Early lung cancer detection, transgenic corn diet winning topics at MSEF

March 27, 2013 Add Comment
Top winners during the Miss. State Science and Engineering Fair are second from left, Marina Ali, a senior at St. Andrews Episcopal, 1st ISEF Alternate; Taide Ding, senior at Oxford High School, 2nd ISEF Alternate ISEF; Manuella Portilla, sophomore at Cleveland High School, ISEF finalist and Shreya Mathur, senior at Oxford High School, and a ISEF finalist. The winners will attend the International Science and Engineering Fair.

The winning projects at the 2013 Mississippi Science and Engineering Fair  explored a method for early detection of lung cancer and analyzed  the impact of a transgenic corn diet.

Top winners during the Miss. State Science and Engineering Fair are second from left, Marina Ali, a senior at St. Andrews Episcopal, 1st ISEF Alternate; Taide Ding, senior at Oxford High School, 2nd ISEF Alternate ISEF; Manuella Portilla, sophomore at Cleveland High School, ISEF finalist and Shreya Mathur, senior at Oxford High School, and a ISEF finalist. The winners will attend the International Science and Engineering Fair.
Top winners during the Mississippi Science and Engineering Fair are second from left, Marina Ali, a senior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal, 1st ISEF Alternate; Taide Ding, senior at Oxford High School, 2nd ISEF Alternate ISEF; Manuella Portilla, sophomore at Cleveland High School, ISEF finalist; and Shreya Mathur, senior at Oxford High School, and a ISEF finalist. The winners will attend the International Science and Engineering Fair.

Manuela Portrilla, a 16-year-old sophomore at Cleveland High School, and Shreya Mathur, a 16-year-old junior at Oxford High School, were selected as the overall winners during the fair held Tuesday on the campus of Jackson State University.

“It really means a lot to be recognized after putting in so much time and effort,” said Mathur, whose project was titled, “Identification of Proteomic Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Lung Cancer.”

Portrilla’s project focused on the evolutionary effects, life cycles and reproductive rates of fall armyworms when placed on an artificial diet and then transitioned to a diet of transgenic corn.

“The worm had the potential to adapt to transgenic corn because it was able to adapt to the artificial diet,” Portrilla said. “I’m hoping there will be further studies with transgenic corn to produce a higher yield of corn.”

Portrilla and Mathur are finalists for the International Science and Engineering Fair May 12-18 in Pittsburgh.

Marina Ali of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School was the second-place winner at Tuesday’s fair. Taide Ding of Oxford High School placed third.

The Mississippi Region II Science and Engineering Fair was held at JSU on March 21 and March 22.  Close to 1,500 students from 250 public and private schools in Claiborne, Copiah, Hinds, Jefferson, Madison, Rankin and Warren counties participated in the two-day fair. Students presented projects in the areas of science, mathematics and technology.