Otana Jakpor – Woodcrest Christian School, Riverside, CA

Project: Indoor Air Pollution: A Comparison of Fine Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) Emissions from Paraffin and Soy Candles

Inspired by her mother’s daily battle with severe asthma, Otana Jakpor from Riverside, CA studied particulate indoor air pollution from candles and determined that paraffin candles create indoor pollution that exceeds the current outdoor air quality standard. She plans to share her findings with the American Lung Association and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Earlier research of hers analyzed the pulmonary effects of ozone-generating air purifiers. As a result of these alarming findings, she became active in public policy advocacy and helped CA become the first state to regulate ozone emissions from air purifiers. She is now a volunteer spokesperson for the American Lung Association.

Lanair Lett - North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics, Durham, NC

Project: Histone Deacetylase-1 (HDAC-1) Increases Beta Cell Proliferation in 832/13 Cells and Rat Islets

By 2030, the number of people suffering from diabetes is expected to double. Annually, somewhere between 1.1 and 2.9 million people die of diabetes, one of them being seventeen year old Lanair’s grandmother. Lanair’s research sought to better understand a specific protein that affects the growth of beta cells, which play a large role in diabetes. The hope is that this understanding will eventually help find more effective treatments, or possibly even a cure, for the disease that afflicts both his mother and him. With no father figure present, he turned to his mentor, Dr. Jeffrey Tessem, who not only fostered his love for science but also helped him grow as a scientist.

Yifan Li – Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Springs, MD

Project: Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells into Retinal Pigment

Epithelium Cells in Culture Eighteen year old Yifan’s research was an important step in the National Eye Institute’s stem cell research. As a result, research in the field of retinal development and stem cell differentiation will hopefully flourish in the near future, culminating in the transplantation of stem cell derived retinal cells as a cure for visual diseases.

Tags: education, Intel Science Talent Search, Intel Science Talent Search Finalists

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