Monday, March 3, 2014

Why cancer research means so much to Young Achiever Emily Ashkin

In Tuesday's Young Achievers, we hear from Sunny Potharaju and Emily Ashkin-- they're two area high school juniors who are going to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles this May.

Sunny's project involves analyzing the flexibility of proteins that are both normal and mutated. Emily focused on a possible lead in pancreatic cancer treatment.

Emily, a student at Providence Day School, emailed me last week to say she had a few more thoughts on doing cancer research, which I'll share here:

Photo by Jeff Willhelm
jwillhelm@charlotteobserver.com

"To me, there is no better feeling in the world than doing research. It's incredible to be able to try to bring my ideas to life in the lab and hopefully apply them to the real world. Even the failures and mistakes in the lab are just another part of the incredible learning experience (and boy did I make a lot of mistakes). Taking these steps closer toward treating cancer can make all the difference in improving the human race. I am so excited to be a part of this for the rest of my life. It's not just a project or a career to me--doing research is a way of life."

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