Sewanhaka students attend breast cancer conference

The Island Now
Sewanhaka High School students (bottom row, from left): Amrita Shah, Zainab Mian and Sayo Ogunleye are pictured with Lisa Levine (top, left) and Laura Weinberg of the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition at the Breast Cancer & Environment Research Program Conference. (Photo courtesy of Sewanhaka Central High School District)

Sewanhaka High School juniors Zainab Mian and Amrita Shah were sponsored through the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition’s Students and Scientists Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program at Dr. Laura Vandenberg’s laboratory at University of Massachusetts Amherst during the summer of 2017.

Zainab and Amrita’s summer research addressed the effect that endocrine-disrupting chemicals like BPA and BPS have on the mammary gland in animal models.

Senior Sayo Ogunleye was also sponsored through the coalition at Dr. Mary Beth Terry’s laboratory at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in the summers of 2016 and 2017. Sayo’s research examined Vitamin D intake status and its relationship with race, season, pubertal development and BMI measurements in girls ages 5 -15.

The coalition chaperoned the three students to the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program Conference in Monrovia, California, from Nov. 15–17.

Share this Article