High school student earns awards for research done at UTA

Wednesday, May 29, 2024 • Greg Pederson :

A high school student conducting research in the lab of a University of Texas at Arlington chemistry professor earned multiple awards at the annual Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

Regeneron ISEF 2024 was held May 11-17 in Los Angeles and is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition. Students in grades 9-12 from around the world are eligible to compete. Awards are given in 22 main ISEF categories as well as in more than 45 special categories which are sponsored by a variety of professional organizations.

Chloe Lee, a junior in the International Baccalaureate Program at Plano East Senior High School, conducted research in the lab of Junha Jeon, UTA associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. She earned the ISEF third-place award of $1,000 in the chemistry division. In special categories she received second place from the American Chemical Society, first place from the Patent and Trademark Office Society, third place from YM American Academy, and a scholarship from UT Dallas.

Regeneron ISEF is organized by Society for Science, a nonprofit organization which has been dedicated to expanding scientific literacy, access to STEM education, and scientific research for more than 100 years.

“I am very excited and honored to have received multiple awards at ISEF,” Lee said. “I felt as if the significance of my research had been recognized, which motivates me to further my research on acetaminophen toxicity. As I am very passionate about this research, I am glad to have received these awards and look forward to what I may discover in the future.”

Lee’s award-winning project, titled “Chemical Modification of Acetaminophen to Decrease Liver Toxicity”, sought to address acetaminophen toxicity, which is a leading cause of global liver transplantation.

“I chemically modified acetaminophen, the primary active pharmaceutical ingredient in Tylenol, to decrease liver toxicity without sacrificing the drug's effectiveness,” Lee said. “The modification involved carbon-hydrogen (C-H) activation of acetaminophen’s benzene ring structure and subsequent introduction of a silicon alkyne moiety to the molecule.”

Lee was introduced to Jeon’s lab last year when she participated in a Sustainable Material Workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Jeon runs the workshop each summer along with Ranny So, UTA assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. It is a collaboration with faculty at Syracuse University, UT Rio Grande Valley, and the State University of New York-College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The NSF summer workshop encourages students to pursue careers in STEM fields and includes a series of introductory lectures from multidisciplinary professors, lab experiences, a tour of university facilities, free registration and meals, and workshop certificates. When Lee expressed her interest in organic synthesis research, Jeon offered her the chance to work in his lab.

“I was very fortunate to have this opportunity, and I've honestly enjoyed every moment in the lab,” she said. “Dr. Jeon is an amazing mentor who strengthened my understanding of important underlying chemical mechanisms and apparatus throughout the research process. Dr. Jeon always pushed me to inquire about the research. Furthermore, the resources he provided me guided me to the right path. I greatly appreciate his direction.”

Alongside Jeon, Lee was supported by graduate students Suman Das Adhikary and Yao Chung (Jacky) Chang, whose guidance was invaluable in conducting the project.

“This research is very challenging to a high school student, but Chloe did a wonderful job on design and synthesis of the target molecule and computational docking simulation,” Jeon said. “Her innovative approach to the very well-known yet unsolved Tylenol toxicity issue could pave the way to a solution.”

Lee said she would like to study chemistry in college and hopes to use chemistry research to help address problems facing the global community.

“Fundamentally, I want to help others with my knowledge, so I would like to become a surgeon and researcher, who uses concepts in chemistry to positively impact the world,” Lee said.

Students competing at the Regeneron ISEF must first qualify by receiving awards at regional, state, or national fairs. UTA hosts the UTA-Fort Worth Regional Science and Engineering Fair, which is the oldest, continually operating regional science and engineering fair in Texas and is held each February. FWRSEF board members from the College of Science include Yuan Bo Peng, professor of chemistry; Jianzhong Su, professor of mathematics; and Valerie Martinez, assistant director of enrollment management and recruitment.

FWRSEF finalists earned awards at Regeneron ISEF 2024 in the following categories:

Behavior Science: Ria Garg, from Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science — Third Award of $1,000 — “Mathematical Analysis of Preparatory Neural Activity to Predict Physical Behavior in Motor Sequences”

Robotics: Shobhit Agarwal, from Reedy High School, Frisco — Second Award of $2,000 — “FISQ: A Few-Shot, Interpretable, and Self-Supervised Quantum Machine Learning Approach to Automated Real-Time Prediction Over Multiple Domains”

In addition, FWRSEF finalists earned awards in the following special categories:

U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory: Ria Garg, from Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science — First Award of $750 — “Mathematical Analysis of Preparatory Neural Activity to Predict Physical Behavior in Motor Sequences”

UT Dallas: Anirudh Mazumder, from Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science — $5,000 scholarship, renewable for up to four years — “Reinforcement Learning Based Kinematic Controller and Proportional-Integrative-Derivative Based Dynamic Controller for Soft Robots”

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