BT Young Scientist
The school community is very proud of Ilya Solovjov and Andrei Florian who worked as a team with great commitment and dedication on the following project for the Young Scientists Exhibition and Competition. Their project received second place in the Technology category as well as a sponsor award from Intellectual Ventures. Congratulations and well done, it is such an achievement especially when you are in Sixth year with the added workload of the Leaving Certificate as well. Ms Dalton their teacher has been a great inspiration and help to them in their work on the project.
“This year, we presented our research into biological risks emerging from synthetic DNA at BTYSTE. Rapid technological development is making DNA synthesis (the artificial creation of DNA) increasingly widespread and accessible. Advancements in DNA synthesis enhance cutting edge research, such as vaccine development and cancer research, but also increase the risk of the technology being misused to cause harm, for instance through the creation of biological weapons.
Over the past months, we explored technological efforts to prevent the synthesis of harmful DNA and identified several shortcomings of the safeguards currently in place to prevent the creation of biological weapons. Our project, GeneAtlas, presents a novel screening mechanism to identify attempts at synthesising harmful DNA, leveraging modern cryptography and computing to enhance the security, anonymity, and efficiency of the screening processes used at present.
We found our experience at BTYSTE this year interesting. Having never participated in person before, because of the pandemic, we found the atmosphere to be surprisingly different. Our project received second place in our Technology category as well as a sponsor award from Intellectual Ventures”.
by Andrei Florian and Ilya Solovjov