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Orientation Video Transcript

Participants:  Vijay Jain, 2007 ISEF Scholar, Harvard University, Biochemistry; Jinju Yi, 2007 ISEF Scholar, Stanford University, Biochemistry

Transcript:

Jain:  Well, there’s a critical demand for detection technology in the medical industry and in national defense.  What we’ve been able to do is develop a detector that provides real-time measurements that are both accurate and sensitive and can provide analysis at the earliest possible stages. We’ve been able to apply it to cancer marker proteins and viruses, so we have a dual application of our research.

Yi: So, we’ve used our “smart chip,” as we call it, to expand our applications to the medical field and the national defense, as my partner has mentioned.  In the medical field we’ve used it for early detection of cancer marker proteins and in national defense we’ve used it for detecting viruses, specifically polio virus. And our testing in polio virus and bioterrorism, as well, led us to be interested in the Department of Homeland Security, and hopefully this project and the internships that will be available to us will help us further our knowledge.

Statement:Tell us about the award you received for your work.

Jain: We had participated in the international science and engineering fair in May of last year in Albuquerque, and we were presenting our research, having fun with it, really enjoying the process and in the process we were able to meet some people, some representatives of the Department of Homeland Security. And I guess contingent upon that we were awarded the Department of Homeland Security Scholarship.

Question:Do you plan to continue this research in the future, and if not, what other topics are of interest to you?

Yi: We both started research in high school—it’s been three years since we both started research—and we applied to the same summer program at Stoneybrook University in New York . And we met each other through that program, and then we got to know each other and realized we have a great friendship and we would want to explore what kind of research partnership that we could have and fortunately it turned out really great and now we’re here.

Question:Has the DHS Scholarship influenced your education and professional development?

Jain:  Actually, we were pretty lucky. I mean, from the way we were interested in the detection technology and the way we look at what the Department of Homeland Security has to offer now, we’re hoping we can find it to be an extension of our original goal for detection. Even if it isn’t cancer and bioterrorism or any sort of outlet, detection can always help someone or the other in preventing things from expanding to a large scale, so we’re hoping this can really help us pursue our goals.

Yi:  Right, and we realize that through this DHS invitation there are so many other options, but we would love to explore detection. But we’re keeping our minds open for anything else that we can venture into.