Following up last year’s grand prize victory, another dozen students from Hewlett High School have been named semifinalists or regional finalists in this year’s Siemens Math, Science and Technology Competition.
Hewlett High School had the most number of semifinalists by any single high school in New York this year. Since the launching of the first Siemens Science Competition more than a decade ago, Hewlett has produced more than 75 semifinalists and regional and national finalists in the competition.
For the 2013 Siemens Competition, students worked in groups and conducted their research projects under the mentorship of Dr. Terrence Bissoondial. All of the projects focused on understanding specific mechanisms of plant biology. In most cases, the students spent two to three years on their research projects. The 2013-2014 Semifinalists and Finalists are:
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Here are the students and their winning projects:
Project Title: Novel FyPP Protein Phosphatase 2A with Puroindoline B Domain Binds to Phytochromes in Ceratopteris richardii by Michael Green, Ayman Haider and Stephen Ng (regional finalists)
Michael, Ayman and Steven isolated and characterized a gene from the fern Ceratopteris richardii that encodes for a novel chimeric enzyme never before identified in the plant kingdom. This enzyme has the potent to link the light, auxin (plant hormone) and defense signaling pathways together, allowing the plant to easily coordinate multiple responses upon stimulated.
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Project Title: The Isolation and Characterization of an Ozone Responsive Stress Related Protein (OZS) in Ceratopteris richardii by Priyanka Wadgaonkar, JiaWen Pei and Zainab Mahmood (regional finalists)
Priyanka, JiaWen and Zainab utilized the fern Ceratopteris richardii as a model system to study a gene (OZS) that is believed to play a role in abiotic stress. They analyzed the structure of the encoded protein and showed that the gene plays a significant role in a plant’s susceptibility to ozone pollution. Their research can lead to crops more tolerant to ozone.
Project Title: Utilization of the Gametophytes of Ceratopteris richardii to Characterize the LPS-Induced Hypersensitive Response in Plants by Samantha DiSalvo, Ryan Kenny and Amy Vitha (semifinalists)
Many bacterial pathogens cause significant crop loss globally. Samantha, Ryan and Amy developed a system to study the mechanism of plant cell immunity initiated by specific components (lipopolysaccharides or LPS) of bacteria. They also identified and characterized many genes involved in plant response. Their work can lead to crops become to resistant to bacterial pathogens.
Samantha, Ryan and Amy received the first place award in the 2013 Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair. Their work was additionally distinguished as the best in the category of plant science. They were recipients of The London International Youth Science Forum Award (The Philip V. Streich Memorial Award).
Project Title: Integration of the Light and GA Phytohormone Signaling Pathways in Panicum virgatum to Enhance Biomass Production by Joshua Elbaz, Kenneth Collado and Sara Flamenco (semifinalists)
Joshua, Kenneth and Sara worked on developing switchgrass as feedstock for biofuel production. They examined the genome of switchgrass using various computer programs and identified many putative genes that may play instrumental roles in light-hormone pathways. Using different growth conditions and molecular biology techniques, they characterized some of these genes and showed that they are good candidate genes to modify for enhanced biomass production.
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