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Research Students Shine at Science Symposium

Pediatric brain tumor research, neuron recordings, and Atom trap research were just a few of the topics presented by science research students at Milken’s annual Science Symposium, held on March 3. Family, faculty, and friends gathered in the Guerin Family Institute for Advanced Sciences to learn about the exciting projects science research students have been working on.

A personal family connection to cancer led Ethan Suman ’20 to research his project "UCLA Translational Oncology Research Lab: Response to Hepatocellular Carcinoma."
He hopes as a result of his research that it will provide an effective, affordable treatment opportunity for Hepatocellular Carcinoma cancer patients. “There is nothing more exhilarating than knowing that your participation in the frontier of research, whatever it may be, is having a direct contribution to the betterment of society," said Suman.

Eliya Makabeh ’19 presented on pediatric brain tumors. Her project was titled "Upregulation of IL-6 in Histone 3.3 K27M mutant pediatric gliomas in vitro." She conducted her research at UCLA under Dr. Robert Prins. “Working in the neurosurgery department under an extremely influential neurosurgeon, my eyes have been opened to the prevalence of neurological diseases and their profound effects,” said Makabeh, who hopes to become a brain surgeon. “I have become exposed to the huge impact neurosurgery makes on the world.”

Jordan Feldman ’20, who presented his research “Single Neuron Recording in the Rutishauser Lab,” has always been interested in neuroscience. He conducted his research at the Rutishauser Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Recording patient’s neurons as they viewed a series of faces, which were described positively or negatively, Feldman examined how the neurons respond differently based on the description. “Scientific research is sort of amazing because there is so much creativity involved, you try one thing and then a different thing and just keep looking at a problem from different angles until you see something that no one else has seen before,” said Feldman.  

Michael Bochkur Dratver ’19 worked as
research assistant at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine’s radiation oncology department. His project was called “Function and Impact of Pyruvate Kinase M2 Isoform (PKM2) and Carbonic Anhydrase IX (CAIX) in Combating Oxidative Stress in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)." Bochkur Dratver said he was fascinated with the subject because of the prominent roles the proteins PKM2 and CAIX play in cancer cell maintenance.

The format of the symposium was as follows: Sophomores and juniors presented their current research in small groups, while the seniors gave talks about their completed projects.

"Everyone was impressed by the level of research our seniors conducted, and how professional their presentations were," remarked Science Research Teacher Polly Kim.

The three-year Science Research Program is part of Milken’s Mitchell Academy of Science and Technology (MAST). Students connect with mentors, learn how to conduct research, and investigate science topics in their sophomore year. In the summer after sophomore year, students begin working in university labs such as USC and UCLA. Juniors continue and develop their own hypotheses with mentors and refine their writing and presentation skills. Seniors complete their projects and submit to the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search.

The Symposium was a great opportunity for students to share the culmination of their work with the community and for the community to learn more about MAST.

It takes several skills to research, design experiments, and analyze data; yet, a whole other set of skills is required to effectively communicate esoteric scientific concepts to a crowd and have the audience excited and actually learn something by the end of the presentation,” said Bochkur Dratver.

“We’re not just preparing students for college and their careers, but we are giving them an opportunity to contribute to science right now,” said Kim.
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