South Valley Stream senior Ibrahim Qadri is a Regeneron semifinalist

Valley Stream South High School senior Ibrahim Qadri was pulled out of his biology classroom one fateful day.

He saw his science research co-adviser Jeffrey Hsi and science department chair Jeanette Azzaretto standing outside the door. “I thought, ‘Oh man, what did I do wrong?’” Qadri recalled.

But then he saw, speeding through the hallway, his science research co-adviser Melissa Torregrosa, laptop in hand — with a screen that displayed a virtual congratulations to Qadri, who had been named a semifinalist in the 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

His fear had turned to happy shock. Out of nearly 2,000 applications from 600 high schools in the U.S. and around the world, Qadri took his place among the top 300 high school scientists at the Regeneron Science Research Talent Search. As of press time, last Tuesday, 40 of the 300 scholars were named finalists, moving on to compete for more than $1.8 million in awards during a weeklong competition in Washington, D.C., taking place March 9-15.

The talent search chose the most promising science research students, who wowed leading experts with their top-notch independent research projects, covering topics ranging from detecting diseases like Alzheimer’s to developing eco-friendly biofuels.

In his project, titled, “The Ability of Vitamin E To Improve the Reproduction and Metabolic Respiration of Nicotine-Induced D. melanogaster,” Qadri looked to see if Vitamin E could improve the reproductive and metabolic fitness of fruit flies who had been exposed to nicotine.

“Even before the science research program, one of the issues that I really wanted to spearhead and kind of solve is finding something effective, reliable, and accessible to reduce the effects of nicotine,”said Qadir.

Nicotine, the main addictive chemical found in tobacco and vape products, has long been shown to carry a host of negative health risks including poor blood circulation and digestive issues, heart problems, and altered brain development in teenagers like Qadir.

Through his research, the high school senior confirmed Vitamin E’s ability to curb the negative health consequences of nicotine on fruit flies.

Why fruit flies, you may ask? Fruit flies, which have a surprising degree of genetic similarity with humans and are easy to culture with the right lab equipment, noted Qadir, have been proven useful time and time again in scientific research to teach us about human health.

“My most original find is that when both the male and female parent flies received nicotine, they had fewer and less healthy offspring than those of parents where only the male fly received nicotine,” said Qadir.

The results open up a new avenue of further research into the effects of nicotine on pregnant women and those nicotine consumers looking to improve their respiratory and reproductive health.

Like any good researcher, Qadir took an objective, scientist’s-eye view with his experiment, but the results he found hit close to home.

“A lot of people in my family vape and smoke, and honestly, I don’t really like seeing that, so I just wanted to find a solution to it and stop nicotine in its tracks,” he said.

“We knew going into [applying to the competition], that Qadir’s research was exceptional. So me and my co-advisor Jeffrey Hsi were quietly hopeful on our end,” said Torregrosa. “Ibrahim’s incredibly hardworking and very humble about all of his scholastic abilities and we’re so excited for him.”

Rather than in a state-of-the-art laboratory, Qadir conducted his entire experiment at home. But it wasn’t anything resembling your run-ofthe-mill, homemade science project, noted Torregrosa.

“Probably the biggest challenge Qadir faced was that he certainly had never worked with fruit flies before,” she said.

“I remember laying all my materials on my bed and literally labeling everything. I’m going to use this vial for this group, this vial for that group,” said Qadir. “I just had to be really careful with, like, all the safety procedures and make sure the flies wouldn’t escape while breeding them.”

But Qadir wasn’t alone.

“Mr. Hsi and Ms. Torregrosa encouraged me throughout the entire process. They really helped me evaluate my research plan and kind of delete stuff that wasn’t feasible and teach me how to analyze my data correctly,” said Qadir.

“We are so incredibly proud of Ibrahim’s research and to recognize the hard work of both Mr. Hsi and Ms. Torregrosa to get him to this point,” said Azzaretto.

“The science research program has been around for over 20 years, and it really does give students an opportunity to explore and investigate areas that they’re interested in, which is so unique.”

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