Sophie Chiang ‘23
A year of failures. A year of dying fruit flies, of stubborn lab mice. A year of grueling hours waiting for centrifuges and PCR machines. A year of gratifying research.
At the end of each academic year, the STEM faculty and current fellows meet to decide on the next year’s selection of STEM Fellows. The Taft STEM Research Fellowship is a year-long course consisting of a self-led research project that culminates in a research paper and competing at regional, state, national, and even international fairs. Past STEM Fellows have earned high accolades in these competitions, a recent example being Jackie Zatsiorsky '22 winning the grand prize at the Regional Science and Engineering Fair. This year, our seven fellows, Sophie Chiang ‘23, Tyler Kocienda ‘23, Judy Xie, ‘23 Nathaniel Sansone ‘23, Jiayi Yu ‘23, Arianne Motakef ‘23, and Yolanda Zhou ‘24 have begun their year-long journey. We talked to them to learn more about their projects and where their heads are at right now.
Tyler Kocienda ‘23 explains that he is conducting “a series of experiments to determine if red-light radiation speeds up the regeneration process of the zebrafish retina”. In response to why he chose to dedicate himself to a year of research, he said, “I love science, and I wanted to further apply myself to science in a greater way than through a regular course. This is the first time that I truly get to pursue a topic that I’m interested in, and I’m super excited for it!” He reveals that he is “most excited to actually do the experiments and the hands-on part of my research.” He is more than excited to see the results “because it’ll be great to see all my hard work and research pay off in a positive way.”
Sophie Chiang's ‘23 project is on the “Impact of Minocycline on Social Isolation-Induced Social Withdrawal”. She explains that social isolation had a devastating impact on society during COVID-19, with loneliness becoming so chronic that psychological stress translates into physical conditions such as heart disease, stroke, dementia, and even cancer. Sophie is using antioxidants’ anti-inflammatory properties to mitigate the consequences of social isolation, the most notable of which is social withdrawal. Sophie is extremely passionate about this topic and the field that surrounds it. She is most looking forward to beginning her research this window as well as regularly updating her website dedicated to her research.
Jiayi Yu ‘23 reveals her project is on “the treatment of obesity using a genetic editing technique like CRISPR.” As an athlete, she is interested in fitness and health and that led her to an exploration of obesity. She has also done extensive past research on CRISPR and is fascinated by all of its possibilities. This year, Jiayi is most excited to “start working on the project and potentially contribute new pieces of information back into the world.”
If you see a STEM Fellow in the hallway, feel free to stop them and ask about their project and how it’s coming along. Just be sure not to stop them for too long– they probably have another 2-hour long experiment to get to!
