Courtesy of ITT

From left to right: Tom Glover, VP Communications of ITT Fluid & Motion Control; Rebecca Ye, U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize Winner; and Jeanette Brown, President-elect of the Water Environment Federation (WEF)

Although freshman Rebecca Ye will not take her first biology course at Washington University until next semester, her expertise in biological research has the potential to revolutionize management of the world’s most important resource: water.

Until the advent of Ye’s Quartz Crystal Microarray (QCM) system, it took up to four days to detect small concentrations of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in water. Ye’s method is affordable and takes 24 hours. E. coli often infiltrates the water supplies of undeveloped countries. It can destroy the intestines if consumed, and the rapid detection method designed by Ye has the potential to curb the disease.

“She’s amazing. To be honest, she’s one in a million,” said Cary James, Ye’s high school chemistry teacher and the person who introduced her to research. “For her to win [the national competition] is a monumental feat. To be honest, I knew she had a rock-solid project. Her project has implications worldwide, particularly in third world countries, to be able to go and look at marginal water and detect coliforms that quickly.”

The implications of Ye’s research may rapidly be realized thanks to the attention her work has received through the 2010 Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) competition. The Bangor, Maine, native won the state and national competitions earlier this year and will head to Stockholm Sept. 5-11 for the international SJWP competition held during World Water Week in Sweden.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is sponsored nationally and internationally by the ITT Corporation, the world’s largest supplier of pumps and systems to transport, treat and control water. The company not only provides funding but also supplies judges to nine national competitions and the international event.

“The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is a way to actively seek out and seed the next generation of water leaders, and we believe that the competition truly has the power to change the future—inspiring many brilliant contestants to pursue research and eventually careers related to water and science,” wrote Bjorn von Euler, director of corporate philanthropy for ITT, in an e-mail.

“It’s all been kind of surreal, and I feel really fortunate to be selected. I couldn’t have done it without any of my supporters. I feel like it’s been a huge group effort,” Ye said.

The QCM system is a piezoelectric sensor that can detect small changes of mass on its surface. Ye began working with QCM her sophomore year under Dr. Vivian Wu in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Maine. The lab introduced Ye to QCM for detection of E. coli in food, and she saw the potential for a transition of QCM to water research.

“The novel thing about her project is she took it from food to water. They [the Wu lab] had no inkling of doing that…. It was a pretty easy stretch over to water chemistry because E. coli is a huge problem in water,” James said.

The longtime water researcher has worked with the Maine Lake Association for years, but always declined offers to test for coliforms due to the laborious nature of the job. However, he thinks that coliform testing might have turned the corner thanks to Ye’s work.

“She’s kind of come up with a revolutionary approach [in] looking how to test coliforms in water, and it’s inexpensive and very quick,” James added.

While difficult to refine, using QCM as an E. coli sensor in water is relatively simple in theory. Primary antibodies specific to E. coli are bound to the QCM surface using the carbohydrate glutaraldehyde. After the bacteria associates with these antibodies, they are held in place via binding to a set of gold-conjugated antibodies, producing the mass change on the QCM surface that can be detected.

Conjugating the antibodies with gold nano-particles (AuNP) introduced non-specific binding to other pathogens, which Ye said took a lot of time to fix. Now, it is a matter of making the system practical for broad-spectrum use.

“We are looking at low concentrations that do not cause damage. I’m trying to make it a little more sensitive since you wouldn’t find that much E. coli in a lake,” Ye said.

In addition to the challenges surrounding the research, Ye had to balance her extracurricular research with classes, college applications and the everyday life of a senior in high school.

“Everybody was just really understanding. Everybody was invaluable. I talk to my chemistry teacher about everything in the paper. Dr. Wu and Xaio were very knowledgeable. They were great,” Ye said. “[My parents] were amazing. They put up with me staying up late, writing all of the papers and complaining when I was tired and cranky.”

“I don’t know where she has the time in the day to do all the work she has done. She’s part of the debate team. She does it all. What she’s done is beyond amazing…. Becky has walked where other people have never been and may never get, even at the graduate level,” James added.

Because she won the U.S. competition, Ye will have her abstract on the QCM system published along with seven runners-up. Ye will also present her work at WEFTEC® 2010, the Water Environment Federation’s annual exhibition to be held in October in New Orleans. Ye also received $3,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to Sweden for the national competition.

Success at the United States Junior Water Prize is not new to James’ students from Bangor High School. James’ after school program, The Dr. Robert Ervin Green Energy Learning Project, also produced the Maine entrants to the SJWP in 2007 and 2009, and while Ye is the first Bangor high student to win the competition, all three students have been published.

“We meet every day and talk, and we may not talk for more than a couple of minutes a day, but we always check in…. It’s the kind of work that you expect out of a kid in graduate school,” James said.

After less than a week of acclimating to the Danforth Campus, Ye, her parents and James will travel to Stockholm for the international competition, which is patronized by H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. Entrants not only participate in a highly scholastic and competitive conference, but also get to enjoy a meal with the royal family. The winner will receive $5,000 and a crystal sculpture.

“I’m a little bit nervous about it. I think it will be a little fun, but I’m nervous since its right after freshman Orientation, and I will miss my first two weeks of classes,” Ye said. “I’m going in with an open mind, and I’m really interested to see what everyone else does.”

“I think the potential is there for her to win the Stockholm International Prize.” James said. “The judges at the highest level of water research at this country have deemed [it] the strongest project in the United States…so I like her chances.”