Ossining High School Senior Wins National Neuroscience Award

Ossining Science Research Program student Sarah Hoffman is one of four winners of the 2018 Neuroscience Research Prize, an award that is sponsored by the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society.

Each year, the organizations select four high school seniors as winners and award them $1,000 each. Three of the students, including Sarah, and their teachers receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting, which is being held this April in Los Angeles. One of the winners will present his or her work at the 2018 Child Neurology Society annual meeting.

AAN and the Child Neurology Society created the Neuroscience Research Prize to encourage high school students to explore the brain and nervous system through laboratory research, and to identify students who have the potential to make important contributions to the neuroscience field.

Sarah, who researched Alzheimer’s disease, said she is honored that her work is being recognized. “I committed thousands of hours to my project and to have my work pay off in this way is truly gratifying,” she said.

Sarah investigated Alzheimer’s disease-related protein expression and immune cell activation in the brains of male and female mice as well as humans. She found that female mice have a more severe Alzheimer’s pathology in both brain regions examined. Preliminary findings indicate the reasons could be related to synaptic, hormonal or cerebral blood flow differences between men and women.

Sarah concluded that Alzheimer’s research must consider sex differences. Her findings may improve the way researchers analyze the disease, enhance understanding of how gender affects its development and lead to the creation of novel sex-specific Alzheimer’s disease treatments.

While past studies showed that women have a higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s than men, there was a limited body of research that explored how the pathologies differ between the genders, according to Sarah.

Earlier in January, Sarah was selected as one of 300 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars from around the country. The four students from OHS each received $2,000, with an additional $2,000 going to the school.