Wheatley School senior Krista Chen’s research project that made the Intel Science Talent Search semifinals wasn’t her first stroke of success.
Along with Herricks High School and Manhasset Secondary School students, the Roslyn Heights resident made last year’s semifinals in the Siemens Competition in math, science and technology, with a three-year study she started after finishing eighth grade.
Wheatley’s science teachers have helped nurture Chen’s lifelong love of science and connect her with new interests, she said.
But getting beyond class material with hands-on research — “going into a lot of the things you wouldn’t get to learn in class” — is what Chen, 17, said loves about being in the lab.
Chen’s most recent project, one of 300 nationwide semifinalists in the prestigious Intel competition, studied how a tumor-targeting drug could detect and kill cancer stem cells to reduce the toxic effects associated with chemotherapy.
She also examined how green tea and tumeric could combine with the drug to make it more potent and require fewer doses.
Her study found the drug was effective on its own and in four different combinations with the natural remedies.
“I found these different combinations that could all work well in vitro, and hopefully in vivo (in live subjects) as well,” Chen said.
The project combined Chen’s longtime interest in microbiology with a new interest in chemistry, she said, which she discovered when taking an Advanced Placement chemistry course her junior year.
A teacher connected her to SUNY Stony Brook professor and tumor-targeting drug researcher Iwao Ojima, who supervised her four-month project.
Chen is one of about 60 students in Wheatley’s five-year-old science research program, coordinator Alexis Blondrage said, which runs from eighth through 12th grade.
The program is part of an effort to incorporate more research curriculum at all grade levels in East Williston schools, Blondrage said.
“By the time they get to me, they have a lot of foundational research skills, which is really unique for this level,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t do any authentic research until I was a grad student.”
The seven seniors in the program submitted to the Intel contest this year, said Blondrage, who taught at Sewanhaka High School for five years before coming to Wheatley. Two students made the semifinals last year.
On top of getting national recognition for her research, Chen is a member of five clubs at Wheatley, runs on the track team and plays violin.
“Learning about other things and other cultures is really important to take in mind whenever you’re doing anything,” she said. “Being in so many different clubs, I meet a lot of different students, especially in other grades, so that really has taught me a lot about different experiences and how I should keep those in mind.”
Blondrage said Chen always “remains in this calm state” amid all her commitments and involvements.
“Some adults could probably take a lesson from that,” she said.
Chen wants to study biomedical engineering and has been accepted to Yale University. She’s still waiting on a decision from Harvard University, she said, the only other college to which she applied.
Chen said Wheatley’s small population of between 750 and 800 students allows her to form close relationships with her teachers, who have supported her academic and other endeavors.
“I can have lunch with them sometimes. I’ll go to their classrooms just to have therapy sessions,” she said. “So that’s really influenced how I’ve learned in the past five years.”
