61st Annual STS (2001–2002)
Finalists
Raphael Farzan-Kashani

NEW YORK
Raphael Farzan-Kashani, 17, of Great Neck, entered the Intel Science Talent Search with a project in medicine. It concerns a devastating group of autoimmune disorders termed paraneoplastic neurological diseases (PNDs) that occur in some cancer patients. In such patients, the immune system attacks the nervous system as well as the cancer. Rafi worked to improve characterization of an antibody in the serum of PND patients. To accomplish this, he learned such techniques as growing and purifying fusion proteins and immunoblotting, and he independently changed some techniques used at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to achieve maximum clarity and validity. He is co-author of a paper on PNDs to be submitted by Sloan-Kettering physicians at neurology and cancer conferences. Rafi has a patent pending on a vibrating device for awakening the deaf in danger from smoke asphyxiation. It is expected to reduce the cost of such devices from $250 to under $15. An accomplished writer and magazine editor at John L. Miller-Great Neck North High School, Rafi hopes to attend Yale. His parents are Yaghoob and Shahnaz Farzan-Kashani.