WASHINGTON (voa) – The Intel Science Talent Search – the oldest and most prestigious high school science competition in the United States – named its top young scientists this week.
First prize and a $100,000 college scholarship went to 17-year-old Herbert Mason Hedberg for his creation of a faster, more efficient method to diagnose cancer.
Rosanne Skirble: Say you were talking to fellow students on your high school swimming team, how would you explain the experiment to them?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: I worked with an enzyme called telomerase and telomerase is found almost exclusively in cancer cells. And in cancer cells it allows these cells to be immortal. It lets them divide forever. And, it’s been proven that telomerase inhibitors, molecules that stop this enzyme can be very powerful tumor suppressers. They actually cause the cancer cells to commit suicide. So for my project I developed a telomerase assay, a process that can measure the activity of telomerase and determine whether or not certain molecules are telomerase inhibitors, which could be a future cancer therapy.
Rosanne Skirble: How did you get interested in telomerase?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: My grandmother had cancer in the base of her spine, and she needed two 12-hour operations to remove the tumor. And, this got me reading about alternative and experimental cancer therapies. And telomerase is one of the areas I read about.
Rosanne Skirble: What [does your project] add to [the] understanding of what telomerase inhibitors are and what they do?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: The major advantage of my project is the speed at which telomerase inhibitors can be identified. We have a pretty thorough understanding of what telomerase inhibitor would do when it is found, but the problem is we have trouble finding them. I think that there are only two telomerase inhibitors right now going through FDA [Federal Drug Administration] drug approval, and we need several more in order to find one that can be used for several different types of cancer. Telomerase is expressed in 80 percent of all cancer types. So, theoretically the ideal telomerase inhibitor would be a cure for 80 percent of all cancers. So, this assay I developed is much, much faster than what is being used now. So, if this process is adopted by a drug company it could test 50,000 compounds a month for their ability to inhibit telomerase.
Rosanne Skirble: How did you go about doing the experiment?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: When I really got the idea for the project, there wasn’t much more to do with the theory base. It was a pretty simple idea to begin with. Where it got complicated was getting the telomerase enzyme. I needed to test my assay idea, and I used what is called in vitro gene expression. So, I’m causing the DNA for the telomerase enzyme to be expressed. I’m making the protein from the DNA in a test tube, which is normally done deep in cells and is a very complex process. So I was able to develop, create and purify the telomerase enzyme, and then I could use it to prove my assay concept.
Rosanne Skirble: Before your grandmother got sick, what did you know about telomerase enzymes?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: Absolutely nothing. The first time I read about it was in a small article, and I just kept reading, and I have a pretty good understanding about the enzyme now.
Rosanne Skirble: What is the potential of this research?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: A California company has used mouse models skin tumors in mouse models, and telomerase inhibitors in these models have completely eradicated the tumor with almost no side effects on the mouse. So, it is a very exciting potential. If you could find a small molecule telomerase inhibitor which could be taken as a pill for humans hopefully the same results could be seen almost no side effects, but complete elimination of the tumor.
Rosanne Skirble: What are your future plans and do you expect that the research that you have done for the Intel Science Talent Search to be a part of it?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: Well because this is just a process that a drug company could use to find telomerase inhibitors, I hope to finish this up before I start college next year and get it out into science [publication]. But this summer I have an internship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where I am doing telomerase research, but at a different stage in cancer development. And, I find this fascinating. It is working on the role of telomerase on the progression of a normal cell become a cancerous cell. And, I’d like to continue this type of research at Brown University where I am going next year.
Rosanne Skirble: Do you have ownership of your idea?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: I’ve applied for a provisional patent. So, I’m starting the process.
Rosanne Skirble: You said that your grandmother inspired you to actually start with the project. How is she doing?”
Herbert Mason Hedberg: She was at the awards ceremony. So it was a very nice experience.
Rosanne Skirble: What was her reaction when she learned that you had come away with the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: There are actually very few words. My mom and my grandmother were both crying and my dad and grandfather were there. They were smiling, handshakes. It was very, very nice.
Rosanne Skirble: So, what do you do for fun when you are not dreaming up projects to change the world?
Herbert Mason Hedberg: Well, obviously I have lots of friends at school and I try to spend time with them every week and I consider my biggest hobby besides swimming [to be] photography. I have a dark room in my basement and I try to do some of that as well.
