Teen research team vies for national science prize

Most people would look inside the vials Nicholas Tang works with and see little more than a thick, clear liquid.

Tang sees a future where strands of human DNA are suspended in glycerol, a mixture that could one day lead to bacteria that attack diseases and correct genetic problems.

It's a world into which the 17-year-old from Cary invests much of his life, and it recently earned him a top spot in one of the nation's most prestigious high school science competitions.

Tang and a fellow N.C. School of Science and Mathematics senior, Sagar Indurkhya, form one of six teams that have been invited to New York City this week for the national finals of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. But for both students, it's the science that motivates them, not the accolades.

"I don't really care about going up for myself," said Tang, who wants to become a professor of synthetic immunology. "It's what we can do to bring up synthetic biology."

Synthetic biology is an emerging field that applies computer science and engineering to biology. Scientists are literally building biological machines by manipulating DNA and bacteria.

Some scientists have warned that synthetic biology could allow terrorists and rogue nations to engineer biological weapons, such as making smallpox more lethal and resistant to vaccines. But that's not the future that Tang worries about.

"You've always had people using science in bad ways," he said.

First generation

Instead, Tang can imagine a world where you can take a single pill developed through synthetic biology that could immunize you from a variety of diseases. He says he's proud to be among the first generation of researchers in the field.

Tang and Indurkhya got their chance this spring when the School of Science and Math in Durham, a public boarding school educating many of the state's best students, was invited to participate in Duke University's international Genetically Engineered Machine competition program.

Tang said those were the kinds of research opportunities that led him to leave Enloe High School in Raleigh. Enloe is well-regarded academically, but Tang felt at home when he saw only academic trophies on display at the School of Science and Math.

That doesn't surprise Myra Halpin, the school's dean of science, who said Tang's reputation among classmates in that of a serious, deep thinker.

To relax after a long day of schoolwork and research, Tang practices on the violin for 30 to 60 minutes a night. He has played the violin for seven years and the piano for 11 and received the Excellent Performance Award at Cary Music School in 2003.

"It's just something a little different from biology," Tang said.

Indurkhya, 17, from Charlotte, and Tang began working together during the competition at Duke and then continued to refine their research as a Siemens team. The partnership blends Indurkhya's knowledge of computer science with Tang's strengths in biology.

The two are programming bacterial genes to flash on and off and in different colors. It demonstrates that gene programming is possible and advanced applications such as developing therapeutic drugs can be done.

Halpin, the team's adviser, said the work of Tang and Indurkhya is some of the best student research she's seen in 30 years. She said it's especially impressive because the high school students had to overcome skepticism about their project from organizers of the program at Duke.

Trial and error

"They've done it themselves," Halpin said. "They went up a lot of blind alleys. They found out what doesn't work and persevered."