Impressing Intel

Oceanside High School senior Brian Kelly, 17, has won a coveted spot as a semifinalist in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search, which is widely considered the nation’s most esteemed science competition for high school students.

Kelly is one of just 300 students nationwide to receive the honor, and one of 61 students chosen from Long Island this year. The competition had more than 1,700 applicants. As a semifinalist, Kelly will be awarded $1,000. Oceanside High School will also receive $1,000 for supporting his research. “It’s such a great honor,” Kelly said, after finding out he had been selected as a semifinalist on Jan. 13.

Kelly’s ambitious research project, titled “An Evaluation of the Toxicity and Binding Affinity of Curcumin and Curcumin Sulfate on Cancer Cell Lines,” studied the application of curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric, as an effective treatment for cancer. Kelly explained that curcumin has proven effective in treating colon cancer because it easily passes through the body. As part of his research, Kelly tested different forms of curcumin, in the hopes of finding a way to keep it in the body longer to target other areas where cancer could strike.

In preparation for the project, Kelly had to team up with a mentor. He found Dr. Wolfgang Quitschk, a researcher studying neurodegenerative disorders at Stony Brook University, and worked with him for two summers at the university. Quitschk gave Kelly his foundation, and introduced him to the techniques he would use to develop his research. “He was so compassionate and so helpful,” Kelly said, adding that his mentor was essential to the success of his project.

Kelly’s primary research interest is studying neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and muscular dystrophy, but he felt studying cancer would give him a strong foundation for his research career. He said his interest in the brain stems from how little we know about it. “There are all these conditions that seem so specific, but yet we still can’t pin down what they are,” he said. “[The brain] is the least understood organ in the whole body.”