By Matt Wilson and Khalida Sarwari
When Jack Takahashi, 17, discovered he had been chosen as a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search, he reacted with surprise and disbelief, but excitement, too.
“I knew it meant a lot of good things,” he said. “I knew that I would be able to go to Washington, D.C. and probably meet the president. Then I also realized that it’s a really big help to my college applications and I’d have all the options I could dream of in terms of college acceptances.”
Jack attends Lynbrook High School in San Jose and lives in Saratoga. But, it’s the School of Medicine at Stanford University where he spent much of his time last year. Jack conducted his research in pulmonary hypertension, which at the time was the focus of the Stanford lab. For Jack, whose interest is in medicine and cell biology, it was an ideal place to carry out his project.
Pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure in the arteries to the lungs. In patients that are diagnosed with the rare disease, the blood vessels that carry oxygen-poor blood from the heart to the lungs become hard and narrow and the heart has to work harder to pump the blood through. This causes the heart to weaken over time and can lead to heart failure. There are a lot of drugs that treat the disease, but there is no cure, Jack said.
“It’s a progressive disease that’s usually fatal,” he said. “The only option is to get a lung transplant and even that isn’t a good option.”
There is currently research being done to understand why lung cells grow and some leads to potential causes. As part of his project, Jack discovered one of the candidate causes that could lead to new treatments to the disease.
“The smooth muscle cells in the arteries grow out of control because there’s a problem with the cell signaling pathway triggered by pdgf–a molecule in the body–that triggers cell growth,” said Jack. “What I discovered is that people who have the disease, the cells are too sensitive to this molecule and as a result they grow out of control.”
After his discovery, Jack spent the rest of his time writing a research paper and preparing the necessary applications to apply for the Intel competition. The process was similar to applying to medical school, Jack said.
It was good practice for what’s to come; after graduation, Jack plans to study molecular biology as an undergrad and then go on to medical school. He is hoping to be admitted into a combined medical program at UC-San Diego.
But before then, Jack has other plans. When he’s not being a life-changing scientist, he can be found either playing music or taking photos. His instruments of choice are the piano, flute and saxophone. He is a member of his school’s jazz band and president of the photography club.
In March, he will join the other 40 finalists for a weeklong all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to present his project to a panel of judges who will also conduct interviews with each finalist to determine who thinks the most like a scientist. During the week, the finalists will also visit the White House and meet with President Obama, who is expected to talk to them about the importance of science and technology. The week will culminate with a black-tie gala awards ceremony at the National Building Museum on March 12 where the finalists will compete for $630,000 in awards, with the top winner receiving $100,000 from the Intel Foundation. Each finalist will receive at least $7,500.
The 40 finalists were narrowed down from 300 semifinalists and more than 1,700 entrants. The talent search encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and develop skills to solve problems in the fields of biochemistry, materials science, physics, mathematics, engineering, behavioral science and medicine and health.
