Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School has announced that the research of five of its students has been accepted for publication in the February 2025 supplement to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) in San Diego in March.
The co-authors of the submissions are RKYHS 12th graders Aidan Korish, Jonah Klein and Naomi Rosenbluth; RKYHS 11th grader Melanie Huppert; and Gal Uzi (RKYHS ’24) who worked on the project while at RKYHS. The two submissions are entitled “A Linked DNA and Image Database for Real Time Pollen Species Identification” and “Automated Real Time Identification and Quantification of Pollen.” RKYHS students have developed a device for real time identification of pollen using an AI algorithm developed in the RKYHS labs. Students are utilizing the on-site scanning electron microscope (SEM) and phase contrast light microscopy.
Three RKYHS teams have been working on various aspects of this project—the Aerobiology Team working on pollen DNA sequencing and microscopy, the Artificial Intelligence Team working on the image recognition algorithm, and the engineering team working on the collection device.
The students’ research has been conducted in the RKYHS-Scientific Research Training Institute (SRTI), part of the RKYHS STEM program. RKYHS-SRTI is a premier research training program that fosters high-level science and engineering research in a number of focus areas that include projects and collaborations with universities, governmental agencies, startups and other entities.
SRTI students are engaged in the RKYHS STEM track mantra to “Learn Science by Doing Science.” By engaging high school students early in the learning process with this hands-on approach, the school provides students an opportunity to personally carry out cutting-edge research. This experience both teaches them the fundamental professional-level skills and activates their passion, preparing them to move forward as leaders in the emerging technologies that are the foundation for much of the growing STEM society and economy. The SRTI program now integrates dozens of student-based research projects ranging from engineering to molecular genetics and genetic engineering, biomedical engineering, medical sciences and cancer research, computer science, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, block chain and entrepreneurship.
The SRTI program trains students in scientific methodologies and approaches to addressing real-world problems and disease. SRTI has trained numerous students at high-level, real science, leading to publications and presentations at national meetings in a variety of scientific and medical fields. SRTI on-site faculty members include professional-level scientists with expertise in a broad range of scientific disciplines.
RKYHS students in the SRTI program have recently designed and built a bioprinter and are using a biocompatible and biodegradable matrix that they infuse with glioblastoma (brain cancer) cells that they are growing in the RKYHS tissue culture lab in order to create brain organoids that can be analyzed in the SRTI labs. Expanding on work begun by an RKYHS alumna in collaboration with NASA, current students are analyzing a specific gene marker of DNA damage and gene mutations using transfection into cancer cells in tissue and fluorescence microscopy. Studying a protein that was first identified in duckweed by RKYHS students, they are identifying who are candidates for Cisplatin chemotherapy treatment, an integral treatment for breast cancer, and who are Cisplatin-resistant, based on genetic polymorphisms. Students are looking at autoimmune disease and a gene associated with Type 1diabetes, lupus, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, celiac disease and Graves’ disease. Students are analyzing samples from three generations of people who have one of these diseases and looking for genetic mutations.
The RKYHS-SRTI is integrated with the school’s four-year STEM track, which includes a four-year progression of courses: Introduction to Computer Science, Scientific Engineering, Genetic Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. In the STEM program, students have access to significant research laboratory equipment and instrumentation, unprecedented in a high school setting. Professional-level laboratories on-site include: Molecular genetics/cloning laboratory with thermocyclers (PCR), DNA next-generation sequencing and NanoDrop spectrometry instruments; Microscopy laboratory with phase contrast fluorescence microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a variety of light microscopes and digital microscopes); BSL2+ tissue culture laboratory with CO2 incubators, -80 C freezer, biosafety cabinets/laminar flow hoods, and appropriate PPE in a secure space; Electronics and fabrication laboratory for device design and construction including additive and stereolithographic (SLA) 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC machines and analytic instruments. In addition, the novel bioprinter built by the students is capable of printing mammalian tissue as “organoids” for advanced research into cellular, tissue and organ function; to date they have successfully printed brain organoids.
“It is gratifying to have my work published in a scientific journal,” commented Korish. “It is unique for a group of teenagers to have the opportunity at such a young age to have access to the equipment and experts that are available at RKYHS, enabling me to pursue my passion for STEM and grow my skills in an unprecedented way for a high school student.”
