Best friends head to the US for international science challenge
Issue Date: - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Research into a muscle-wasting disease in males and automated identification of skeleton weeds in farming crops has given two of the State's most talented science students the opportunity to travel to the US to compete in one of the world's biggest biotechnology competitions.
Best friends and Year 11 St Mary's Anglican Girls' School students, Yasmin Soliman and Kayla Mizzi, will travel to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States in May to compete against North America's top science students in the sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge.
The sanofi-aventis BioGENEius Challenge is a competition in which school students are paired with a mentor from WA's science and innovation community to complete a high-level biotechnology project.
WA's Chief Scientist and BioGENEius Challenge judge Professor Lyn Beazley said the BioGENEius Challenge attempted to simulate the real-life science and research environment for participating students.
"The BioGENEius Challenge provides our future scientists and researchers with real-life laboratory experience, using world-leading equipment that high schools do not have access to," Professor Beazley said.
"The challenge allows students to work alongside some of the most experienced scientists and researchers in WA and gives them a clear advantage over other students before they start university. In some instances, it might just be the extra encouragement they need to view science as a viable employment option."
Yasmin Soliman's (Hillarys) project involved collecting data that could potentially be used to help control weeds in crops without the negative impacts associated with blanket-spraying and spot-spraying.
Mentored by Arie Paap and Professor Kamal Alameh from the Electron Science Research Institute at Edith Cowan University, Yasmin used a spectrometer to measure the optical properties of weeds and plants to create a catalogue that will be used in the development of a wider project that could have positive outcomes for the farming industry globally.
Kayla Mizzi's (Trigg) project could potentially improve the efficiency of a treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disease that affects one in 3500 young boys around the world.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is caused by mutations of the dystrophin gene and Kayla's research explored potential new genetic band-aid targets to try and skip mutations that cause the disease.
Kayla was mentored by Professors Steve Wilton and Sue Fletcher from the Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological Disorders at the University of Western Australia.
Professor Beazley said WA was the only international competitor outside of North America to compete in the United States-based competition.
"The standard of this year's 21 participants was exceptional and I know Yasmin and Kayla will be great representatives for WA and further lift the State's science and innovation profile nationally and internationally."
The sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge will be held from 17-21 May in conjunction with the world's biggest biotechnology conference, BIO 2009.
The WA competition is facilitated by the WA Department of Commerce.
For more information, visit http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/Biogeneius/index.asp.