One student’s scientific summer

Elia Powers

Leave the faxing and collating to some other summer intern. Kenan

Celtik has loftier goals for his six-week apprenticeship.

The Corona del Mar High School senior is one of 11 Orange County students participating in the Youth Science Research Fellowship

program, a hands-on research project co-sponsored by the American

Cancer Society and UC Irvine.

Celtik, 17, will spend the majority of his summer in a lab,

learning real-world research techniques.

“It’s not the Easy Bake Oven-type of experiments you get in high

school,” said Celtik, a Costa Mesa resident. “I’m looking forward to

being in a real university lab. You don’t get more real than that.”

A week after finishing finals in late June, he donned a white lab

jacket, began handling toxic solutions and discovered how to evaluate

the effects hormones have on mice.

Celtik said he is using this summer’s program as a trial run for a

possible career in research.

“I want to know more of what’s out there,” he said.

As part of the program, each high school student selects a

cancer-related research project in an area of interest.

Administrators then match the student with a professor who is an

expert in that field.

On Monday, Celtik met Ping Wang, an associate professor of

medicine at UCI who specializes in hormone research.

As Wang explained, when cancer patients undergo chemotherapy, the

treatment kills normal cells along with the targeted cancer cells. He

said hormones injected into the body can prevent the normal cells

from being eroded by the radiation treatment.

To study the effects of certain hormones, Wang is testing them on

mice.

Celtik is following Wang as he conducts research, asking questions

every step along the way. Wang said his job is to first bring Celtik

up to speed.

“He’s an ultra-smart student, but he’s still in high school,” Wang

said. “This is a good way for him to learn. There aren’t too many

people in the world doing this kind of experiment.”

On Wednesday morning, Wang and Celtik focused their conversation

on the polymerase chain reaction -- the process used to amplify DNA.

The goal, Wang said, is to amplify enough of the DNA for the two

to study the strands. Wang described it as the same process used by

forensic labs to study criminals’ DNA.

The third-floor lab where Celtik is stationed smells of chemicals

and rubber gloves. He cups his hand around a pipette and measures a

liquid substance.

There’s little room for summer daydreaming for Celtik, who is

handling potentially flammable material.

When Wang leaves the room, Celtik works with John Yang, a

first-year doctoral student at UCI who studies under Wang.

Yang, a mentor in the research program, said he is interested in

helping cultivate the next generation of researchers.

“It’s a good idea to teach high school students about science,”

Yang said. “We need more young people involved in this field.”

For more than 15 years, the Youth Science Research Fellowship

program has taken promising high school students and given them free

lab time and science instruction. Brea-based company Beckman Coulter

is providing the grant for this year’s program, which ends Aug. 8.

Celtik has some extra incentive: His great uncle died of cancer,

and he said the disease runs in the family.

One of Celtik’s high school science teachers told him about the

program. He said he is looking forward to sharing his new skills when

he returns to school in the fall.

“My teacher said she was jealous that I get to do all these

experiments,” Celtik said. “It’s definitely a great experience, and

I’m excited to be here.”

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

elia.powers@latimes.com.