Lancaster Catholic High School's Dominick Baksh and McCaskey High School's Kai Unwin-Wisnosky participated in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held in May in Dallas. While neither student captured the grand prize, each still walked away with something valuable: for Dominick, the interest and support of a judge who wants to mentor him and see his work published, and for Kai, the opportunity for collaboration on an international level.

Ninth-grade student Kai and 10th-grader Dominick won the Grand Champion and Senior Division Champion titles, respectively, at the North Museum Science and Engineering Fair held in March. They traveled to Dallas to compete among high school students from over 60 countries and six continents, presenting their projects to judges during a weeklong competition from May 13 to 19.

Dominick's study of investigating molecular subtypes of endometrial cancer, titled "Immune Checkpoint Regulation in Molecular Subtypes of Endometrial Cancer - Expression of PD-L1/PD-1," caught the eye of Dr. Asha Pillai, chair of hematology at Regeneron, who is a former ISEF finalist and heads up the Biomedical Sciences portion of the judging. She invited Dominick to a Boston symposium she is chairing for mentoring and encouraged him to publish his work. Dominick will attend the Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy symposium in June.

Kai's project, titled "Which Savonius Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Setup Is More Efficient: One With a Wind Deflector or One Without," spurred interactions for future collaborations with colleagues from the U.S. as well as Egypt, Haiti and Zimbabwe. Kai noted that he was able to connect with fellow contestants and representatives of colleges and companies.

Both students also received accolades from the U.S. Department of the Air Force and North Carolina State University for their projects.

The expenses for the trip to Dallas were paid by the North Museum through the support of sponsors.

Sponsorships for the North Museum Science and Engineering Fair are available by contacting Scott Downs, director of development and strategic partnerships, at sdowns@northmuseum.org.