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Students and Scientists
Environmental Research Program

By Lisa Kratter – Coordinator
Now entering our third summer of providing Cancer Research Internship opportunities for high school students, I am pleased to announce that our prestigious program continues to flourish. Most importantly, young men and women are delving into the scientific world, researching and exploring environmental triggers which contribute to the causation of disease.

Working in conjunction with Walt Whitman High School, Commack High School, and Northport High School, HBCAC is able to offer our program to some of the brightest
and capable young minds. By broadening our scope to include three prominent research centers, students will perform research at Stony Brook University under the guidance of highly acclaimed, world respected, Dr. Marian Evinger. Dr. Evinger’s study involves uncovering “The role of nicotine in establishing human breast malignancies.”

In Newton, Massachusetts, at Silent Spring Institute, world-renowned scientist, Dr. Julia Brody, will work with students to analyze “Everyday exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds.” Additionally, it is our pleasure to afford our students the opportunity to work under the tutelage of world leading scientists, Drs. Jose and Irma Russo, at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. Within their laboratory, significant
contributions have been made in the quest to eradicate breast cancer.

Our program would not have achieved such widespread recognition were it not for our past students’ boundless dedication to understanding environmental triggers which disrupt our endocrine system, causing life-threatening abnormalities, as well as utilizing their newly found knowledge to further educate peer groups and the community at large.

Shown here HBCAC students - Shirou Wu, Emily Lopes, Zachary Rotter and Great Neck students, Regina Roofeh and Karolina Woroniecka.

Thank you to Supervisor, Frank Petrone, and Town Council members Susan Berland, Glenda Jackson, Stuart Besen, and Mark Cuthbertson, for lending your support,
enabling our students to make a difference. Here are some thoughts our students wish to share concerning their participation at the National Institute of Environmental Health’s (NIEH) BCERC Conference.

Zachary Rotter

This year’s BCERC conference was both an interesting and exhilarating experience. To be able to see ongoing research which has yet to be published, and to begin to ascertain samples of the Center Study Research Model was a wonderful challenge, as well as a thought provoking opportunity. I was able to observe scientists in their ‘natural habitat.‘ It was great to see at the conference both Drs. Jose and Irma Russo, Fox Chase Cancer Ctr. and other staff I worked with in the lab last summer, and to spend professional and personal time with them. In addition, the opportunity to be able to present my own research was a major accomplishment, as I was presenting alongside many respected MD’s and PhD’s. I was able to reconnect with Emily and Shirou, my fellow students and intern participants at the Fox Chase Center, and
also meet Carolina and Regina, two students affiliated with the Great Neck Breast Cancer Action Coalition.

Graduating High School, Class of 2010

Emily Lopes

Being involved in the BCERC was an amazing experience. The disciplines of the principle investigators varied and added to the strength of the breast cancer project. At this year’s conference held in Birmingham, Alabama, researchers presented and shared in their own field of science (epidemiology, genetics or lifestyle) their individual accomplishment in Breast Cancer causation. The conference was a collaboration of their work. It allowed scientists to be critical of each other’s work and provide further
evidence from different perspectives. This Center Study Research Model, BCERC, encourages teamwork. Representing Commack and Walt Whitman high schools, Zachary Rotter, Shirou Wu, and I were grateful for the opportunity to work with Drs. Jose and Irma Russo and their staff at Fox Chase Cancer Center, gaining hands-on lab experience. In the spirit of BCERC, we then compiled our results and conclusions from our individual projects. It is no doubt that this research collaboration is a step forward in the prevention of breast cancer.

College acceptance – Cornell University, Fall 2009

Shirou Wu

The BCERC conference emphasized the concept that the understanding of environmental influences on health is indisposably crucial to the medical community. As mere high school students at a professional and informative research conference, the more esoteric research was sometimes difficult to sift through. However, it
was clear that the general idea was that many research studies, epidemiological,
biochemical, or not, point towards the need for increased awareness. Most of all, I was awakened to the idea that breast cancer risk starts accumulating even in our childhood, which to me, most clearly illustrated the kind of hidden dangers that surround us and future generations.

College Acceptance – Brown University, Fall 2009