Janet Song
Audubon, PA
Age: 16
Benjamin Song
Audubon, PA
Age: 15
Janet and Benjamin Song have developed a simple test which can potentially revolutionize cancer screening, early detection, and disease management of cancer. It is known that the earlier a cancer is detected, the better the prognosis. The goal of their research was to develop a urine test for cancer screening. Previous studies have demonstrated that human urine contains circulation-derived low MW DNA (150-250 bp) that can be used to detect cancer-associated genetic alterations and that many current cancer biomarkers have low sensitivities and specificities. They hypothesized that the use of low MW urine DNA would enhance the sensitivity and specificity of a urine cancer screening test. They have created a novel method to prepare circulation-derived urine DNA for genetic testing for higher sensitivity and specificity, and real-time PCR-based assays for detecting colorectal cancer (CRC)-associated genetic and epigenetic DNA biomarkers in urine. Their work during the past three years is still in progress to continue to further develop this urine test for clinical use.