Ruoyi Jiang
New York
Ruoyi Jiang, 17, of East Setauket, submitted an Intel Science Talent Search
project in biochemistry in which he spent two years developing a new
computational method for drug design, and then used it to investigate why some
cancer cells are resistant to the anticancer drug Taxol. Ruoyi methodically
explored how the molecular structure of proteins affected their interaction with
the chemical structure of the medication to better understand the function of
the drug. Chemists can use this information to design cancer treatments that
more effectively bind proteins in cancer resistant cells. Ruoyi is a student at
Ward Melville High School, where he serves as chief editor of the school
newspaper and competes on both the math and science teams. He also enjoys
drawing and bicycling in his spare time, and volunteers weekly at a hospital and
at a local soup kitchen. The son of Jiansheng Jiang and Junping Xia, Ruoyi has
earned perfect SAT scores. He believes that current methods of drug development,
which are based on trial-and-error, will be replaced by more rational and
efficient computer-based development methods. He plans to attend Harvard or MIT
in pursuit of a career in chemistry.
|
