Six Oceanside High School students spent their summer in university labs in Queens and Manhattan, conducting advanced research on cancer therapies, genetic signaling and disease prevention.
Their work is part of the school’s rigorous Science Research Program, a growing STEM pipeline that continues to produce some of the region’s most accomplished young scientists.
Led by science research teacher Michael Pepe, the program immerses students in authentic, graduate-level work through three programs: Foundations in Research, College Research and AP Capstone. The College Research track, in which the six students are enrolled, demands a minimum of 90 hours of summer laboratory work under the guidance of a doctorate-level mentor.
“This program isn’t just about learning science,” Pepe said. “It’s about experiencing it the way real researchers do, designing experiments, collecting data, writing papers and presenting findings at competitions throughout the year.”
Students earn college credit while working in medical schools, universities and research institutions. During the first half of the school year, they will finalize data collection and complete their research papers. Starting in January, they will enter a whirlwind stretch of monthly science competitions — including large-scale research fairs and specialized contests in areas like chemistry, biology and computer science — stretching through June.
For many, the experience begins with a learning curve and ends with breakthroughs that surprise even them.
Junior Jadon Maroto spent his summer at St. John’s University under the mentorship of Professor Vivek Gupta, exploring the use of nanoemulsions — oil and water mixtures that help deliver medication more efficiently — to improve lung cancer treatments. His project focused on creating and testing a nanoemulsion capable of carrying a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, a type of targeted cancer therapy.
The work required specialized equipment and careful chemical manipulation, but Maroto said the process “felt pretty natural,” crediting the support of the researchers around him.
“All these people were so knowledgeable and so helpful,” he said. “They really cared for me in that lab. My mentor was there almost every day, and he went through the steps with me very thoroughly.”
Classmate Arianna Shamin, also a junior, worked at St. John’s with Professor Tanaji Talele. Her project focused on synthesizing a type of PARP inhibitor, a compound that prevents cells from repairing damaged DNA — a crucial approach in many cancer treatments.
“There are so many approaches to cancer treatment,” Shamin said, emphasizing that she was drawn to the novelty of her project. “I loved the idea of finding a new solution, especially because it’s incorporating new technologies.”
Her synthesized compounds were tested in an external lab in California, where they demonstrated biological activity.
“It wasn’t extremely effective, but it still showed 20 percent, which was significantly higher than a lot of compounds created in that lab,” Shamin said.
Senior Daniela Sanchez conducted her research at Columbia University, working with Professor Alison Taylor on the consequences of aneuploidy, a condition in which cells have an abnormal number of chromosomes. Her research examined how aneuploid cells respond to various drug treatments and how this knowledge could shape earlier cancer detection or prevention.
Sanchez entered the lab with only basic knowledge from Regents chemistry but attributed the relatively smooth transition to her mentor’s dedication.
“At the beginning, I was working with (Taylor) one-on-one, learning terms, procedures, reading articles,” Sanchez said. “She taught me how to analyze graphs and data for my own project and our competitions.”
When her one-on-one sessions wrapped up, Sanchez joined graduate students in the lab, gaining experience-performing procedures.
“It helped me understand what was going on and actually participate in the research,” she said.
Juniors Phillip Konnov and Mark Gorny worked in tandem at CUNY’s Queens College under the guidance of Professor Sanjai Pathak. Their research examined dual-action inhibitors targeting NEK2 and EGFR, proteins that play a role in the progression of metastatic cancers such as breast cancer and glioblastomas.
With both students experiencing a family history of cancer and cardiac disease, Konnov and Gorny attributed their inspiration for their studies not only to understanding the diseases, but also to aiding in research to prevent or cure them.
“We focused on the enzyme that would activate it within certain types of cancers, and by learning how it is inhibited, we would try to make a solution for long-term cancer,” Gorny said.
Their summer was filled with learning new skills, including cleaning protocols, chemical identification and observing undergraduate experiments. “Some of it was unrelated to our project,” Konnov said, “but it gave us a better sense of what to do in the lab.”
Both Konnov and Gorny said they plan to continue their research next year.
Junior Sabrina Zendaki spent her summer working at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with Professor Mone Zaidi, studying the gene LHCGR, which regulates sex hormone production in both men and women. Her project explored whether the gene could influence hip-to-waist ratio — a measure that compares the circumference of a person’s waist to the circumference of their hips — a key factor in determining future risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other conditions.
“There are so many aspects of fat being stored in your body, such as hormones,” Zendaki said.
By better understanding the genetic factors that control fat distribution, she added, “we can figure out how people genetically store fat and how it could lead to other comorbidities.”
Pepe said the students’ achievements reflect not only their scientific ability but also their discipline and resilience.
“These students are working in labs where the expectations are very high,” Pepe said. “They rise to the challenge every single time.”
As the competition season approaches, Oceanside’s young researchers now will turn their focus to presenting, and defending, the work they spent months building. For many high school students, the summer before their junior or senior year marks only the beginning of a future in medicine, engineering or research.
