Isha Jain, a 16-year old from Bethlehem, PA, won a $100,000 scholarship as the individual winner in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology at New York University Monday.
Jain, a senior at Freedom High, identified a cellular mechanism underlying bone growth spurts, and her work was published in the journal Developmental Dynamics.
Her project, ''Bone Growth in Zebrafish Fins Occurs via Multiple Pulses of Cell Proliferation,'' adds a new dimension to the understanding of human bone growth and the ability to treat bone injuries and disorders, judges said.
Jain identified that bones grow in spurts at the cellular level the same way in fish and in humans. According to judges, she is the first to identify minispurts in growth, something that has warranted her work to be considered graduate-level research.
At age 9, Jain created a paradigm to explain the molecular structure of candy. To this day, her research has been taught in classes across the nation.
Jain comes from a scientific family. Her father, Himanshu Jain, is a materials science engineering professor at Lehigh University, while her mother, Sweety, is a family practice physician at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Allentown.
Girls swept the top awards at the ninth annual high school research competition. 17-year-olds Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff of Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High in Plainview, N.Y., split the $100,000 top team prize for their tuberculosis drug research.
It marked the first time girls ever won the grand prizes in both the team and individual divisions of the competition.
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