mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684
DURHAM -- Some teenagers practice the speech they'll deliver when they win Academy Awards. Lanair Lett doesn't seem to be that type of fellow. N.C. School of Science and Mathematics senior went to Georgia Tech last weekend, he didn't believe he had a chance to win the regional event in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. So when the group of about 20 competitors from around the Southeast were eating dinner Nov. 7, he ended up surprised by the announcement of the victor.
"I went so far as to pick the winner in my head and was ready to shake his hand and then I look down and, wait, it's me," the Henderson native said, laughing at the memory. "So it was very shocking."
Lett was one of five students at NCSSM, a state-run two-year residential school that draws youngsters from around North Carolina, to advance to the regional at Georgia Tech. By winning the region's individual competition, he earned a $3,000 college scholarship and the right to present his work at the competition's national final in New York in early December.
Should he win, Lett would join a roster of recent Siemens Competition winners from the School of Science and Mathematics.
Students there took titles in 2001, 2004 and 2008.
His regional-winning project showed biochemistry research that he conducted last summer at Duke's Stedman Center for Metabolism and Nutrition under the auspices of postdoctoral fellow Jeffery Tessem.
"Basically I saw how the expression of one gene, this specific gene HDAC-1--" Lett then spelled out the letters in the gene's abbreviated name "--affected the insulin-producing cells of the body, which are the beta cells. And this kind of research has implications in ... improving on the current treatments for diabetics as well as developing new treatments for diabetics."
The research results linked the presence of HDAC-1 to the growth of beta cells, and therefore to increased insulin production. The topic isn't exactly academic to Lett -- he himself is diabetic, like his mother and late grandmother.
Lett's summary of his own research showed some of the skills that he picked up at Georgia Tech, where the competition organizers spent some time training the high schoolers how to handle interviews about their work. The students also spent a day at the regional practicing their oral presentations to make sure they fit within the 12-minute time limit and showing poster presentations of their work to the public. Each project presentation on Nov. 7 was followed by a 12-minute question-and-answer session for each student.
The national final at New York University will follow a similar format, only that event will feature six individual and six team winners from all over the nation. The final will take place Dec. 3-7.
Lett's preparation for the national event will mirror what he did for the regional -- practicing his oral presentation and trying to anticipate questions that he will be asked afterward.
The best competitive suggestion Lett received going into the regional he credited to Science and Math teacher Leslie Brinson. Lett described the advice this way: "Definitely just be you, because it's easier to get up there and talk about your research if you're comfortable and you're just ... behaving like you normally would, like having a conversation with the audience."
Lett is also in the midst of applying to colleges. His top three choices are Chicago, Columbia and Stanford.
He said he would like to continue his research this summer -- assuming he can find a position in a biology lab -- by examining the link between genes other than HDAC-1 and beta cells.
