By: Aleena Bacorro, Winsor School

The ultimate goal of this project, no matter the result, was to see if there were alternative, cost-effective, and/or accessible ways to treat bacterial infections that didn't require a doctor's prescription. I always knew I wanted to study Staphylococcus aureus due to its mutation into MRSA, a deadly flesh-eating bacterium. Unfortunately, due to institutional and legal restrictions, I had to substitute S. aureus for S. epidermidis, a non-pathogenic but otherwise identical bacterium. From there, I tried three substances that can be found in a local grocery store against bacitracin, an over-the-counter drug, and mupirocin, a prescription drug. Eventually, it was found that bacitracin, due to antibiotic resistance, was less effective than tea tree oil, one of the tested substances but was just as effective as the other two tested substances, if not a little less. Furthermore, despite mupirocin continuing to be the most effective substance, there is some hope that tea tree oil could be effective as well.

By: Mikayla Chan, Polytechnic School

This poster aims to explore the emerging breast cancer rates specifically in Asian American females and share the importance of understanding the heterogeneity of the many Asian ethnicities. It was presented at the 2024 Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting.