High School Alliance student nets research honor

Courtney Smith, a senior from Bellevue West and a second-year student in the UNMC High School Alliance program, recently won her division and placed fourth overall at the Omaha Metropolitan Science and Engineering Fair.

Smith will now compete at the state competition in Lincoln on April 17.

Smith said the poster project, titled “The Effect of All Trans Retinoic Acid on Macrophage Polarization,” was built upon earlier work by Robert Bennett, Ph.D., an associate professor of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism who served as Smith’s research mentor.

“Before beginning her research project, Courtney had no previous experience in laboratory techniques, yet she quickly mastered each challenge put before her,” Dr. Bennett said. “She accomplished an enormous amount of work in the limited time available to her, and as a result she was included as an author on results recently presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting. She clearly has an aptitude for scientific research, and I found her enthusiasm to be inspiring.”

The project’s focus, Smith said, was to explore more effective treatments for Type 2 diabetes.

It’s a personal topic for the student. Smith was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during her junior year. High School Alliance administrators connected her with Dr. Bennett’s lab as part of the Alliance’s Biomedical Research course, since Dr. Bennett’s research focuses on diabetes.

When Smith returned for a second year with the High School Alliance, she continued with Dr. Bennett for her independent study, which led to the project.

Smith said she loves biomedical research and intends to continue studying it when she attends BYU in the winter.

“I have a seven-year plan,” she said with a laugh. “I want to be a doctor by the time I’m 25.”

She said the High School Alliance, and the opportunity to work with Dr. Bennett, had been an awesome opportunity that had only confirmed her career goals in the field of biochemistry.

“I’ve known what I wanted to do since I was 7,” she said.