W By Archana Rao, MD
April 2019 Dallas Medical Journal 11
ith that interesting and
humorous introduction, we now recount
the details of event.
About 900 projects were presented
by the junior and senior students. These
were broadly categorized into 20 groups
of projects.
Drs. Gordon Green, Sarah Helfand,
Preeti Malladi, Brenda Mears, Archana
Rao and Matt Sloan teamed up this
year as the judges. After a brief meeting
during the breakfast mentioned earlier,
we decided to break into 2 groups of 3
judges each so we could review the 46
projects that were a part of this broad
category.
What burning questions inspired these
youngsters to seek out answers using
the methodology of experimentation and
objective understanding? It turns out
there are very many questions in these
young minds. For instance, the constant
pursuit of optimal human nutrition
featured in many projects — from
deciphering the actual mineral content
of available cereals to sugar content in
health foods and more. One team also
created a neat way of measuring protein
in milk using a colorimeter.
Is there truth in age old remedies?
Several budding scientific minds explored
this idea in more detail studying curcumin,
green tea, honey etc. in various settings
like in oxidant effects in cells, tissue types.
With the influx in the market of essential
oils and natural supplements, some
projects focused on trying to understand
better this claim of wellness and cure.
One of these projects received an
honorable mention from our DCMS
judging team. Pranavi Garlapati from
Coppell High School presented
a study on the effect of various
commercially available antioxidants
on lab-created oxidant stress.
Alzheimer’s disease got a lot
of attention as well. From dietary
modifications that may benefit to
alternative approaches like music
therapy, these students were
interacting with seniors in memory
care settings and meticulously
studying the effects of therapies
on these patients. Their effort is
commendable. Of course, these efforts
probably need to be enhanced and
continued to arrive at credible practicechanging
conclusions.
Anjali Brown and Taran Gupta from
Shepton High School worked on the
effects of curcumin in the memory
preservation of planaria worms that
were treated with aspartame. This study
included work with at least 150 worms
that were “trained” to seek a nutritional
source and how this learned behavior
was affected negatively by aspartame
and the effect somewhat reversed by
exposure to curcumin. Commendable
effort! This project also received
honorable mention from the DCMS
judges.
In this era of custom approaches with
focus on individual variability, the project
of different light intensities on different
colored pupils and possible effect on eye
fatigue was refreshing.
With ongoing huge technology
advances, quite a few of these kids had
incorporated data gathering and analytics
and software development into healthcare
data analysis and app development to
solve healthcare problems. It will be very
interesting to follow the future of this
close interaction with biology, data and
technology.
Not surprisingly, there were several
projects on the topic of cancer and
cancer treatment. One neat project was
the scope of a cost-effective methodology
using molecular screening in drug delivery
systems especially targeting those already
infected with HPV subtypes known to
cause cancer. It has scope for treatment
in this cancer especially in underserved
populations worldwide.
Yusuf Khan from Plano Senior High
School was awarded the DCMS second
prize for the project titled “The Design of
a Combination Therapy Nano Drug for
Cancer Treatment and its Characterization
In Vitro.” This was a fairly advanced
project focused on Nano drug delivery
system for breast cancer cells. It was part
of an advanced research collaboration.
The effort was to create an effective
nanoparticle in the lab that targets cancer
cells. Cost effectiveness was one of the
added targets being studied.
After considerable deliberation, we
awarded the DCMS first prize to Parisa
Vaziri from Plano East Senior High
School for the project titled, “Attraction to
Different Sugar Compounds Depending
on Drosophila Melanogaster Mutations.”
This young enthusiast worked on wild
type and mutant fruit flies and studied
their attraction to different kinds of sugar
compounds. Mutant genes close to the
taste receptor genes were chosen. And,
as hypothesized, significant differences
in affinity to the sugar types were proven.
Given that the genome of this fruit fly
has similarities to the human genome,
this insight has further applications. Will
understanding gene mutation implications
lead to better understanding of human
taste behavior? This young researcher
definitely seemed optimistic.
As always, we are impressed with
the energy and enthusiasm of all the
participants. Their glowing eyes as they
describe the enormous efforts and joy
at their conclusions drawn are always a
treasure. As judges, we debate quite a bit
about the projects, the ideas presented
and the relevance. Most often, a simple
idea that has been well researched and
articulated comes out a winner.
We love to see how the budding
scientist has been transformed by
the idea which led to a hypothesis
and travelled on to conclusion of
the project. Hopefully this will lead
the young scientist to more journeys
down the scientific path.
I thank all the judges for this team
effort and very interesting interactions
and deliberations. We always
become more optimistic about the
future after meeting with this group of
young learners. I look forward to the next
meeting in 2020. DMJ
2019 Science Fair Judges: Preeti Malladi, MD;
Sarah Helfand, MD; Archana Rao, MD; Matt Sloan, MD;
Brenda Mears, MD; Gordon Green, MD