Young scientists compete

Vancouver – While other 17-year-olds lounged on the beach last summer, Janny Ke was busy reading about tumours, enzymes and dead cancer cells.

The Sir Winston Churchill student’s hard work paid off, earning her the chance to compete Tuesday against Canada’s top young scientists at the Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge in Ottawa.

Via teleconference—since she also had two exams to take Tuesday—Ke presented her findings on how to eliminate problematic dead cancer cells to a panel of scientists.

“In our body there’s a cell type called macrophages,” Ke explained in an interview. “These are immune cells and they’re specialized in eating dead cells. What I wanted to do is to find a way to increase [their] ability to eat those dead cells.”

With the help of scientists from Simon Fraser University and the University of B.C., Ke spent more than 200 hours of lab time identifying a protein that boosts the body’s ability to eliminate dead cells, which can play a role in cancer, arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

Fourteen students aged 14 to 18 from across the country competed in Tuesday’s contest for a top prize of $5,000. Results will be announced this afternoon.

Ke, who said she’ll likely head to UBC to study medicine, said she found it exciting to be part of a competition with peers who, like her, are “really passionate about science.”

Other students presented research into everything from herbal medicines to stem cells to measuring mercury poison in polar bears.

“When you compare this to the dry ice and clay volcanos which people mostly submitted in their science fairs, it’s dramatically different what these kids are doing,” said Terry Collins, the competition’s spokesman.

“It’s truly astonishing in terms of the sophistication and complexity.”