A Pacific Palisades high school student is among 30 semi-finalists from around the world competing in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, with $400,000 in prizes on the line.

Chloe Suh, 17, created a video explaining narcolepsy, its causes and recent treatments. The public can vote for her entry in the Popular Vote Challenge through Dec. 9 on the contest's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

"Proper sleep is integral to keep up with her studies," according to information about Suh's project. She comes from a family of medical professionals, including a great-grandmother who was an internist trained in Russia.

The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global science video competition founded in 2015 that encourages students ages 13 to 18 to create engaging videos demonstrating complex scientific concepts in physics, life sciences or mathematics.

The winner receives $250,000 in educational prizes, while their teacher receives $50,000 and their school gets a $100,000 state-of-the-art science laboratory designed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

The Popular Vote winner will automatically advance to the final round of judging, bypassing the Selection Committee Review. The video with the highest combined number of likes and positive reactions on Facebook and views on YouTube wins the public vote.

Since its launch, the contest has received more than 30,000 submissions from more than 200 countries. Previous winners have created videos about Einstein's Theory of Relativity, circadian rhythms, neutrino astronomy and quantum physics.

The contest is co-founded by Julia and Yuri Milner and aims to inspire creative thinking about important scientific concepts among young people. For more information visit https://breakthroughjuniorchallenge.org.