Chelsea Sierra Voss, 17, of Santa Clara, submitted a bioinformatics and genomics project to the Intel Science Talent Search, a program of Society for Science & the Public. She created a computer model of the signaling cascade that controls differentiation of cells in the developing nematode—a roundworm frequently studied as a model of animal development. Her computer model is surprisingly simple, yet predicts with high accuracy the actual mutations observed in the nematode. Chelsea believes that simplified yet powerful computer models of complex biological systems, similar to the one she has developed, will ultimately allow entire organisms to be modeled by computer. Chelsea attends Cupertino High School where she competes locally and nationally with the math team and is co-president of the Spanish Honor Society. She led a robotics team project and wrote a grant application to help raise funds. Last year she went to Rosarito, Mexico, to work in an orphanage and use her Spanish skills. In her free time, she enjoys playing piano and occasionally inventing melodies and learning songs that interest her. The daughter of Charles and Martha Voss, Chelsea plans a career in biological research or bioengineering.

Tags: Chelsea Voss, education, Intel Inspire, Intel Science Talent Search Finalists, Society for Science & the Public

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.