Sophomore Chloe Giglio spent most of her days last summer troubleshooting lines of code on the computer platform RStudio, again and again. She buried her head in research articles and binge-watched YouTube tutorials, running the concepts through her brain until everything finally began to make sense.

Giglio’s long and tireless efforts prepared her to participate in the world’s largest pre-collegiate science fair, the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Held from May 10 to May 16, ISEF allows aspiring young scientists to share their groundbreaking research. Giglio’s hard work and dedication drove her to win fourth place in the ISEF biomedical and health sciences category with her original research project on solutions for cancer.

“ISEF is so significant because it’s this very unique mass congregation of young scientists and also older scientists who are already in the field,” Giglio said. “The scientists provide their own thoughts on it and give you different insights. You can also learn about other areas of research that you didn’t think you were interested in before, but now, all of a sudden, seem interesting.”

Giglio’s research delved into the efficacy of immunotherapy, a treatment for lung cancer that is currently going through clinical trials but has not been approved yet. Her results yielded that two kinds of immunotherapy work in tandem, a discovery that could revolutionize cancer treatment.

“Immunotherapy allows your immune system to fight the cancer better, rather than chemotherapy, which directly attacks the cancer. It has a lot of potential, because it’s much cheaper to produce than current treatments,” Giglio said. “Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, which is one of my main motivations for doing this research.”

ISEF consists of several stages that culminate in a final round, which took place in Columbus, Ohio this year. Students must advance through a regional or state round by receiving the Grand Prize, the highest possible award that ranks above 1st prize. Giglio secured her ticket to the ISEF finals by winning the Grand Prize at Fairfax County’s regional science fair in March, where there were over 600 entries.

In the end, through regional and state selection, 16 projects qualified to represent Virginia at ISEF.

“I was ecstatic [when I was selected]. I fully did not expect to make ISEF ever,” Giglio said. “Last year, when I went to regionals and I got second prize, I kind of accepted that I would never [win], but I would just continue trying. Then, at the award ceremony this year, they called me for the Grand Prize award.”

Giglio’s motivation for competing in ISEF stemmed from her intrinsic interest in science and her affinity for solving problems.

“In science, everything is out there. You just have to discover it. As long as you continue to invent or innovate, you’re going to find something new,” Giglio said. “Every research project is like adding another piece to this puzzle. We don’t know how big it is, and we don’t know what it’s going to show when it’s done, but it’s just really fascinating to be a part of that.

Giglio’s passion for science is evident to those who know her best. Sophomore Natalie Wang, her childhood friend, has been both a close confidant and an academic companion.

“Chloe and I are both interested in science, so it’s enjoyable to continually learn with her and discuss everything we know. She’s so curious about everything involving the topic and is always asking questions about the way things work,” Wang said. “She’s the hardest worker I know, and she will do great things in the field for sure.”

Despite an underage restriction that prevented her from doing lab work, Giglio found alternative ways to research, which primarily consisted of computational analysis in RStudio. Giglio’s studies led her to uncover novel findings on cancer therapy treatments that target lung tumors.

“I examined how the gene expressions of different immune cells responded to [two immunotherapy] treatments, alone and combined,” Giglio said. “What I found was that these two treatments combined triggered a much stronger anti-tumor response than either of the treatments alone. This shows that there is synergy between these two treatments.”

Due to the originality of her research, Giglio went through numerous rounds of troubleshooting in order to develop a cohesive solution.

“I just needed a computer and some perseverance. I had to learn from scratch how to code in RStudio because I didn’t know how to do that at all,” Giglio said. “Especially with computational projects, you don’t exactly know what you’re looking for. Sometimes, pathways would show up as statistically significant and sometimes they wouldn’t. But as I continued to test, I was able to gradually create a story, and all my findings started to coalesce into something.”

The lengthy process of putting together her work required Giglio to possess a high level of mental fortitude and open-mindedness, traits that are clear to people who work with her.

“Even when you know that Chloe’s over-stressed, she’s always positive,” said Benjamin Letkiewicz, Giglio’s AP Seminar teacher. “She always comes in with a moving-forward kind of attitude, which is very refreshing. She has a combination of a desire to learn and a goal-directed personality.”

Giglio’s efforts eventually brought her to the final round of ISEF, which took place in the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Approximately 1,700 finalists were in attendance, representing over 60 countries, regions and territories.

“There was a symposium where different scientists would talk about their experience, how to be a better scientist and how to present your research at ISEF,” Giglio said. “It’s a really big social networking opportunity. One of my judges actually was part of the team that discovered one of the things I was working on. It was almost just like two excited scientists talking about research instead of like a judging session.”

After a deliberation session, awardees were announced on the final day. Several sponsor companies were present to give out prizes and scholarships, such as Regeneron, HP, Jacobs and Microsoft.

“The auditorium was filled with an air of anxiety,” Giglio said. “The announcer woman was calling out winners, and she announced that I had won fourth place. I almost didn’t register my name until my friends screamed and cheered around me. I was beaming as I ran up to the stage. It felt so good to be recognized for my work.”

ISEF was an unforgettable experience for Giglio—a pivotal step in her academic journey that opened many potential opportunities and introduced her to a world of like-minded and talented peers.

“I learned how to be a better researcher, both in terms of the hardcore knowledge, and also the soft skills like resilience and curiosity. Facing that steep learning curve definitely taught me a lot throughout the process,” Giglio said. “In addition, interacting with all those people, getting their perspectives and staying in contact with them was really inspiring.”

Giglio is certain that she will pursue science in the future, a prospect that ISEF helped solidify. While she is still deciding on a specific career to pursue, she is drawn to medicine.

“The good thing about science is that there are plenty of paths available. I have time to figure that out,” Giglio said. “I’m specifically interested in medical research, because when people come up with treatments, it actually makes a lot of intuitive sense. There are many ways to go about [finding solutions]. You just have to turn the problem around and look at it from a different angle. Sometimes it’ll work, sometimes it won’t, but you can find that out.”