Augusta Prep student's research earns leading spot in national scientific talent search

An Augusta Prep student researching chronic kidney disease is a top scholar in the nation’s oldest science and math competition for high school seniors.

Emily Huo of Martinez will find out Jan. 24 if she becomes one of 40 finalists to compete for more than $1.8 million in awards in a weeklong competition in the Regeneron Science Talent Search. The nonprofit Society for Science has held the event since 1942.

Huo was one of 300 scholars chosen from 2,162 entrants in 712 high schools across 46 states, Puerto Rico and 10 countries. She won a $2,000 award and an additional $2,000 for Augusta Prep.

The society’s scholar title is “kind of daunting,” Huo said. Former competition finalists and winners have gone on to earn some of the world’s highest scientific honors, such as the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal for math, the Turing Award for computer science and the MacArthur Fellowships better known as “genius grants.”

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But for Huo, it’s all about the science.

“I’ve always been really interested in biology. I want to go into medicine when i grow up, maybe a physician or do medical research on the side,” she said. “To me, it’s always been a fascination rather than having a title. Even this, the top 300, was kind of a shock.”

Huo’s mother is a nurse, and her father is a retired physician now engaged in medical research. Taking her scientific pursuits outside the classroom, she joined Augusta University’s Summer VolunTeen Program for rising high-school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing health careers.

That led Huo to a campus lab studying chronic kidney disease, an incurable illness affecting about 200,000 people each year.

Her project – “Targeting macrophage glycolysis suppresses kidney scarring in a rodent model” – focuses on glycolysis, the process that helps organisms turn sugar into energy.

“I was fascinated by this one specific process, so I took it, did all the research for myself and applied for this program,” Huo said.

Glycolysis is a normal metabolic process, but not studied much when it comes to kidney scarring. Body damage heals using fibroblasts, which are cells that form the connective tissue that creates scarring and helps contract a wound.

“We’re basically looking at a normal process that’s hyperactivated by glycolysis,” Huo said. “We found that there was a correlation between the increase in activity in glycolysis and the increase in chronic kidney disease.”

Huo’s accomplishments mirror what Augusta Prep hopes to accomplish with its new $10 million science and technology classroom building that officially opened Tuesday. The W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry is designed to better encourage students to excel at applying new discoveries in a rapidly changing scientific world.

Huo will get to spend some time in the building before she graduates this year. In the building’s planning stage, she was one of a handful of students who sat down with architects to share thoughts on what features the institute should include.

“I’m really lucky that I have the opportunity, especially with this new science building,” she said. “It kind of fosters intellectual curiosity, especially with new students coming in and a younger generation will get to grow up with this.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Scientific society honors Augusta Prep student for kidney research