Allison Jaye Landstrom, a senior from Southridge High School, Beaverton, Oregon, was a unanimous choice for the APS first prize of $1,000. She studied whether most anterior cruciate ligament tears in females result from an enhanced response to relaxin, a polypeptide hormone. Ms. Landstrom used porcine tissues (Achilles tendon strips) in an in vitro study done entirely in her school laboratory. Her paper was entitled, The Effects of the Relaxin Hormone on the Laxity of Male and Female Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tissue, in vitro.

Samuel Gregory Finlayson, a freshman from San Ramon Valley High School, Danville, California, was awarded the APS second prize of $500. He performed much of his project outside the laboratory as he studied the effects of chlorine on the lung function of outdoor swimmers.

The APS judges were led by P.K. Rangachari, professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Alberta, Canada, who said, "Mr. Finlayson's study was a neat example of integrative physiology." His study was entitled, Effect of Chlorine on Lung Function of Outdoor Swimmers.

The two third prize winners, who received $500 each, were John Zeqi Luo of Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick, Rhode Island, and Jason Scott Pellegrino from Manhasset High School, Manhasset, New York.

Both worked on different aspects of glucose homeostasis. John Luo focused on the effects of an extract of American ginseng root on insulin secretion in beta cells (Alternative Medicine: A Relief for Diabetes, Phase 3). Jason Pellegrino used transgenic mice for his project (Analysis of Metformin's Effect on Brain Insulin Receptors).

In additio
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Contact: Mayer Resnick
mresnick@the-aps.org
301-634-7209
American Physiological Society
13-Jul-2004