2007-2008 IMSA Student Research Achievements
(As of March 30, 2008)
Megan Abel: An Epicardial Analysis in the Late Gestational Heart
Advisor: Dr. Robert Dettman, Northwestern University Feinburg School of Medicine
3rd International Students' Science Fair (ISSF) 2007
Dimple Adatia: The Role of Histology in Response to Chemotherapy and Impact of
Radiation on Outcome in Pediatric and Adolescent Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Advisor: Dr. James Nachman, University of Chicago
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Perry Bradford: Comparison of DNA in Large Breed Bichons With and Without Hip
Dysplasia
Advisor: Dr. Susan Styer, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) Gold Medal
Winner and Silver Medal in biology at the national competition
Steven Cai: Studies of the Structures of the Channeled Si and Si/Ge Stressors in a
30-nm Field-Efffect Transistor Using Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction Data
System Modeling
Advisor: Dr. Jin Wang, Argonne National Laboratory
Siemens Competition semi-finalist, Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalist
Hyunjii (Justina) Cho: The Detection of Differences Between Normal and
Cancerous Stem Cells Through Analysis of Morphology, Gene Expression,
And Effects of Dichloracetate
Advisors: Dr. Morris Kletzel and Mrs. Marie Olszewski, Children’s Memorial Hospital
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Lindsey Choi: Targeted Fluconazole Prophylasis for the Prevention of Systematic
Candidemia in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants
Advisors: Dr. Brett Galley and Dr. Jonathan Muraskas, Loyola University
Japan RITS
Yangbo Du: Promoting Bio-Ethanol in the United States by Incorporating Lessons from
Brazil’s National Alcohol Program
Advisor: Dr. Joshua Linn, University of Illinois and Dr. R. Stephen Berry, University of
Chicago
Published in: National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics,
Science and Technology Journal. Fall 2007. 13(1): 12-17.
Zexi J. Fang: Hydrogen Sensors Based on Ultra-thin Palladium Nanobead Arrays on
Porous Anodic Aluminum Oxide (AAO) Substrates
Advisor: Dr. Zhili Xiao, Argonne National Laboratory
Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalist
Frances Mei Hardin: Weak Lensing Mass Estimates of Low Redshift Clusters of
Galaxies
Advisors: Dr. James Annis and Dr. Albert Stebbins, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Forrest Iandola: Calculating the Accuracy of the Beam Position Monitors in a Fermilab
Electron Accelerator
Advisors: Dr. Michael Syphers and Dr. Raymond Filler III, Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Sushma Kola: Overexpression of Aquaporin-1 in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Advisor: Dr. Anjana V. Yeldandi, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*, 2008 sanofi-aventis International
BioGENEius Challenge: Illinois State finalist
Kelsey Lawhorn: Weak Lensing Mass Estimates of Low Redshift Clusters of Galaxies
Advisors: Dr. James Annis and Dr. Albert Stebbins, Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Kristen Lee: The Role of Protein Kinase C in the Degradation of the G-Protein Coupled
Receptor CXCR4
Advisor: Dr. Adriano Marchese, Loyola University
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Jimmy Liu: The Detection of Differences Between Normal and Cancerous Stem Cells
Through Analysis of Morphology, Gene Expression, and Effects of
Dichloroacetate
Advisors: Dr. Morris Kletzel and Mrs. Marie Olszewski, Children’s Memorial Hospital
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Jonathan Loucks: An Analysis of Illinois Public Schools: The Effects of Different
Socioeconomic and Environmental Factors on a School’s Ability to Meet or
Exceed State Standards
Advisor: Mr. Joe Traina, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Anita Mehta: Exploring the Efficiency of the MINOS Experiment in the Far Detector
Advisor: Dr. Niki Saoulidou, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Japan RITS
Vineet Mohanty: Evaluation of Ultrasensitive p24 Antigen Assay as an Alternative to
Standard Viral Load and Antigen Assays in Diagnosis and Patient Treatment
Monitoring
Advisor: Mr. Bill Kabat, Children’s Memorial Hospital
3rd International Students' Science Fair (ISSF) 2007: Second Honorary Mention (5th) in
Oral Presentation in Biology
Jagannath (Sam) Nayak: Magnetic Nanostructures for Biomedicine
Advisor: Dr. Vinayak Dravid, Northwestern University McCormick School of
Engineering
Siemens Competition semi-finalist, Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalist
Birce Önal: Identification of a Gene Responsible for Membrane Resistance in
Escherichia Coli
Advisor: Dr. Eric Vimr, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
Siemens Competition semi-finalist
Karan P. Patel: Angiogenic Inhibitors and Inhibitors of Histone Deacetylases - A New
Way to Block Tumor Growth and Angiogenesis?
Advisor: Dr. Olga Volpert, Northwestern University
3rd International Students' Science Fair (ISSF) 2007: second place oral presentation in
biology, third place (overall) in poster presentation
Sophia Pilipchuk: The Effect of Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate (EGCG), a Green Tea
Polyphenol, on HeLa Cell Viability and Proliferation
Advisor: Dr. Don Dosch, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium
Shailee Shah: Dietary Implementation of Flax Seed/Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Ovarian
Cancer in the Gallus Domesticus Laying Hen
Advisor: Dr. Dale Buchanan Hales, University of Illinois at Chicago
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Jianning (Jenny) Shao: A Novel Nonlinear Secret Encryption Scheme Generates
Escalating Entropy
Advisor: Dr. Bin Shao
Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium: regional finalist; Illinois Junior Academy of
Sciences Competitor*
Sarah Shareef: The Response of Oligodendrocytes to Normal Appearing White Matter
from Multiple Sclerosis and Control Patients-A Study of the Early Pathology of
Multiple Sclerosis
Advisor: Dr. Sara Becker-Catania, Edwards Hines VA Hospital
Siemens Competition semi-finalist, Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium: regional finalist
Eric Shyu: On a Number-Hiding Game
Advisor: Dr. Mark Fischler, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Sonny Song: The Analysis and Implementation of Live Cell Imaging in the Study of
Interactions Between LMP4 and Actin Filament
Advisor: Dr. Teng-Leong Chew, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Japan RITS
Anisha Vyas: Using Spectral Absorption Information to Identify Tumors
Advisor: Dr. Xu Li, Northwestern University
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*, 2008 sanofi-aventis International
BioGENEius Challenge: Illinois State finalist
Evelyn Wang: A Test of the Hypothesis That Transposon Exclusion Zones (TEZs) in
Mammalian Genomes are Associated with Haplo-insufficient Genes
Advisor: Dr. Patrick Venta, Michigan State University
Siemens Competition semi-finalist, Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium: second
place in regional competition, advancing to national competition
Anthony Yunker: Weak Lensing Mass Estimates of Low Redshift Clusters of Galaxies
Advisor: Dr. James Annis, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Competitor*
Emily Zhao: Correlation Mapping: An fMRI Analysis of the Neural Response to Visual
Stimuli
Advisor: Johannes Haushofer, Harvard University
Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalist, Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium
*Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences Regional competition was held April 5.