For the first 11 years of his school life, Zachary Quinlan had never had much time for science. He’d never entered a science fair or competition, his interest limited to getting good grades in his science courses.

“My twin brother, Joshua, was always the science guy,” says Zachary, 17. “I’m more interested in writing and communications ” I’ve always wanted a career in public relations.”

All that changed last year when Zachary and his friend Andrew Lynch, looking for a challenge to enliven their final year at Bishops College High School in St. John’s, Newfoundland, entered the SABC. They investigated whether the drug Rapamycin, normally used to help prevent the body’s rejection of organ transplants, could help people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Zachary became interested in treating PTSD because “it is a very common disorder often hidden in the shadows,” particularly in his province, which has the highest per capita enrolment in the armed forces.

The students tested rapamycin as a possible PTSD treatment through experiments on lab rats to measure their levels of hyperarousal, a symptom of PTSD that can cause reduced pain tolerance, anxiety, an exaggerated response to sudden noise, insomnia and fatigue. They found that rapamycin dramatically reduced the rats’ levels of hyperarousal.

“Overall, this research suggests that rapamycin might be used in the future as a treatment for people suffering from PTSD,” said Zachary.

“I fell in love with everything about it,” he said of the SABC experience, “the reading, the laboratory experiments, working with our mentor, presenting the results to the judges.”

As for whether it suggests a future in science for the young researcher, Zachary is not so sure, “but after this experience, I’d like to do PR for a major laboratory or science project.”

Teenager Proves Juniper Berries Fights Breast Cancer — a potential new home-grown anti-cancer agent?

Could juniper berries be Canada’s newest breast cancer treatment?

That’s what Rebecca Hollett of St John’s wondered after learning that an elderly woman diagnosed with untreatable breast cancer attributed her survival for more than three years to a daily cup of juniper tea.

“I set out to determine if it really was the juniper that helped cure her,” said 16-year-old Rebecca, a Grade 11 student at Holy Heart of Mary High.

To test her theory, Rebecca grew breast cancer cells in juniper berry extract, adding more extract over time and discovering that, the more juniper, the fewer living cancer cells.

To confirm she had something to help fight breast cancer, Rebecca had to determine if there was something else in the extract formulation that might have killed the cancer cells.

“I had a lot of trouble finding an appropriate juniper extract to use in my experiments,” she noted. In the end she used both the extract and alpha-pinene, the main phytochemical found in juniper to treat the cancer cells. The alpha-pinene killed cells equally well as the extract, confirming that the juniper berry was responsible for the killing the cancer cells

In Canada, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with more than 22,000 new diagnoses every year.

If further research shows that juniper was an effective anti-cancer agent then it would be extremely beneficial to thousands of Canadians, Rebecca says. “It would also benefit the Canadian economy because it could be exported and sold globally.”

“Imagine a local berry that could be picked by anyone that has the potential to cure thousands of people with cancer.”

2008 First Place Winner Stephanie Gallant
Stephanie Gallant the 2008 First Place Winner recieved her award at the award ceremony that celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the SABC in Newfoundland and Labrador. Allan Snook of sanofi-aventis was on hand to present the award. The title of Stephanie’s project was “Larch Tea: An Antibacterial Solution?”

First Place Sarai Hamodat and Rob Van Exan, sanofi pasteur
Title: “A Breath of Fresh Air”
School: Holy Heart of Mary High School
Supervising Teacher: Monika Behr
Mentor Dr. Kaushik Nag, Department of Biochemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Local Teen Scientists Win Prestigious Biotech AwardsA local grade10 student whose research examined the active components of camomile was awarded first prize in the 2003 Aventis Biotech Challenge, hosted by Bio-East.

Tim Loomis, a student at Mount Pearl Senior High School, claimed the $2000 cash award at a ceremony held on April 4, 2003 at the Memorial University?s Field House. Mr. Loomis? project involved extraction and identification of all the active ingredients of camomile, a commonly used herbal remedy for everything from motion sickness to migraines, to isolate compounds that could be used to target specific illnesses.

?Participating in the Aventis Biotech Challenge was an excellent experience. The opportunity to work with a mentor in a real laboratory and to conduct my own research was very beneficial. I am continuing my research to prepare for the national competition, but would have continued with this project anyway,? said Tim Loomis.

The $1500 second place prize went to Jennifer Graham of Marystown Central High School for her research on the effect of reduced gravity on the growth of mould. The rapid growth of mould has been a plague for both man and machine on extended space flights.

Angela Wareham and Jessica Stanford of Holy Heart of Mary High School took the $1000 third place for their project ?Allergen Detector Test? which explored the development of a test strip for people who have food allergies. Fourth and fifth place prizes went to teams Laura Craig and Danica Carter, and James Hanley and Robert Mercer for their projects ?Cleaning Dirt? and ?Fungus is Our Friend? respectively.

Sanofi Pasteur Limited has been the competition?s lead sponsor since the inception of the biotech awards program 10 years ago. More than 100 organizations are partnered with Aventis Pasteur in supporting this educational outreach initiative.

?We wholeheartedly support The Sanofi-Aventis Biotech Challenge because it represents an investment in the future of the brightest young Canadian students and the next generation of scientific leaders,? said Sanofi Pasteur Limited President, Mr. Mark Lievonen.

Prize money is shared between the students and their schools. The criteria used to judge the projects included scientific merit, creativity, originality and potential commercial applications.

Tim Loomis will compete against other regional winners at the national competition, which will be held via video conference May 30. Each first-place regional team will present their research to a panel of judges gathered at the National Research Council headquarters in Ottawa. The winning team from the national competition goes to Washington, DC in June to compete against US teams at BIO 2003, the world?s largest gathering of biotechnology leaders. gathering of biotechnology leaders comes to Washington,

For more information, contact:

Ms. Cynthia Brown
Biotechnology Co-ordinator
GENESIS Group

Telephone: (709) 737-2682
Fax: (709)737-4029
E-mail: cbrown@genesis.mun.ca

Website: www.genesis.mun.ca

Sarah Small, and Ronan MacParland knew the health benefits of drinking green tea were well documented and decided to find if wearing green tea also might be good for what ails you.?Tea-riffic skin?

Sarah Small, and Ronan MacParland knew the health benefits of drinking green tea were well documented and decided to find if wearing green tea also might be good for what ails you.

Modern medicine has hailed the ancient beverage?s anti-oxidant properties which reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and premature aging. The two Newfoundland high school students wanted to investigate whether those compounds could also be beneficial when applied externally ? as a skin cream.

Originally, the two students from Holy Heart of Mary High School in St. John?s were looking for a way to make use of something that?s usually discarded. ?We thought about used tea bags,? said Sarah, ?and then settled on green tea because of its medicinal properties.? They called their project Tea-riffic Skin.

The first step was to extract the active ingredients called polyphenols from the three brands of green tea selected for the experiment ? President?s Choice, Lipton?s regular and decaffeinated ? using hot and cold ethanol extraction techniques.

The resulting chemicals were then subjected to a series of tests to determine their potential to cause mutation as well as anti-oxidant levels and UV absorbency. In all cases, the results were encouraging. The last step was to add the samples to a base cream and conduct more tests for UV, anti-oxidants and mutogenicity.

?The tests showed that the cream had very good anti-oxidant properties, which indicates that it has the potential to prevent cancer and premature aging,? said Sara. ?But the most exciting result was that the cream is 100 percent UV absorbent, making it a very effective protector against the sun?s harmful rays.?

Sarah says that although she and Ronan are excited about their discovery and its potential to become a commercial health product, their first love is not science but music.

?Both of us would like to pursue careers in music,? she said, ?but this experience has certainly opened our eyes to the challenge and excitement of scientific research. I think we are now looking much more seriously at the idea of studying medicine or science.

?The laboratory work was particular interesting and really gave us an appreciation of what researchers have to go through to develop the products we use every day.? Not to mention a sure-fire formula for ?tea-riffic skin?.

For more information or to book an interview:
Terry Collins
416-538-8712; 416-878-8712 (mobile)