Caddo Parish Magnet High School, Shreveport is proud to announce that Moez Hayat, Vijay Letchuman, and Morni Modi placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively, in the 2015 Louisiana Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), and they will be attending the 2015 National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Hunt Valley, MD April 29-May2. Hayat and Letchuman will compete with oral presentations, while Modi will compete with a poster. All three students are participants in the Science and Medicine Academic Research Training Program sponsored by the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana and University Health in Shreveport.
Hayat, a senior, engineered a “Lab on a Chip” method to measure hydrogen sulfide gas within a blood sample. Hydrogen sulfide is produced by the human body and is associated with cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s diseases. He thanks his mentor, Dr. Christopher Kevil, of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology.
Letchuman, also a senior, investigated the complications commonly associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease by using an antioxidant, glutathione. He worked on reducing the effects of these complications by increasing blood flow to the affected areas through the increase of glutathione. He thanks his mentor, Dr. Christopher Patillo, also of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology.
Modi, a also a senior, investigates a way to inhibit the spread of tumors by using a novel bio-molecule called Gold Nanoshells. By heating the Gold Nanoshells with near infrared light, she was able to kill lymphatic cells, therefore, eliminating a way for cancerous tumors to spread. She thanks her mentor, Dr. Steven Alexander, also of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology.
The Junior Science and Humanities Symposia program is jointly sponsored by the United States Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, in cooperation with leading research universities throughout the nation. Forty-eight regional symposia are affiliated with the JSHS program, reaching over 10,000 high school students and teachers throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and in the Department of Defense Dependents Schools, Europe and Pacific Rim regions. The university sponsored symposia invite the participation of secondary schools within their regions.
The National JSHS brings together over 360 participants, including 240 high school students, their teachers and parents, university faculty affiliated with the JSHS, and other guests. Caddo Magnet has sent thirty-six students to the national symposium over the past seventeen years.