June 2024
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Life as a Scientist updates
It is officially summer time for our students in the Life as a Scientist program! Garrett Morgan School of Engineering and Innovation wrapped up at the end of May and Lincoln-West School of Science and Health finished in mid-June. We worked with a record number of students in 2024 including 26 original, student led research projects! Overall, students showed tremendous growth from the beginning to end of the program. It was amazing to see them blossom during different phases of the program; from brainstorming, grant writing, physical experiments, presenting, and writing, students were able to showcase their talents and curiosities in many ways. Each student was given the freedom to explore their own ideas, and empowered to be the experts on their own projects.
Following the 2024 Young Scientist Symposiums students worked hard to finish their manuscripts for submission to the Journal of Young Scientist (JoYS). Currently, we are editing and formatting each project’s paper to eventually share with you all later this summer. As a special sneak peak, we’d like to share the introduction section from a couple of this years projects:
Alzheimer’s group: Orcel Detadjim, Elijah Brown, Yandiel Ortiz, Annelys Rodriguez Santiago, Kamyris Perez, Ana Saez Cruz
Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and cognitive skills, and eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest of tasks. In Alzheimer's, the brain experiences a buildup of abnormal proteins, such as beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which interfere with communication between brain cells. We hypothesized that elevated cholesterol levels in food will worsen the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in a person. Leading to accelerated decline and more pronounced neurodegenerative changes like memory loss, anxiety, depression compared to those with normal cholesterol levels. We used fruit flies as our model organism because they share a significant number of genes with humans, nearly 70% of their genetic materials are like humans. In addition, their short lifespan of 40-50 days affords us the advantage of quickly obtaining experimental outcomes.
Evolution of Bacteria group: Sadie Guder, Kaleb Colon, Ismael Reyes, Marrell Robinson, Nastat Wear, Johanna Bogan
There are millions in the world around us who depend on antibiotics for infectious and harmful diseases, and it’s important to understand how bacterial resistance works. It is a necessity to confirm with your doctor or pharmacist that your antibiotics are right for you and will work with your body. Everybody is different and may have a different reaction. The bacteria can become resistance to an antibiotic through mutation and natural selection. It will evolve to survive. If this happens, the bacteria will begin to spread rapidly and may lead to sickness or death. You may be on an antibiotic and not even become aware it is ineffective. Working together as a team, we were challenged to compare the growth of bacteria using antibiotics and without, whilst being put through different conditions. Our group was inspired to learn about evolution in species and how it works. We came up with the idea to conduct an experiment at a smaller scale, using bacteria and antibiotics. This experiment will help us take a closer look into bacteria evolution and resistance to understand the world around us.
Stay tuned for information on how to obtain your own copy of the 2024 Journal of Young Scientists or to read digitally! While you wait, feel free to read the 2023 edition for FREE at our website. You can also make a donation amount of your choosing on our website and pick up a copy of your own. Just reply to this email for more information!
2024 Rise Up Scholars
2024 Rise Up Scholars
We were thrilled to host 4 Rise Up Scholars at Case Western Reserve University labs in the month of June. Students were sponsored by faculty hosts, and paired with research scientists each day during their time in the lab to experience a diverse set of projects and research topics. They were given the unique opportunity to see how a professional lab works and to learn techniques and skills that are not possible in a classroom setting during our Life as a Scientist program. You can read a brief profile of each scholar below:
Frambelys Luna-Polanco is a rising sophomore at Lincoln-West School of Science and Health and a recent graduate of our Life as a Scientist program during which she researched the effects of CBD on hermit crabs. Her favorite aspect of the Scholars program was the intellectual freedom to explore her curiosities and have lab mates around her that encouraged collaboration. Frambelys wants to pursue a career in the medical field after college.
Ahnaf Haque is moving into his junior year of high school at Garrett Morgan School of Engineering and Innovation. During the school year, his research group focused on the effects of caffeine. His favorite part of this experience was being able to perform dissections and working hands-on with new lab technology. Ahnaf is interested in a career in engineering and is already off to a great start as a member of the extremely successful robotics team at Garrett Morgan.
Ny’Ehma Davis is a rising sophomore at Lincoln-West. During her time in our Life as a Scientist program, she worked in a research group that was using fruit flies to learn more about sleep deprivation. She hopes to pursue a STEM degree in college and would love to be a veterinarian. Her favorite experience in the lab spending time with her mentors, watching cells grow over time, and asking questions.
Carlos Maysonet is entering his senior year at Lincoln-West. He is a graduate of our 2022-2023 Life as a Scientist program. He applied for the Scholars program to further his knowledge of scientific research and gain insight of how a professional lab operates. While keeping his options open, he is now more interested in a career as a research scientist or sports medicine. He enjoys playing sports in his free time.
Special thank you to the lab of Dr. Paul Tesar, Dr. Marissa Scavuzzo, and Dr. Tae Hun Kim for hosting!
Volunteer Spotlight
Read about one of our many dedicated and talented volunteers, Kate Letai!
Kate Letai
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I grew up outside of Boston, MA and went to college at Princeton University, where I majored in Neuroscience. Outside of classes in college I taught tap dancing and also led a club where we would make and sell chocolate from cocoa beans! Sometimes I wonder whether I should have become a food scientist :) Instead, I am now a student in the combined MD/PhD program at Case Western Reserve University. For my PhD I'm studying how the cells in the body's "second brain" in the gut behave in different diseases, with a focus on colon cancer. Someday I hope to run a lab of my own, and also have a medical clinic where I can apply my scientific findings to help treat disease in patients! Outside of the lab I love baking, trying new restaurants, hiking around the Metroparks, and traveling all over the world whenever I have the opportunity.
How did you get started volunteering with Rise Up?
I work in a research lab with some other volunteers and when I heard about Rise Up I asked how to be involved because I was excited to bring science into our high schools!
What's your favorite aspect of volunteering?
I love hearing all of the student’s great project ideas when they write their grants for funding. It’s so much fun to hear how creative and curious everyone is!
What motivates you to give back to the community?
I was lucky to meet some scientists and get involved in lab research when I was young, and without that experience I might not be a scientist myself now! So, I want to try and spread that experience to as many local students as possible, so that others have the opportunity to try out science too. Otherwise, we might miss out on so much valuable talent right here in our community!
What would you say to someone who’s thinking of volunteering?
Do it! If you’re hesitant, just try it out and you’ll quickly see how much fun it is to do science with our students, and how rewarding it is to see their projects at the end of the year. Plus, it’s exposed me to many model organisms I never would have worked with otherwise, including planaria, drosophila, and even hermit crabs!
What else you would like the reader to know about your volunteer experience?
Our students teach us just as much as we teach them! Sometimes working in a lab can get stressful and it is easy to get lost in day-to-day tasks. But working in our partner schools reminds me how cool science is, and every time I leave the school feeling reinvigorated to tackle my own project.
Tell us something you enjoy doing in your free time?
I love baking, it’s all about following recipes just like science, but you end up with something delicious at the end!
