Sophia Breslin received a 2nd place award for Chemistry at the Delaware Valley Science Fair, which is sponsored by Drexel University and held in early April. Sophia's project was a continuation of her project from last year, entitled "Protein Zinc Interactions" (see below). In addition, junior Sydney Breslin received a 1st place Special Award from the Philadelphia Society for Coatings Technology for her project, "Characterizing and Modifying the Release of pH Sensitive Polymer Coatings." Her award included a cash prize of $300. The awards are impressive because the DVSF is a culmination of 13 regional science fair events held throughout the tri-state area. Congratulations to Sophia and Sydney!

Protein Zinc Interactions (Sophia Breslin, right, with DVSF judges)

Summary of Project: Protein-based medicines are used to treat many diseases like cancer, diabetes, and immune system disorders. Once challenge with these types of treatments is aggregation of proteins in the solutions to be administered for treatment. The goal of the original project was to use metal salt solutions to discover which metals cause protein aggregation. It was determined that zinc ions did not cause proteins to aggregate. In this continuation project, the goal was to determine better understand why zinc ions do not cause protein aggregation. The results hopefully will help scientists prevent protein aggregation and therefore improve the effectiveness of treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and immune system disorders.

Characterizing and Modifying the Release of pH Sensitive Polymer Coatings (Sydney Breslin, below)

Summary of Project: Polymer coatings are used on tablets to help deliver medication to patients. These coatings are used for a variety of reasons: masking the taste of the medication, protecting the medication from coming apart in the stomach. The type of coating used can cause a delay in the medication entering the bloodstream. If a different type of coating were used, perhaps the delay in medication entering the bloodstream could be prevented. Using a polymer coating which starts in an ionized state would be more dissolve more quickly in the intestinal tract, therefore causing the medication to be dissolved more quickly.