Gokul studies violin and is an avid reader. He stays active and makes friends by playing tennis. He aspires to become a cardiologist and feels "there is still room for development to benefit the masses."
Gokul developed an interest in the effect that acids and bases have on diseased cells. He chose to study neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system that strikes children in infancy. He suspected that such malignant cells would be susceptible to acidic or basic environments because extreme pH conditions would disrupt functions of cell membrane components. Gokul hypothesized that neuroblastoma cells grown in media with a pH of 7.0—similar to bodily fluids—would survive better than those grown in acidic or basic cultures.
Gokul obtained neuroblastoma cells and cultured them in media of various pH levels. After five days, Gokul took photographs of the cultures using a microscope fitted with a camera. He found that the neuroblastoma cells incubated at a pH of 7.0 grew best, whereas cells in acidic environments died. Cells incubated in a basic environment survived, but their counts were considerably lower than in the culture with a pH of 7.0.
