A student from Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School has had her research project chosen as one of the nine from Taiwan selected for this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the US in May.
The week-long fair features the work of nearly 1,700 winners of local, regional, state and national competitions from around the world.
Wu Chi-yun (吳季昀) said she has been a part of the school’s research team, which is taught by Tsai Jen-pu (蔡任圃), since her freshman year.
Her research focuses on cockroaches’ encapsulation functions and how they comparedwith the human immune system.
Tsai said the team discovered that cockroaches are able to genetically memorize invasive objects in their systems, with responses divided into suppressive and enhancive categories, adding that the cockroach’s immune recognition system is able to distinguish pathogens or invading objects from implants and self-generated objects.
Wu said she was afraid of cockroaches when she was little, adding that she became indifferent as she grew older and simply saw them as just one of many insects.
Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School has a lab dedicated to studying cockroaches, Wu said, adding that her teacher’s research in encapsulation effect after insertion of electrified copper wire in cockroaches encouraged her to find out whether cockroaches would develop the same immune resistance to invasive objects.
Encapsulation is the process in which invading objects or pathogens in the cockroach are contained by haemocytes that eventually coagulate into a “capsule,” after which the roach’s immune recognition system considers the invading object to be a self-produced object.
Wu said her research means she often handles cockroaches with a tissue to observe if they have spots or broken antennae or wings, adding that she would kill cockroaches that do not meet the standard as the research she conducts means she must use quality test subjects.
“The strong instinct of survival in cockroaches, sometimes in extreme situations, such as its antennae being cut off, its body ripped open, or its struggle to flip onto the floor despite being trapped in cockroach traps, has given me inspiration to never give up,” Wu said.
Tsai said that when compared with cancer research or particle research — the subjects of the other eight projects in Taiwan chosen to participate in the fair — he and his students were the most underfunded and least technologically advanced.
That their research was chosen to stand among the others is in itself significant, Tsai said.
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