Ankoor Talwar’s medical research has earned the Herricks High School senior a trip to Washington, D.C.
From April 23-27, the Roslyn native will be presenting his paper, “An in vitro Assessment of Nitric Oxide – Releasing Nanoparticles as a Potential Drug Delivery Vehicle for Treating Hypoxia-Induced Pulmonary Vascular Inflammation” as a national finalist in the Junior Science and Humanities Competition.
“It feels great. I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “These other kids, no doubt, have great projects they’re going to share and I’m looking forward to sharing mine as well.”
Talwar was selected last month from a group of 230 high school students who participated in the regional Junior Science and Humanities competition at CUNY’s York College.
He conducted his research over the last two years, spending the bulk of his estimated 50 hours in the lab at either the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset or the Lab of Biophysics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, he said.
In his experiments, Talwar said he tested how nitric oxide gas could be used to mitigate inflammation in cases of pulmonary hypertension.
“The results were pretty positive,” he said. “We found that with the particles, I could significantly reduce the inflammatory markers inside the conditions that I studied.”
The project came about while working for Dr. Edmund J. Miller at the Feinstein Institute, whom Talwar said was one of several people who mentored him during the research. At Einstein College, he worked with Dr. Joel Friedman.
“He had me look through many of the papers he had done and come up with a topic based on those that I’d want to study,” Talwar said. “The lab there heavily studied pulmonary hypertension, so I figured, why not try to take it one step further in monitoring the actual treatment of it?”
The research made Talwar one of three Herricks students to advance to the semifinal round of this year’s Intel Science Talent Search.
But the work – like his success in competition – is still ongoing, he said.
“We are definitely still testing the particles,” he said. “Everyone who has helped me with this has really put in a lot of time and effort to seeing this through. I’m really lucky to have so many talented individuals helping me pursue this research.”
Reach reporter Bill San Antonio by e-mail at bsanantonio@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x215 or on Twitter @Bill_SanAntonio. Also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
