丁香园AV

The full-length story originally appeared in .

When FHS professor received an email from a Grade 10 student asking about how to get started in research, he was impressed.

鈥淭his enterprising young student clearly stated what she wanted to do related to my research on disease susceptibility factors in environmental health,鈥� says Takaro. 鈥淚 wanted to meet her in person to see what was behind this.鈥�

15-year-old Laura Wang, who has been passionate about science since middle school, had decided to find someone who could help her learn what it takes to become a 鈥渞eal鈥� researcher. She never imagined that email would lead her to the CHILD Cohort Study, a budding research career, and an award-winning science project.

鈥淚 googled 丁香园AV and looked through their faculty,鈥� says Wang. 鈥淒r. Takaro鈥檚 bio said he had an interest in child health and chronic diseases, so I emailed him out-of-the-blue. I never really expected him to write me back.鈥�

Takaro invited Wang to come to the 丁香园AV campus to meet with him and graduate student Jaclyn Parks.

鈥淭hey were both so encouraging and generous with their time to answer my questions about how to get started in research,鈥� Wang explains. 鈥淲hen Dr. Takaro told me about the CHILD Cohort Study and the incredible things the study is teaching us about child health and development, I was hooked!鈥�

The meeting led to a 12-month collaboration in which Takaro and Parks mentored the teen in using CHILD data to study the effects of house dust on the development of childhood allergies and asthma. With no formal training in research, Wang spent the summer becoming familiar with RStudio, an open-access statistical program that was used to analyze the complex data.

The CHILD Cohort Study has been following 3,500 Canadian children from before birth, and offers a rich repository of clinical, environmental, genetic, and microbiome data.

鈥淢y supervisor Dr. Takaro and I study the effects of early-life exposures on the development of childhood asthma and allergic disease, so the endotoxin project seemed like the perfect complement to previous work done with environmental data from CHILD,鈥� says Parks, a Master鈥檚 student and Research Associate in FHS. 鈥淟aura is bright, enthusiastic, and hard-working, and we knew that with support and training in research methods and analysis, Laura could become an excellent young researcher.鈥�

Nearly a year after she first emailed Takaro, Wang summarized her research results into a paper titled 鈥淓ndotoxins Associated with Wheeze and Atopy鈥� and submitted it to the . She won a Gold Medal and a $2,000 entrance scholarship to the University of British Columbia鈥檚 Health and Life Sciences Program, as well as a spot in the . At the national event, Wang鈥檚 project won Bronze and garnered her entrance scholarships to Western University and the University of Ottawa. She was also recognized with a Canadian Young Researcher Award and a cash prize of $1,000.

Now in Grade 12, Wang credits her research success to the steady supervision and mentorship provided by Takaro and Parks. 鈥淭heir guidance and support have provided me with such a rich learning experience 鈥� I can鈥檛 thank them enough.鈥�

This fall, the collaboration will continue as the findings are prepared for peer review, leading to an open-access publication by the STEM Fellowship Journal offered as part of Wang鈥檚 CWSF award. Publishing one鈥檚 first peer-reviewed paper is an important milestone in the career of every researcher 鈥� and is especially impressive at such a young age, according to Takaro.

鈥淟aura鈥檚 goal was to publish a paper before she finished high school. When I first heard this 14 months ago, I thought that it was very unlikely. Given all that she has accomplished so far, I鈥檓 confident now that Laura will publish before she graduates.鈥�

Takaro says that the experience has also been a rewarding one for him and Parks. 鈥淚鈥檓 extremely proud of Jaclyn, who is an outstanding student, teacher, and mentor. Working with Laura has helped consolidate Jaclyn鈥檚 analytic abilities and she has become a gifted mentor that young scientists look up to.鈥�