Brain tumor leads to research success

In her freshman year at Kennedy High School in 2007, Bellmorite Stefanie Busgang suddenly started to lose her memory. The then 14-year-old couldn't remember how she got from one room to the next. "I was sitting in one place, and I'd be wondering how I got there," she recalled.

Then Busgang would blank out, simply staring into space, or her hands would tremble uncontrollably.

Her parents rushed her to a neurologist. In April of freshman year, she underwent surgery at Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park to remove a ganglioglioma, a benign tumor in her brain that was squeezing against her nerves, causing the memory lapses and the tremors.

"It was scary," Busgang said.

Fortunately, the surgery was a success, though it left her with double vision for six months. But she was tumor-free, and has been ever since. Busgang, ever positive, considers the ordeal something of a blessing. Because of it, she redirected the research project she had begun as part of Kennedy's Authentic Science Research Program from epilepsy to brain cancer, then eventually to Alzheimer's disease.

Her roommate in the hospital was diagnosed with a rapacious -- and lethal -- brain tumor called a glioblastoma. Seeing how much the girl suffered left Busgang emotionally drained, but wanting to help. "I really wanted to learn about kids in the hospital," she said.

Busgang had found her life's path: She decided to become a neurologist.

Last week, Busgang, now 17, received one very big sign that she was headed in the right direction when she learned that she is a finalist for the American Academy of Neurology's Neuroscience Research Prize for high school students -- her research project was judged one of the top 10 in the nation. In two weeks, the top finishers will be announced. The winning project will be presented at a national neuroscience convention in Rhode Island. The second- and third-place finishers will present their projects in Canada.

Busgang's project, conducted at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City under her mentor, Dr. Guilio Pasinetti, examined the efficacy of grape seed extract in treating Alzheimer's, a progressive, degenerative disease that destroys brain cells, causes total memory loss and leads to death. More than 5.3 million Americans suffer from the disease.

Busgang's research focused on two enzymes, a-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (KGDHC) and malate dehydrogenase (MDH). An imbalance of the two enzymes in the brain is believed to be a primary contributor to Alzheimer's. Grape seed extract seems to help moderate levels of KGDHC and MDH, though findings are preliminary -- and uncertain. To date, no one has tested the hypothesis in humans.

Scientists must first be certain that grape seed extract will not contribute to Alzheimer's, and they must develop a non-invasive test to measure enzyme levels. Right now, the only way to determine those levels is to open the skull and remove brain cell cultures.

"That's the biggest problem," Busgang said. "You can't get to [the cultures] unless you're able to do surgery on the brain."

Using a spectrophotometer, Busgang tested levels of KGDHC and MDH in the muscles of mice that had been shown through DNA testing to suffer from Alzheimer's-like degeneration, and had been treated with grape seed extract. The hope was to develop a non-invasive diagnostic tool for Alzheimer's. To her surprise, Busgang found that KGDHC levels continued to rise and MDH levels dropped. In fact, she found, the pace at which levels rose or dropped increased. That is, the grape seed extract had the opposite effect in muscle tissue than originally hypothesized. It was what scientists call a "novel finding" -- a first-ever discovery.

Now the critical question that Busgang must answer is why the extract balances the enzyme levels in a mouse's brain but causes the levels to fluctuate wildly in its muscles. She is continuing her research at Mt. Sinai in the hope of reaching a conclusion.

As Busgang worked through her project over the past three years, she faced a number of obstacles. First among them was that her original mentor moved out of state. But she persevered, e-mailing researchers in the hope of finding a new mentor, and Pasinetti responded, saying that he had a slot open on his research team. She was interviewed and accepted on the team in January of her junior year, and soon she was back in the lab, plugging away.

Busgang, an Advanced Placement Scholar with a 97.4 average, is headed to Johns Hopkins University next fall, and plans to study neuroscience. But she is not all about science. She works both hemispheres of her brain as a student and an artist. She is taking A.P. art and is a member of the Kennedy Art Club and the Culture Club. She designed the cover for the school's annual Science Symposium last May. She is focusing her senior A.P. art project on medical illustration, drawing or painting vivid pictures of human and mouse brains, as well as skeletons. And she choreographs dance shows at Kennedy.

On top of it all, she is an athlete, competing with the Bellmore Stingers travel soccer team in Division II of the Long Island Junior Soccer League. During her illness, when she was not permitted to play soccer, Busgang attended every one of the Stingers' practices and games to support the team. The squad recently wound down its final season, with Busgang very much a contributor to the team's success. Busgang had begun playing soccer for Kennedy in her freshman year, but had to give it up when her tumor was diagnosed, and she decided to focus her high school career on science research.

“She's really just extremely dedicated,” said Barbi Frank, an A.P. biology teacher and one of Busgang's research mentors at Kennedy, “and her heart is in the right place with the research.”

“You can't not love her,” said Barbara Franklin, a Kennedy chemistry teacher and another of Busgang's mentors. “She's so conscientious. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body. What made her do [her research project] is a genuine desire to make a difference.”