Science research students at Lynbrook High School embraced the summer break with new educational opportunities to further their knowledge and research abilities through a variety of different programs and outlets. Eight juniors and 16 seniors from Lynbrook High School pursued research projects spanning different science topics.
Below is a list of these outstanding students and their projects from the summer months. Many continued their work in the lab of Lynbrook High School this year. Students worked with science research teachers Peter Dennis, David Shanker and Charles Vessalico, and professors in the field who provided them with support in their studies.
Juniors
Emily Awad – Worked at New York University Winthrop in the Research and Academic Center. She studied to see the effect of trophoblasts on the offspring of pregnant women.
Arpie Bakhshian – Worked at Weill Cornell and used genetic engineering to study irritable bowel syndrome.
Natalie Cardoso – Worked at Fordham University in the Youth Development in Diverse Contexts Lab under Dr. Tiffany Yip. Natalie cleaned data through Biopac software to advance studies in ethnic racial identities.
Elena Grajales – Worked at the New York University Langone Medical Center at the Skirball Institute of Molecular Neurobiology studying the sestrin -1 gene and its role in the brain.
Julie Lampert – Studied Cellulose Nanocrystals at the University of Colorado.
Mikayla O’Hagan and Andie Glanzer – Worked at Hofstra University studying the effect of tree canopy loss on Long Island.
Maria Russotti – Worked at Columbia University in the Banta Lab conducting various experiments associated with substrate channeling.
Seniors
Kai Beattie – Worked at Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Institute to evaluate the relationship between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and the metalloprotease meprin in genetically engineered mice and mouse prostate cancer cell lines. Kai concludes its relevance to tumor progression and growth.
Alyssa Burton – Worked in-house on a project set out to answer the question, “how can we stop school shootings?” Using publicly available student-to-counselor ratio’s and student violence data, along with socioeconomic status, Alyssa aimed to draw correlations related to school violence.
Juliana Condoleo – Worked at SUNY Farmingdale and investigated the novel role of ACK1, a protein kinase, in the learning and memory of drosophila melanogaster through an olfactory appetitive association.
Jason Holquist – Worked in-house to test the effect of alcohol exposure to adult Drosophila melanogaster on the expression of DILP peptides in future generations as a model for fetal alcohol syndrome.
Brandon Pekale – Worked in-house to construct a survey on the effect of HIV/AIDS on the Quality of Oral Health in Adults Residing on Long Island with a professor from Hofstra.
Kyle Schneider – Worked in-house to determine whether the cryopreservation of fruit fly larvae for long term storage could be enhanced using warm breaks and increasing time between cold and warm periods.
Pooja Shah – Worked at Yale to analyze the loss of TSP2 through varying extracellular matrix production deposits on prevention of diabetic nephropathy.
Jason Shao – Worked in-house to test the effect of e-cigarette vapor on the bacteria of the lungs to assess lung infection risk.
Jason Sitt – Worked at Columbia University on his project on modulation of microRNA-219 on synapse quantification in neuromuscular junctions within aging drosophila melanogaster.
Kirstin Slattery – Worked in-house to determine if the equestrian sport is moral by using salivary cortisol levels to assess stress in horses during riding lessons.
Matthew Venezia – Worked at the City College of New York to study how the color of tropical beetles relates to the elevation at which they live and how this data relates to how well these beetles can thermoregulate (control their temperature).
Richard Wiater – Worked in-house on his project which looks at the effect of the molecule PDMP hydrochloride on the longevity of Niemann-Pick Disease Type-C model Drosophila.
Christina Woodard – Worked in-house on a project that looks at the effect of Asian clams on algae blooms.
Kaylie Hausknecht – Worked at Harvard where she used artificial intelligence to extract local correlations in the cuprates. This is a new application of machine learning in condensed matter physics, which may help explain the properties of high temperature superconductors.
Danny Neri – Worked in-house on his project which assesses the state of a recent crab invasion by quantifying aggressive interactions between the invader, the Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguinues) and two species of native fiddler crab (Uca pugilator and Uca pugnax) in a Long Island salt marsh.
Odin Francis – Worked in-house on the production of a prototype assisted-back support system to help those with spinal cord injuries, workers and soldiers involved with heavy lifting.