Wheatley senior earns Siemens semifinals

Richard Tedesco

Wheatley School senior Daniela Czemerinski is among 63 New York State high school students who were named semifinalists in the Siemens Competition in Math Science & Technology last month.

“I feel very proud of my accomplishment,” Czemerinski said. “But I was proud before I got the Siemens because it was a really cool experience to be in the lab.”

Wheatley science research teacher Thomas Van Bell said he thought Czemerinski’s research work was “great” and said he was able to observe it himself. 

He said he spent time in the lab as part of the Garcia Research Program and hopes to do so again next summer if other Wheatley students are selected by Dr. Miriam Rafailovich, who directs the Stony Brook program.

Czemerinski’s research project, entitled “Development of an Assay for the Detection of Fibrinogen and Carcinogenic Embryonic Antigen to Expand Disease and Cancer Diagnosis,” aimed to show whether a protein could be used to detect pancreatic cancer. 

The technique of using biosensors to detect the absence of certain proteins as means of detecting pancreatic cancer has been used before, Czemerinski said. 

But she and her laboratory partner at Stony Brook University sought to further refine the research.

“I knew I wanted to work with biosensors. It seemed really interesting to detect for different forms of fibrinogen,” she said, adding that fibrinogen aids in blood clotting and a deficiency can result in a bleeding disorder.

Czemerinski said she spent five days a week in the lab at Stony Brook during the seven-week program with her lab partner, a high school junior from California. She said she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“I never really had a lab experience with research. I had a lot of independence,” Czemerinski said. “Although it was challenging laboratory work, I learned a lot and I understood it.”

Czemerinski was one of 70 high school students in the annual summer Garcia Research Program at Stony Brook and she said she learned a lot from other students’ projects as well. She also co-authored the research paper that explained their findings.

“I’m definitely interested in pursuing research in the future,” she said, adding that she may have an opportunity to continue her current research at Stony Brook.

Looking ahead to college, Czemerinski said she’s also interested in conducting research with an eye toward studying psychology and possibly psychiatry as well.

She said she’s always has a strong interest in science and mathematics and is proud of the research that earned her the Siemens recognition.

Czemerinski, who is editor-in-chief of Wheatley’s school newspaper, said she enjoyed writing her research paper

Czemerinski is also an accomplished oboe player who performs in the Wheatley Band and in the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, a group of high school students chosen by audition from high schools throughout Nassau County.

She said she is undecided on entering her project for the upcoming Intel Science competition. But she said she plans to enter a Google Science competition and another national competition, the International Sustainable World Engineering, Energy & Environment Project Olympiad.    

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