Caitlyn C. ’18 and her two partners have advanced as regional finalists in the Siemens Foundation competition based on their cancer research.

 

The Siemens Foundation competition, the “nation’s premier science research competition for high school students,” first selected Caitlyn’s team as one of 491 semifinalists out of 1860 projects submitted, then advanced the team to the top 101 regional finalists.

 

Caitlyn said she didn’t expect they would advance beyond semifinalists, so she was shocked when her mother texted her the news that they had made it to regionals.

 

“I was like ‘What? Is this possible?’ I went online to see if my name was actually on the list because I just didn’t believe it,” Caitlyn said.

 

Their research project evaluated the effects of three chemicals on colorectal, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and neuroblastoma cancer cells. More specifically, they looked at three novel maleic anhydride derivatives, and they found—through MTT, colony formation, migration and attachment assays—that these chemicals had “notable anticancer effects” on two of the cancers: colorectal and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The team chose to study these types of cancers because of their high prevalence, high mortality rate and lack of specific methods of treatment and chemotherapeutic regimens.

 

Caitlyn met her partners, Austin L. from Roslyn High School and Alan J. from Garden City Senior High School, at the SUNY-Neuroscience Institute Research lab over the summer and discovered they had a common interest in treatment of diseases. Austin and Alan have backgrounds in biology, while Caitlyn was more equipped with chemistry, so she took on the lead writer role of the 18-page paper they submitted.

 

“I’m really interested in chemistry, so I got to apply my knowledge of chemistry to explain how the chemicals worked,” she said. “…The thing I was most proud of was illustrating the reaction mechanism and then devising future experiments, modifying the chemical and seeing how different structures can affect functionality.”

 

In writing the research paper, Caitlyn said she learned how to be flexible and adaptable to new situations. For example, after three or four weeks into the program, the team took a more chemistry-focused approach to the project, and Caitlyn revised the introduction to the paper many times.

 

“I remember reading our paper in the final stages of it and thinking, ‘Wow, we have come such a long way. It’s so polished. It really came together,’” she said.

 

Caitlyn said she thinks the strength of their writing and editing skills and their diligence in conducting tests over and over again are some of the reasons they have made it so far in the competition. They also included rigorous detail about their methods and results, used graphs and supporting statistics and commented on why they think their research is important in the broader picture and how it builds on previous research.

 

Next month, Caitlyn and her team will give their oral presentation (virtually at Spence) to Carnegie Mellon professors who will serve as judges. Already, their team has earned $1,000 each in scholarship money, but they could potentially win more if they advance to the National Finals in Washington D.C. in December.