management, governance, and grantmaking. I served on the grant-review committee funding youth nonprofits, helped approve a $500 community grant, and secured a $750 grant for the Empower Futurewave Foundation. Year two involves designing a fundraising campaign. Invited to the KidsMatter Youth Leadership Summit.
Seven-time district winner of the Young Authors Competition, and author of a published young-adult novel, Karma Spirits and the Dark Moth, written at age 10.
Four years of continuous ensemble violin at Neuqua Valley, progressing from Concert Orchestra to Symphonic Orchestra to Symphonic Strings. Now studying audio engineering and composition through Music Production I and II, with performances at local senior homes. Twelve-plus years of Hindustani classical vocal training, since age 5.
Assistant figure skating coach at Rocket Ice Arena in Bolingbrook since 2024, demonstrating fundamentals to young children, adapting to each skater’s confidence, and keeping beginners encouraged through falls and first successes.
English, Spanish, Gujarati, and Hindi. The morning an interpreter never arrived for an elderly patient at a clinic where I was shadowing, the distance between her and her care felt one sentence wide. Those four languages are why Dictation5x5 handles accents and why I built iGlobal multilingual from day one.
NBC 5 Chicago featured Navya Shah and Empower Futurewave Foundation in their Making a Difference segment, highlighting how her team of 20 student volunteers uses the Bridge 2 Meal app to rescue surplus prepared meals from restaurants and event kitchens in Naperville and deliver them to shelters in real time.
“You don’t have to have a lot of money to do something good for the world.” Navya Shah
NaperToday covered how Navya Shah built Bridge 2 Meal to connect Naperville restaurants with surplus prepared food to nearby shelters. The article highlights the app’s four-step process, from flagging surplus food to same-day delivery, and notes that food insecurity has risen more than 50 percent in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties since 2019.
“Last year we had about 6,000 meals delivered. I think this year we are currently somewhere around 9,000, so total I’d say like 15,000 meals so far.” Navya Shah
Rep. Lauren Underwood named Navya Shah of Neuqua Valley High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Illinois’s 14th District. Bridge 2 Meal competed against over 4,600 apps submitted by more than 13,800 students nationwide.
The Batavia Public Library invited Navya Shah to present on her journey building a nonprofit that addresses both food insecurity and education inequality. The talk covered how Empower Futurewave delivered 6,000 meals to domestic violence and community shelters in 2025, with local restaurants partnering to donate unused fresh food through a team of student volunteers.
The Chicago Tribune profiled Navya Shah, 17-year-old founder of Empower Futurewave Foundation, and the organization’s impact on communities locally and globally. The article highlights how EmpowerEats delivers approximately 150 meals every week to Hesed House in Aurora, one of the largest shelters in Illinois, with volunteers and business owners coordinating through the Bridge 2 Meal app.
I will present the Karmyx Biolabs variant-prioritization pipeline at the premier human genetics conference, covering 20+ autoimmune disease loci across multiple ancestry groups.
Five-plus years in Science Olympiad across Anatomy and Physiology, Microbe Mission, Disease Detectives, Optics, and Material Science, with participation in USNCO (Chemistry) and USABO (Biology). Competition results include IJAS 2× Gold, ISAS Gold, JSHS State Finalist, the 2025 Congressional App Challenge (IL-14), and an ASHG 2026 poster presentation in Montreal.
I’m a senior at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois. My research focuses on how genetic variation contributes to autoimmune disease. I also build software tools for healthcare and food rescue, and I run a nonprofit that teaches STEM and literacy classes in nine countries.
I’m headed for medicine.