NewRoFoundation

The students in New Rochelle High School’s Science Research Program explore a dazzling range of topics under the mentorship of professional scientists from some of the top institutions of learning and exploration. This week, we look at students who have entered the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search competition.

Twelve New Rochelle High School seniors entered the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search this week, with research projects exploring drought and flooding in southern Africa, opioid addiction, green roofs and much more.

The students comprise the largest group ever to have entered the competition from NRHS’s Science Research Program.

“I’ve always been excited sharing my results with people,” said senior Sarah Athir, who studied mud samples from around the Zambezi River to examine climate change that is causing extremes in drought and flooding. “It tests my own knowledge of the topic. It’s a nerve-wracking experience, but it’s rewarding.”

Formerly known as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, the competition draws about 1,900 students each year. Its goal is to recognize and empower the “nation’s most promising young scientists who are developing ideas that could solve society’s most urgent challenges,” its website says.

The competition recognizes 300 student scholars and their schools each year and invites 40 student finalists to Washington, D.C. to participate in final judging and meet with notable scientists and government leaders. Each year, Regeneron STS scholars and finalists compete for $3.1 million in awards.

The NRHS students are looking to build on last year’s results when their schoolmate Jake Egelberg became one of 300 scholars chosen from among nearly 2,000 entrants.

“The Science Research Program has been getting bigger and better over the years,” said current senior Fatima Gonzalez, whose study of epilepsy in rats found that the prevalence of a protein called Interleukin 17 correlates with a lack of seizures. “It’s an amazing program because it lets you have hands-on laboratory experience at fifteen, sixteen and seventeen years old.”

This year, COVID restrictions forced much of the work to be done via internet and email. Yaffa Segal had to set aside a project testing for heavy metals in honey collected from rooftop beehives in New York City. She took on a new project, testing the effectiveness of ecological simulation software named COBWEB in modeling the movement of water as it seeps through the earth and vegetation of a green roof.

Hayden Roberge explored the interplay between opioid addiction and chronic pain in web-based substance abuse treatments to determine how demographic differences between opioid and non-opioid users have an effect on treatment outcomes. The newly gained knowledge can bring improvements to current treatments and reduce the impact of the opioid epidemic crisis in the United States, which has worsened since the spread of COVID-19.

Rachel Rivera tackled the nation’s two leading causes of death – heart disease and cancer. She isolated a gene associated with hypertension, which can grow worse with cancer treatments that seek to battle the growth of tumors by blocking them from growing their own blood vessels.

“Now we need to silence the gene so we can decrease its side effects,” she said.

Brittney Benjamin studied a protein that leads to lymphoma, and looked at the effects of “deleting” the protein in genetically modified mice. Of her entry into the Regeneron competition, Benjamin said; “It’s the culmination of all my work in the Science Research Program. This helped me develop and grow as a scientist.”