Bay Area's BioGENEius winners hit Boston - Nikhil Buduma

If the Bay Area – or for that matter, the country -- wants to keep its lead in life sciences innovation, there’s hope in the forms of students like Natalie Ng and Nikhil Buduma.

They were the Bay Area’s entrants in the BioGENEius Challenge, a national biotechnology competition for high school students. Natalie and Nikhil didn’t win national award – the top honor went to Nathan Kondamuri of Dyer, Ind. – but they did the region proud at the Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention in Boston this week.