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PRESS RELEASE: AUGUST 15, 2000 MEDIA ADVISORY: Young Ingenuity "Scientists" to Show Results
Mentored by leading scientists at COMB, Johns Hopkins University and Medical School, UM School of Pharmacy, and the Baltimore Zoo, the sixteen and seventeen year olds used scientific methods to help solve important, real-world research problems. For example: Melissa's experiment revealed that a house fly can carry hundreds of eggs of the human parasite Cryptosporidium. She concludes, "You should always cover your food when eating outdoors." If ingested, as few as 30 of the parasitic eggs can cause severe stomach aches, but can kill a person with HIV or another immune deficiency disease. Melissa showed that a few parasite eggs stick to fly body hairs but hundreds live in their digestive tract and can be defecated on picnic food left unprotected. Michael's dream of becoming a brain surgeon may have to wait for him to finish his project on a protein that seems to help cancer patients. He learned how to use a laboratory technique called FACS to determine the presence of HER-2 NU, a blood protein that recruits antibodies to fight tumors. Lily helped marine biologist Dr. Jim Du at COMB determine muscle developing genes of "Rock" fish. The genes are well known in laboratory models called zebrafish, but knowing they work in commercial species will help scientists prevent muscle-related diseases. The genes are common in all muscular animals including humans. Background: The 12 student posters to be exhibited represent the results of one or two years of individual studies by high school seniors and juniors. The Ingenuity Project, funded by the Abell Foundation, prepares highly capable and motivated Baltimore Polytechnic Institute students to achieve at nationally competitive levels in mathematics, science, technology, and related fields. The University of MD Biotechnoloty Institute is one of the nation's leading hubs of intensive research in molecular biology and related biotechnology research and development in medicine, marine biology, agriculture, and basic studies. Contact: Karol Costa, Director Telephone: 410-662-8665 Facsimile: 410-662-8674 Electronic mail: Ingenuity-poly@juno.com The Ingenuity Project
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