Jack Albright, 15, has wonderful memories of his grandmother, a vibrant, youthful woman known as Granny Janet who would regale Albright and his younger brother with tales of her many adventures, including running in marathons and living on a sailboat in the Caribbean.
Those stories stopped abruptly in 2017, when Albright's grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The news was a shock, but the diagnosis inspired Albright to make the disease the focus of a yearlong science project for his eighth-grade class at the Nueva School in Hillsborough, CA.
"Before her diagnosis, Granny Janet was a gifted short story writer and an avid reader," says Albright. "It was upsetting to see how quickly she lost the ability to do these things that were so central to her life." He hoped his project would help people like her in the future.
Albright has always loved math and science, says his mother. "When he was younger, he would grab math and science books off the shelves at our local library and read them for hours," she says. He's taken advanced math classes since second grade and has competed in numerous state, national, and international math competitions and won several prizes.
For his project, Albright drew on those skills to design software that can predict the onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in people suspected of having Alzheimer's disease. His first step was to reach out to the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) to request permission to access its database of de-identified information from more than 1,800 patients. The ADNI provides its data to researchers throughout the world to help find new ways to track the progression of Alzheimer's disease using biomarkers. Within a few days, the ADNI granted Albright access.
As he analyzed the data, he focused on 13 disease-related factors, including genetic risks such as the APOE4 gene, physical measurements such as changes in the size of the hippocampus based on MRI images, behavioral test results, and demographic information like age and race. Based on the data, Albright designed software that can "learn" the relationship between the markers and a later diagnosis of MCI or dementia, as defined by the ADNI. It then applies this relationship to other patients to predict their likelihood of being diagnosed with MCI or dementia in the future.
To test the software, Albright chose 110 patients who had joined the ADNI before 2011 and participated in the study until at least the end of 2018. Analyzing only markers that were measured prior to 2011, Albright's software predicted the diagnoses patients received between 2011 and 2017. For example, Albright's program used markers obtained from one patient between 2007 and 2009 to predict that the person would progress to dementia in May 2014—the person, in fact, was diagnosed with dementia in April 2014. Overall, Albright's accuracy rate was 86.6 percent.
"By detecting Alzheimer's before symptoms appear," Albright says, "researchers could design more successful drug trials and perhaps discover more effective treatments or a potential cure for Alzheimer's disease."
After Albright had spent more than 100 hours on the project, his teachers encouraged him to enter the San Mateo County STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Fair. To his surprise, Albright won first prize and advanced to the Golden Gate STEM Fair, where he won the grand prize. He was then nominated for the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) competition, which is sponsored by the Society for Science & the Public in Washington, DC. "The program encourages middle school students to translate their personal interests into a passion that can help society," says Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the organization. "More than $100,000 is awarded to the finalists for their incredible achievements in science, technology, engineering, and math," she says.
From a field of 2,500 candidates from around the country, Albright was chosen as one of 30 finalists for the national award. Finalists are judged on projects they presented at their state or regional science fairs, their knowledge of STEM subjects, and their demonstration of creative, communication, collaborative, and critical thinking skills in a series of hands-on challenges.
At the end of the competition, Albright received the $20,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement. "Our judges were impressed by Jack not only because he applied great scientific knowledge to his project, but he also displayed real leadership qualities during the challenge process," says Ajmera. "We think he has the potential to become a scientific leader in the future."
The $20,000 prize is earmarked for college, but since Albright's parents have already saved money for his college tuition, they are donating some of it to Alzheimer's research as well as STEM education in underserved communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to the $20,000, Albright's school is awarded $1,000 toward STEM education and activities. And Albright gets an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter named after him: Minor Planet 34328 Jackalbright.
Albright, who wants to be a computer scientist, continues to work on his software program to improve its accuracy. He has written and submitted a scientific paper about his project for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
"I was very excited to win the award, but my efforts pale in comparison to my grandmother's daily struggles," he says. "This award is for Granny Janet and the millions of other patients and caregivers who face the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease."