For sophomore, a big scholastic achievement

Most career academics will never know the feeling of being published in Science, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world.

But Boris Zinshteyn knows the feeling well - and he's only 19.

The College sophomore co-authored new research - on how tiny molecules, known as 'micro RNA,' regulate genes, allowing cells to adapt to new demands - that appeared in last Friday's issue.

The RNA paper could have clinical and health care applications, according to Wistar professor Kazuko Nishikura, one of the academics involved in the research.

And while the research Zinshteyn completed may not win him a Nobel Prize, his co-workers say being published in such a prestigious journal is no small feat.

"I don't know any other students with Science papers," fourth-year Ph.D. student Praveen Sethupathy said.

Although Zinshteyn may not be Science's youngest contributor - a student in Maryland was published in 2002 as a 17-year-old - Zinshteyn is without a doubt among the journal's most youthful authors.

A native of Belarus, Zinshteyn said he was attracted to Penn partly because of the undergraduate research opportunities it offered.

"I wanted to do science, not just learn it," he said.

Zinshteyn - who moved to the United States when he was two - began his research career three years before even coming to Penn, while he was still attending Central High School in Philadelphia.

"He was doing science then, too," Sethupathy said.

And while other freshmen were still recovering from NSO, Zinshteyn started working for the Wistar Institute in his first month here.

Nishikura praised Zinshteyn's hard work, especially over the summer, which he spent working on the year-long research project which culminated in the published paper.

Zinshteyn's Vagelos scholarship has him enrolled in an intensive chemistry program, which commits him to research from the summer of his second year until he graduates.

And wearing a Star Wars T-shirt and talking about RNA molecules, Zinshteyn may seem like your average science geek, but that doesn't mean he's always up to his eyeballs in textbooks.

Despite his achievement, taking five courses a semester and spending about 15 hours per week in the lab, Zinshteyn says he still manages to have a social life.

"I have almost as much spare time as most people," he said, adding that "I can cut out a bit of sleep."

An RNA realization

? The paper published in 'Science' described how molecules known as ADARs, or Adenosine Deaminases Acting on RNA, can change the way a cell works very rapidly through slight modifications

? This research revealed how animals, including humans, can use a single, unchanging gene to adapt to different needs in different parts of the body or changing environments

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