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Jack Ryan Takahashi, 17, of Saratoga, identified a previously unknown signaling relationship that may be the cause of pulmonary hypertension for his medicine and health Intel Science Talent Search submission. Pulmonary hypertension is characterized by abnormal growth of cells in the blood vessels of the lungs. Previous studies had indicated that impairment of the body's natural response to cellular growth factors contributed to the anomalous cell changes, so Jack explored the role of the signaling molecules that regulated this process. Jack showed that one such molecule, beta-catenin, was present at abnormally high levels in the dysfunctional cells, and that it plays a major role in the aberrant regulatory pathway. He believes that additional studies of beta-catenin and its interaction with other cellular growth signals could lead to development of new drug therapies for this very serious disease. Jack is a skilled musician (he plays the alto sax, flute and piano) and a composer, who has written a flute concerto for a full symphony orchestra. He is also an award-winning photographer and president of the photography club at Lynbrook High School in San Jose. His parents are John and Barbara Takahashi.
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