School

Central District boasts four new science scholars

Projects range from studying addiction to repairing eyesight

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Kennedy High School senior Michael Sternbach spent the past three years predicting the economic climate of several developing countries.

Classmate Claire Kelly conducted experiments at the University of Chicago to determine the correlation between impulsiveness and addiction.

Jennifer Rakhimov, also a Kennedy senior, discovered a method of regenerating damaged eye cells — a breakthrough that could alleviate the need for organ transplants or even the wearing of prescription glasses.

And Mepham High School senior Rachel Jozwik studied the biological and psychological reasons why high school students experience stress.

All four students were honored last week as semifinalists and scholars in the 2017 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

This year Regeneron became the third sponsor to partner with the Science Talent Search, a competition of the Society for Science & the Public that recognizes research conducted by high school students. The contest was formerly sponsored by the Intel Corporation and, before that, Westinghouse.

This year’s scholars will each receive a $2,000 award from Regeneron, with an additional $2,000 going to their schools. Out of 300 semifinalists, 40 finalists will be announced on Jan. 24, and in March they will travel to Washington, D.C., and present their projects to a committee of judges. Following are the profiles of each semifinalist from the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District.

Michael Sternbach

School: Kennedy High School

Additional Pursuits: President of Future Business Leaders of America, president of Tutors for a Cure

Project: Michael Sternbach wakes up in the morning and views the prices of Asian and European markets. He learned what a stock was in elementary school and has been reading about finance and economics since then. When he picked up the book, “This Time Is Different,” by Reinhart Rogoff, he learned about yield curve inversions. “This made me think, ‘Wow, a recession indicator?’ ” he said. “I wanted to know, does this apply in poorer countries?”

According to Investopedia.com, an inverted yield curve predicts that returns on longer-term bonds will fall, while being outpaced by returns on shorter-term bonds. According to Sternbach, that’s an anomaly that suggests an impending recession, an economic downturn that results from high inflation and low levels of consumer confidence.

When this occurs in developed countries, the government “is more likely to have a safety net — we have insurance to take care of them,” he explained. “But in developing nations, it’s very unlikely that that’s there.”

Sternbach wanted to find a way to predict when developing nations would experience economic turmoil. Then an aid organization like the International Monetary Fund could prepare a loan or develop a safety-net program for the country’s government. So he applied the inverted yield curve to a study of such nations’ economies.

Claire Kelly

School: Kennedy High School

Other Pursuits: Trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Manhattan; executive board of the school drama club, on the executive board of the Community Health and Research of Medicine CHARM Committee; New York Ambassador of the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Congress.

Project: Last summer Claire Kelly and her family moved to Illinois, where she worked with a mentor at the University of Chicago. She spent six weeks studying volunteer subjects and testing them with a low-dose methamphetamine called Desoxyn, given to children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Kelly’s mentor and a team of lab assistants conducted the experiments when the drug was involved. “I’m 16, so I’m legally not allowed to,” she said with a laugh.

Her project examined how impulsiveness can affect one’s likelihood of becoming dependent on or addicted to a substance –– and how it can make someone more resistant to addiction treatment.

“Growing up on Long Island and knowing about the drug culture, I was more acutely aware,” she said of addiction and what it can do to a community.

Participants joined an orientation session in which Kelly tested their levels of impulsiveness, including behavioral (reacting prematurely), cognitive (perhaps an individual would rather have $10 today than $20 in two weeks) and attentional lapse (an individual who could not pay attention to a task). In follow-up sessions, her subjects were given a drug or placebo and participated in a similar series of tests.

Kelly’s studies showed that behavioral and cognitive impulsiveness did not increase the likelihood that an individual would become addicted to a substance, but attentional lapse did increase it. “When we say that someone who is more impulsive is more likely to become addicted,” she said, “this might not be true.”

Jennifer Rakhimov

School: Kennedy High School

Other Pursuits: Art club; culture club; science club; New York State School Music Association (Level VI piano).

Project: Four years ago, Rakhimov’s grandmother died of complications from a liver transplant. “During her last weeks, we talked for hours about regenerating organs and how you [might be able to] 3D-print them in the future,” Rakhimov said. She made it her goal to help people who are victims of failing organs.

Rakhimov’s father is an optician, and she recalled spending hours in his office learning about the human eye. She wanted to combine her knowledge of eyes with her desire to impact the field of organ regeneration. This led her to devise a research project focused on regenerating the cells responsible for vision.

Rakhimov wanted to prove that stem cells could be used to strengthen the eye and make it unnecessary for people to wear glasses or contacts in the future.

After teaming up with a mentor, she began research at the Department of Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan. She began by learning how to culture cells and isolate mitochondria, which create cellular energy.

Last summer, Rakhimov dedicated 450 hours to her project. She said that it has transformed her.

“I want to pursue this as my career,” she said. “I want to improve vision.”

Rakhimov’s mentor has already promised her a place working with him when she graduates from college. This summer she will conduct the same experiment using rabbits as test subjects, and has her heart set on attending Stony Brook University to continue her studies.

Rachel Jozwik

School: Mepham High School

Other Pursuits: A deep interest in art; valedictorian of Mepham’s class of 2017.

Project: Students involved in the Advanced Science Research program are responsible for reaching out to established scientists to find a mentor for their project. Jozwik and Mepham science research teacher Dr. David Kommor said that this was one of the roadblocks Jozwik faced when she started her research.

“She found her dream mentor,” Kommor said, describing a scientist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who was studying an enzyme used to restore artwork. After Jozwik reached out to him and pitched her idea, however, the scientist said it would not be a viable pursuit. Kommor remembered being proud of the way she handled the disappointment. “A lot of students would have dropped the program at that point,” he said.

Jozwik eventually found a mentor, and conducted research on stress and the psychological and biological factors that cause it. By studying a hormonal indicator for stress, cortisol, and looking at variations in an individual’s genes, she wanted to identify whether stress is genetic, and what can induce it. She found volunteer subjects in two art and two science classes at Mepham, who filled out a survey about their personal stress factors. Alongside two LIU Post professors, she took saliva samples to examine the DNA of the students and test their cortisol levels.

Jozwik found that certain classes in schools caused more stress in students and that older students were less likely to be stressed. She also found a slight difference in genetic variations that lead to stress, but concluded that this could have been greater if she had a larger sample size.

Kennedy research advisers Barbi Frank and Barbara Franklin and Kommor said they are proud of the journeys each of the scholars made over the course of their research projects. Frank said that the experiences fostered her students’ passions in the wide field of scientific study.

“I think I’ve been a scientist my whole life,” Kelly said. “I just didn’t know it until I came into this program.”