Three Ossining High School Students Are Finalists in Neuroscience Competition

Three Ossining High School students are among 12 finalists for the 2016 Neuroscience Research Prize, which is sponsored by the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society.

The students are Sarah Fendrich, Mathew Forman and Julia Riley, who are part of Ossining High School’s Fundamentals of Science Research program. A panel of physicians and scientists who are conducting neuroscience research at academic institutions will evaluate the entries and choose four winners after two rounds of competition.

“It is truly remarkable that from a national pool of students, three of the 12 student finalists come from one school alone,” said Valerie Holmes, who co-teaches the Science Research Program with Angelo Piccirillo.

The winners, who will be announced in early February, will receive $1,000 each. Three of them, along with their teachers, will be invited to present their work at the American Academy of Neurology’s 68th annual meeting this spring in Vancouver, Canada, the world’s largest gathering of neurologists. One winner will have the opportunity to present his or her work at the Child Neurology Society’s 45th annual meeting in October, also in Vancouver.

The American Academy of Neurology and Child Neurological Society created the award to encourage high school students to explore the brain and nervous system through laboratory research. The organizations want to identify and reward students whose skills indicate the potential for scientific contributions in neuroscience, and to recognize the efforts of their teachers.

These are the titles of their OHS finalists’ research projects:

• Mathew: Intranasal Administration of Neuropeptide Y Agonist and Y1 Agonist Prevents the Development of PTSD-like Symptoms.
• Sarah: Differing Amygdala-Frontal Functional Connectivity Abnormalities in Borderline and Schizotypal Personality Disorders.
• Julia: RNF167 Regulates Neuronal SNARE Complex Component VAMP2 via Ubiquitination: Implications in Neuronal Function and Dysfunction.
  

Last week, Ossining High School learned that eight of its Science Research program students are semifinalists in the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search competition, more than any other high school in New York. Julia is one of the semifinalists.

(Photo, left to right: Julia Riley, Mathew Forman and Sarah Fendrich.)