The New York Times - August 14, 1983
Jamie Talan

Others his age - and younger - have found enzyme differences in the livers of victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), built artificial lungs or kidneys or have worked on one of more than a dozen technical projects involving computers and chemistry, synthetic medicinal chemistry or biomedical studies.

Eighteen young scientists took part this summer in a program at the Stevens Institute of Technology here. And they did so not for credit, but for the love of research. Most are still in their teens, and all were selected through a rigorous screening process.

The program, Undergraduate Projects in Technology and Medicine, was begun a dozen years ago by Dr. A. Jay Bose, a professor of chemistry.

"I noticed many students going on to medical school after their technical training," Dr. Bose said. "With a strong medical component, this 10-week summer program was a good way to further their careers."

Some students, like Mr. Johnson, who lives in Jersey City and who is going into his senior year at Stevens, began the program as prefreshmen; many have returned after graduation (not all from Stevens).

"We offer students an opportunity to do their own research," Dr. Bose said. "They are responsible for whatever piece of the project they're running. Many keep coming back because they're just that much closer to their goal."

A student who wants to return to the program after having been in it for a summer must go through the selection process again. Dr. Bose and his associates evaluate their work, their school records and their ideas each time they apply.

In this year's program, which ended last Wednesday, Mr. Johnson worked with a pattern-recognition technique, a method that sprang from his background in electrical and chemical engineering.

Pattern recognition, Mr. Johnson said, is far different from and seemingly more successful than the interpretive methods physicians currently use to detect heart abnormalities.

"Half of the time doctors take an EKG and send the patient off with an excellent bill of health when there is really something wrong," he said. "It's difficult to correlate EKG with how close a person might be to a heart attack."

Mr. Johnson said his technique was more than 90 percent successful in pinpointing abnormalities.

It took Mr. Johnson a few years to improve the input of data into the computer. The most effective way is through a television camera connected to a computer.

"This technique allows us to take an EKG from a stored record, enter it into a computer through a TV camera and do the calculations," he said. "The result appears in five minutes."

Tests were run on more than 200 cases, some of them retrospectively. "In some cases," Mr. Johnson said, "we were able to spot a danger signal two or three years before the cardiologist did."

Next, Mr. Johnson would like to use computer-assisted techniques in correlating the abnormalities with particular diseases.

"With the way computer prices are dropping, cardiologists will be able to set up similar systems for under $5,000," Dr. Bose said.

Eric Herskowitz of Tenafly, 20 years old and a member of the class of '86, said that the presence of fatty acids in plasma was a good way to characterize plasma and to find troubled areas in the liver. He has joined top medical researchers in trying to understanding AIDS.

"The liver, which is responsible for triglyceride manufacturing, cannot do its job right in AIDS victims," Mr. Herskowitz said.

There are differences in proteins in the blood between AIDS patients and normals, he said. At Stevens, he tried to find the specific lipids associated with the different proteins found in hemophiliacs and AIDS victims. He also sought a faster way to hydrolize plasma and obtain a clear picture of lipids.

The classical method takes at least an hour for separation to occur. Through experimentation, he has found that a system that takes only 10 minutes.

Dr. Bose added that the goal of Mr. Herskowitz's work was to "generate a maximum amount of information about the blood with a minimum amount of work."

Part of any research project is showing that results not only look good, but also are reliable, Dr. Bose said. That is one reason that Eugene Dixon of Ambler, Pa., a 21-year-old Stevens graduate who will enter medical school in the fall, spent his summer improving a design for a dialyzer/oxygenator.

Last year, he built his device as a prototype artificial lung and kidney. This year he upscaled his machine and next year his project will be turned over to another student who will use the device in working on the organs of a dog.

The machine, built with plastics and fiber, "acts like a kidney in that it takes out urea and acts like a lung in that it pulls in oxygen and takes out carbon dioxide," Mr. Dixon explained.

Of the experience at Stevens, Dr. Bose noted that students "might not get the parts they want or the chemicals they need, but at the end of the 10 weeks they have something significant to talk about."

Stevens - through close work with pharmaceutical companies and hospitals and with grants from foundations and other sources - offers these gifted students opportunities beyond the everyday course work. Students, who get a $1,500 stipend that covers room and board at Stevens, have access to a variety of sophisticated equipment, including a DEC-System KL-10 computer and a superconducting nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer.

"Age today doesn't mean much," said Mr. Johnson, pointing out that 10- year-old "microkids" have their own companies.

"Young people need direct supervision, someone to channel energies in the right direction," he said. "From there, the person's natural ability to carry it one step further makes the project what it is."

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