Herricks High School seniors Meenakshi Krishna and Ajin Varghese were named semifinalists in the Siemens Competition in Math Science & Technology last month.
They were among 63 high students in New York State to achieve that recognition.
Semifinalists, regional finalists, and national finalists of the competition are invited to join the Siemens Scholar Network, a social networking site that allows Siemens Scholars to maintain contact with each other, as well as providing news, events, and networking opportunities
Krishna and Varghese, who both spent long summer hours in research laboratories to produce work worthy of winning the Siemen’s honors, said the results were well worth the time.
“It’s fun. If you like it you can do it,” Krishna said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. If you’re into it, you don’t notice the time passing.”
Krishna said she worked 12 hour days, six days a week, in the bio-medical lab at Yale University.
She said she often asked her instructor, Dr. Themis Kyriadkides, if she could stay longer, but he told her to go home and relax.
Varghese said he enjoyed “being surrounded by such smart people” along with doing the research itself.
Krishna’s research focused on ways to reverse impaired blood vessel functionality associated with several pathological conditions, including diabetes and stroke. She narrowed her work to examine a single protein that prevents blood vessels from growing and discovered 90 pairs of genes that could potentially inhibit that protein.
“I thought it was cool to be hands-on. In research, you don’t know if there’s going to be an answer,” Krishna said.
Varghese conducted his work with a partner from Garden City High School in a lab at Hofstra University with Dr. Dustin DiAngelo.
He said he chose to work with DiAngelo because of previous work he aware the professor had done on gene research with fruit flies. The research focused on fat droplets that have detrimental effects on organisms, causing diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis and other serious medical problems.
The research Varghese and his lab partner undertook was to identify a fruit fly with high fat content in its genes, with the ultimate objective of finding similar genes in humans, and identify splicing factors that regulate lipid – or fat 0-droplet formation in the genes. The two young researchers had some success over the six weeks of lab work.
“One male genotype under the fruit flies had high fat content,” Varghese said.
Both students had to write research papers explaining their research and prepare oral presentations. Varghese said he was “pretty excited” to be selected a Siemens semifinalist.
“It’s good, but also motivation to work for the next step,” Krishna said.
The next step for her is to prepare presentations for the Intel Science & Engineering Fair and the Long Island Science Fair this year.
Beyond that, Varghese aspires to become a doctor. Krishna said she wants to study bio-medical engineering in college and then become a research doctor – perhaps eventually mentoring students like herself.
“I like the academic professorship thing,” she said.
Apart from their scientific studies, both students have other creative outlets.
Varghese has played saxophone since elementary school and now plays in the Herricks High School Band.
Krishna enjoys writing poetry and has participated in the annual “Poetry Out Loud” competition. She also performs in the Dance Theatre Club, which puts on an annual recital at the end of the school year.
“It’s kind of like a family. We get a chance to bond,” she said of the dance group.
