COMMACK HIGH SCHOOL

CHS senior Ishana C. is headed to D.C. this weekend as a Regeneron finalist.

Her sendoff included being honored with a proclamation from legislator Rob Trotta at the Suffolk County Legislature on Tuesday morning.

Ishana, an aspiring neurosurgeon, in January was selected one of 40 finalists internationally in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

It marked the first time in a decade that CHS had produced a finalist in the prestigious competition.

Ishana earned $25,000 scholarship, on top of the $2,000 scholarship she previously had earned for being named one of 300 Regeneron Scholars earlier that month.

The top 10 will be selected next Tuesday, at the conclusion of a week-long event in Washington.

They are competing for more than $1.8 million in scholarships, with a top prize of $250,000.

The contest originally had 2,471 entrants — the largest pool of applicants since 1967.

Ishana’s project was entitled, “Understanding Neuronal Migration in Brain Development: The Role of Oligophrenin1 in Modulating Radial Migration of Pyramidal Neurons by Interaction With Pacsin2.”

She researched a protein in a gene that affects cognitive disabilities.

Commack has a proud tradition of students achieving in the Regeneron competition under the leadership of Jeanette Collette, Daniel Kramer and Andrea Beatty.

The high school has produced 13 other Regeneron Scholars in the past decade: Jonathan Zhang (2024), Soyoun "Ashley" Moon (2022), Kimberly Liao (2020), S. Shamtej Singh Rana (2020), Pragati Muthukumar (2019), Daniel Lee (2018), Anoop Singh (2018), Jordan Cooper (2017), Abby Cuomo (2017), David Li (2016), Mehtaab Sawhney (2016), Massa (2015) and Matthew O’Connell (2015).