Schools
Hamden Hall Student Earns Science Research Distinction
Hamden Hall Country Day School senior Alex Buhimschi was invited to present his cancer treatment research at the 36th annual meeting of the American Society for Photobiology in Montreal, Canada.
After presentations at the state and national Junior Science and Humanities Symposiums, Hamden Hall Country Day School senior Alex Buhimschi of New Haven was invited to present his cancer treatment research at the 36th annual meeting of the American Society for Photobiology in Montreal, Canada.
Alex received special recognition for his oral presentation on treating solid tumors with UV light at the 49th Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at the University of Connecticut. That presentation was titled “Improved and Novel Methods for Assessment of Psoralens as Theragnostic Anti-Cancer Agents.”
Find out what's happening in Hamdenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
He then received an all-expenses paid trip in May to the National Meeting of the Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD, according to his mentor, Hamden Hall science teacher Dr. Francis P. Gasparro.
“Alex is the only junior to have received this distinction and he has raised the bar. He truly has unbridled enthusiasm,” said Dr. Gasparro.
Find out what's happening in Hamdenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In Canada, Alex presented his research in a paper titled “UVB-Induced Psoralen Photoadducts and their Rapid Detection by Surface-Enhanced Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry.”
Currently, Alex is at Duke University, working with a team of collaborating scientists on cancer research for Immunolight LLC, a 5-year-old start-up biotechnology company in North Carolina. Dr. Gasparro serves as an expert consultant on photochemotherapy for the Immunolight/Duke project.
At Hamden Hall, Alex is one of the inaugural students who has been accepted into the school’s premier Science, Innovation & Design Initiative, which commence sin the 2012-2013 school year and is co-chaired by Dr. Gasparro. The program is an interdisciplinary, cross-division program that encourages highly motivated and intellectually curious students to excel as they develop a panoply of skills.
As a senior, Alex is part of the Pinnacle Program and will perform an independent project, culminating in a thesis presentation.
Alex is the son of Dr. Catalin Buhimschi and Dr. Irina Buhimschi of New Haven.
