Sappho Zoe Gilbert

VIRGINIA

Sappho Zoe Gilbert, 18, of McLean, entered the Intel Science Talent Search with a medicine and health project that evaluated the expression of survivin - a protein that inhibits cell death in cancer cells - as a biomarker for prognosis and drug treatment of children and young adults with Ewing Sarcoma Family Tumors (ESFT). She evaluated archival tissue samples from ESFT patients and observed that those with low survivin had a higher survival rate. In further experiments she was able to reduce the production of survivin in cells through gene therapy, which increased the cancer's sensitivity to anticancer drugs. The results of her study may lead to novel alternate treatments for ESFT. Sappho attends Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology in Alexandria, where she has earned varsity letters in track, cross country and gymnastics. Fluent in modern Greek, the recipient of numerous science honors and co-author of an article submitted to Clinical Biochemistry, she is president of Tomorrow's Women in Science and Technology. The daughter of Samuel Gilbert and Elisavet Vrahopoulou, Sappho plans to study biomedical engineering, earn an M.D./Ph.D and conduct research.