Alissa Yuan Zhang
California
Saratoga High School
Alissa Yuan Zhang, 17, of Saratoga, explored molecule-specific glucose detection for diabetes monitoring in the chemistry
project she submitted to the Intel Science Talent Search. She focused on the use of Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman
spectroscopy (SERS) for glucose detection. These are methods that may eventually allow patients with diabetes to monitor their glucose
levels noninvasively, once the sensitivity of the technique is improved. Alissa developed three approaches to achieve this. One of these
used a photonic crystal fiber to enhance the Raman signal, setting a new lower limit for the detection of glucose. All three of her
approaches demonstrated molecule-specific detection of glucose at physiological concentrations. She is first author of a paper on the
project, accepted for publication by Science of Advanced Materials, and co-author of a paper published in Analytical and
Bioanalytical Chemistry. Alissa is an officer in the math and science clubs at Saratoga High School, and head coach and
coordinator for a middle school math club. She has perfect SAT scores and is an accomplished pianist and violinist. She enjoys
horseback riding and skiing, and is the daughter of Jin Zhang and Eileen You.
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