Gavriela Kalish-Schur Named a Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalist: The First from a Philly Public School in Over Three Decades
The Regeneron Science Talent Search is one of the most prestigious scientific research competitions in the United States. Beginning in 1942, the Regeneron STS aims to highlight the work of high-school age students who complete independent research in different scientific fields. Student’s whose research is deemed original and innovative are selected to be one of 300 semifinalists — a pool which is then narrowed to 40 finalists. This year, senior Gavriela Kalish-Schur was selected as one of the top 40 finalists in the competition, the first time in its nearly 70 year history that Masterman has produced a finalist.
Kalish-Schur began thinking about the project during her junior year of high school. Kalish-Schur, inspired by her experience as a Masterman student, wanted to complete research related to anxiety and mental health. “Anxiety and mental health are things we’re talking about more, but we really don’t know enough about, especially on a really scientific level,” Kalish-Schur explains. “I was interested in looking at how cellular mechanisms, specifically protein folding…is related to anxiety.”
Kalish-Schur, after determining an area of inquiry, began her research at the University of Pennsylvania, in a lab she had been with since sophomore year. Her research focused on how IRE1, a mechanism responsible for protein folding, was related to anxiety. The goal of her research was to determine possible biological causes of anxiety to help find more targeted treatments for anxiety in humans. After a twenty page paper and multiple rounds of judging from scientific experts from across the country, Kalish-Schur was announced as a finalist this past January.
Kalish-Schur’s success, however, is not simply a monumental win for Masterman—it draws attention to the increasing need for educational investment in the Philadelphia school district. Kalish-Schur’s finalist status marks the first time in over 30 years that a student from a Philadelphia public high school has been selected a finalist for Regeneron Science Talent Search—a shocking statistic. Kalish-Schur, who hopes her success can be used as an example to demonstrate the necessity of increased educational funding, underscores, “Empowering students who are interested in science to pursue independent research is something that is really important.” Kalish-Schur believes that scientific education is highly beneficial for students. “Science and learning how to do independent research is something that doesn't just teach you scientific topics— it's really like a way of thinking,” Kalish-Schur argues. “Asking questions and designing a way to answer that question and then going and conducting research…is a skill that can be translated to so many different things in your life, not just science.”
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Anxiety is one of the most prevalent neuropsychiatric disorders but little is known about its causes. I studied a specific pathway, the IRE1 pathway, and its effect on anxiety in Drosophila (fruit flies). This particular pathway affects protein folding. I adapted the wall-following assay that measures the amount of time spent around the walls of the testing dish compared to the center to measure anxiety. Flies with decreased IRE1 spend more time on the outside, demonstrating the anxiety phenotype. I then looked at the levels of two proteins in the IRE1 pathway, BiP and BDNF. I discovered that depending on where in the brain IRE1 was decreased (either the glia or the dopaminergic circuit) there were different effects on protein levels. These results suggested that anxiety was caused by different parts of the IRE1 pathway in each cell type. Furthermore, the IRE1 pathway is conserved in humans, and based on human data, genetic variants in this pathway are fairly common. Ultimately, this research suggests that IRE1 knockdown leads to anxiety and that the differing protein levels in the pathway in different cell types suggest multiple paths forward to possibly “rescue” the IRE1 pathway, which provide ways to treat anxiety.
40 teens from around the country made it to this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search’s finals, including Masterman senior, Gavriela Beatrice Kalish-Schur. Gavriela came up with a novel idea for how fruit fly research might help people suffering from anxiety. Learn more about her research and project submission "IRE1 Knockdown Leads to an Anxiety Phenotype in Drosophila and Changes in BiP and BDNF Levels" in this Technical.ly article.
How did you hear about the program (0:00)
Mother, Jennifer Kalish, won the award in 1994.
Called westinghouse, since sponsored by regeneron
Starting thinking about the project junior year
How did you select your topic? (0:41)
Anxiety in fruit flies on the cellular level
To help find more targeted treatments for anxiety in humans
Protein folding - how our proteins are properly put into shapes that allow them to work
Why anxiety in particular? (1:50)
Experiences as a student - anxiety and mental health are things we talk about more but we don’t know enough about
Anxiety treated as a psychological issue and not a biological issue
Who are you working with on this project?
Penn lab facilities
What drives your passion for this research?
What was the judging process like? (2:25)
20 page paper
Judged from all over the country
300 semifinalists
40 finalists - DC trip
First finalist since 1990 from philly public school
First in Masterman history
Example of
Way of thinking, and design thinking
Advice for conducting an independent research project?
4:04 - “Science and learning how to do independent research is something that doesn't just teach you scientifics topics— its really like way of thinking.”
“Asking questions and designing a way to answer the question and then going and conducting research and some sort of experiment in order to answer that question is a skill that can be translated to different things.”
