64th Annual STS (2004-2005)
Finalists
Jimmy Chen Yang

TEXAS
Jimmy Chen Yang, 17, of Plano, studied the potential ability of combination therapies to improve cancer treatment for his Intel Science Talent Search project in medicine and health. His two-part study examined the effects of combination therapy on breast and cervical cancer cells. Telomerase is an enzyme that gives cancer cells the ability to divide indefinitely. Jimmy demonstrated that long-term inhibition of telomerase in combination with radiation and/or chemotherapy increases the cancer cell kill rate and reduces treatment time, and that treatment order may change the number of cells killed. He believes combination therapies could lead to better treatment for cancer. First in his class of 1,122 at Plano Senior High School, Jimmy is active in Key Club and LASER (Learning About Science and Engineering Research). He participates in Plano Teen Court, plays violin in the All-Region Philharmonic Orchestra and raises orchids. Jimmy placed second in the 2000 Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, and he is listed as an author on a paper published in Rejuvenation Research. The son of Dr. Juei-Mao Yang and Li-Shang Chen Yang, Jimmy is eager to study biology at Harvard.