Ossining Senior is National Standout for Gene-Editing Research

Ossining High School student Emma Montgomery’s road to the Regeneron Science Talent Search finals began with a YouTube video.

A few years ago, her brother told her to watch a video on an innovative gene-editing method called CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). It taps into bacteria’s natural ability to take pieces of DNA from invading viruses and store them for use in the event of a future attack.

“It talked about the potential application of CRISPR, the big picture in the future of curing cancer, aging, making designer babies,” said Emma, who acknowledged there are some ethical challenges in the field. “It was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard.”

Now a senior, Emma’s project for the Science Research Program has earned her a coveted spot as one of 40 finalists for the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Her work involved CRISPR base editing, which uses CRISPR and other enzymes to deliver point mutations to DNA or RNA. A point mutation is a change, deletion or addition to one nucleotide in a gene or DNA sequence.

“Cancer and other diseases are often caused by a mutation of a single pair of nucleotides in DNA,” said Emma, 17, who will attend the University of Chicago next year. “CRISPR base editing is a revolutionary genetic editing tool that can repair or model these mutations.”

The final phase of the competition – which is sponsored by Regeneron and the Society for Science & the Public – takes place March 7-13 in Washington, D.C. Each finalist will receive at least $25,000, with the opportunity to win top awards ranging from $40,000 to $250,000.

“This year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists are helping to advance solutions to some of our world’s most intractable challenges,” Society for Science & the Public President and CEO Maya Aimera said in a statement.

One of major research challenges in gene editing is low efficiency rates in current base editors, which restrict scientists’ ability to move the technology into the clinical realm and help patients with point mutation disorders (for example, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia). Emma’s research significantly improved efficiency rates.

She did this by altering the DNA sequence of the base editing construct and developing a novel method for assessing the efficiency of different guide RNA sequences. She used processes such as DNA cloning, DNA sequencing and two gene transfer processes to deliver the constructs into cells. By doing this, she re-engineered the original base editing enzyme and developed two new base editing constructs with higher editing efficiencies. She also validated a new method for determining the efficiency of a guide RNA, independent of the target site.

“Ultimately, my research will advance models of human diseases by enabling precision mutations that mirror those found in humans, and will enable pooled screenings of guide RNAs,” she said.

Emma conducted her research in mentor Lukas Dow’s lab at Weill Cornell Medical College over two summers. Dr. Dow, an assistant professor of biochemistry in medicine, focuses on improving genetic engineering tools.

“I found that, in particular, working to improve the tool set or expand it to new applications was something that I really wanted to do,” she said.

In addition to learning how to conduct a research project, the Science Research Program helped Emma hone her skills in making presentations to classmates and competition judges and build her self-confidence. Angelo Piccirillo and Valerie Holmes co-teach the program.

Outside of the Science Research Program, Emma is the viola section leader in the school orchestra and is involved in human rights activities. Last year she and two classmates led a workshop on homelessness and debunking stereotypes.

She is a dancer at Logrea Dance Academy and belongs to the Westchester Ballet Company. She performed in the company’s performance of “The Nutcracker” last December. It was her 11th year in the production. She takes 11 dance classes a week.

“My favorite part of dancing definitely has to be performing, just for the little bit of adrenalin thrill that you get from being on stage,” she said. “Performing is so much fun, as is getting to express your emotions in a way that other people understand them too.”

Emma said she is considering bioengineering as a possible career, but “I’m obviously going to keep my options open in college and be willing to try new things.”

Emma is Ossining’s fifth Science Talent Search finalist. The others were Skyler Jones (2018), Soon il Higashino (2016), Charles Gulian (2015) and Daniel McQuaid (2013).

Three OHS seniors, including Emma, were among 300 semifinalists for the Science Talent Search this year. The others were Elliot Ocheltree and John Sukumar.