Could genetically-engineered pigs save human lives? That is the topic Dalli (Diane) N '25 explored in her award-winning essay for the New York Times STEM Writing Contest, an annual competition designed to encourage high school students to engage deeply with STEM topics. Over 3,500 students from around the country submitted their 500-word explanations of issues that are relevant to the fields of science, technology, engineering, math, or health. Diane’s essay was part of the 1% of submissions who received an honorable mention.
Diane’s interest in the topic of gene editing was sparked while learning about DNA replication in her 9th grade Biology class. As she studied for her end-of-Mod assessment, she watched a video that briefly mentioned CRISPR technology, a genetic engineering tool that can be used to edit genes.
Her interest piqued, Diane started to dive deeper into the topic and learned more about how scientists could use the CRISPR technology to potentially change the world — by treating Alzheimer's, HIV, or cancer. As Diane continued her research, she learned that CRISPR recently enabled a pig-to-human organ transplant, which was how she settled on her topic, “Could Genetically-Engineered Pigs Save Human Lives?” In her essay she writes, “as gene-editing technologies and biomedical discoveries continue to accelerate at an exponential speed, animal-to-human organ transplants are no longer within the realms of science fiction.” Xenotransplantation – the transplant of organs from animals to humans – becomes the focus for her paper, as she explores the benefits and drawbacks of porcine transplantations in humans.
When asked about the research and writing process, Diane reports, “I am proudest of how I took risks to use more difficult resources – academic journals and statistics from ‘professional’ websites. Although digesting the information was a bit challenging for me, this ultimately allowed me to write a piece that had quality information and great accuracy.”
While she’ll move on from studying Biology to Chemistry this year as a 10th grader, Diane continues to pursue her interest in her research topic, reading and researching about DNA and organ transplantations.
Click HERE to read Diane’s award-winning essay, “Could Genetically-Engineered Pigs Save Human Lives?”
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