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May 2, 2008
Pursuing her passion
Research wins teen a silver medal in science fair.
MICHELLE DODEK
What is Grade 9 student Perri Tutelman doing spending her time harvesting cells and using electronic pipettes and hemocytometers? She's trying to find a cure for cancer.
From April 10-12, at the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair, Tutelman explained her science project – called A Cancer Cell's Trojan Horse – to nine judges and was awarded both the silver medal in the Intermediate Health Science category, as well as the special Thomas Nelson Award for outstanding project. She was competing against 283 other students.
A graduate of Richmond Jewish Day School, Tutelman spent Grade 8 at King David High School.
"I would have to say that my Grade 8 science teacher, Mr. Smith, was [the one] who inspired me regarding science," said Tutelman. About her choice of topic, she said that she wanted to participate in the science fair but already had "done the volcano thing" and other elementary kinds of projects.
According to Tutelman, she herself is fortunate not to have had any family members with the disease, but she nonetheless wondered, "What can I do about this? I have to do something about it!" She combined her concern for people with cancer with her desire to tackle a great challenge for the science fair and began looking on the Internet for something to research that was related to curing cancer.
"It is difficult to find something that is not in clinical trials or trademarked by a pharmaceutical company," commented Tutelman. She did, however, find an herb in the early stages of experimentation called artemisinin. A student at R.C. Palmer in Richmond, Tutelman sought additional help outside the school. She knew the direction in which she wanted to go, but needed a lab to run experiments.
"I knew I was not able to do it on my own," she said. She found a science mentorship program through the University of British Columbia, to get some guidance, as well as an "in" to a lab at the B.C. Cancer Research Centre (BCCRC). "Labs don't just talk to nobodies," she said, speaking from past experience. "The mentorship program is your somebody."
Tutelman eventually connected with doctoral student Maitie Verreault. "That was amazing. She taught me so much and I gained so much valuable knowledge from Maitie. I know how to subculture a cell!" said Tutelman so enthusiastically that, had a different 14-year-old been talking, you might have thought she was discussing an exciting new shade of lip gloss.
After the first lab in which Tutelman was scheduled to work became contaminated, she was able to do research in the lab of Dr. Dawn Waterhouse, head of advanced theraputics at the BCCRC. There, Tutelman got to work testing artemisinin, on a number of different cancer lines. She looked at MCF-7 (a form of breast cancer), LS180 (a type of colon cancer) and MeWo (a melanoma). In a 22-page research document including 13 reference citations, Tutelman outlined the findings of her experiments and her conclusions.
In the document, she writes, "The results of this experiment are clear in indicating that the natural compound, artemisinin, expresses cytotoxicity in vitro against two very different cancer cell lines ... which combined, affected over 27,000 Canadians in 2007." In other words, she found that the herb killed the cancer cells. The secret is the way that artemisinin enters the cell. This is where the "Trojan horse" part of Tutelman's project comes in. It "tags" or hides in a molecule called transferene and enters the cancer cell in disguise.
Tutelman hopes to continue her research. "In my future work, I'd like to test it on a whole bunch of cancer lines." She also hopes to have continued access to a lab: "If the BCCRC has resources and availability, I'd love to go back to them, but you never know," she said.
When asked for advice for students wishing to pursue lofty goals, Tutelman answered in sage fashion: "Pursue your passion and stick with it because, in the end, the results are immeasurable."
Michelle Dodek is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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