Olivia Huang
7th Grade, Englewood Cliffs Upper School
Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Many of the people in Olivia鈥檚 family are lactose intolerant 鈥� they cannot digest the sugar lactose commonly found in dairy products. Her family isn鈥檛 alone: nearly two-thirds of people around the world are lactose intolerant. 鈥淭o relieve symptoms when consuming dairy products, they have to take lactase medications,鈥� she says. Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose. Sometimes, if her family members are eating a lot of dairy, they have to take a lot of lactase. Olivia began to wonder if there was a way to make the lactase pills work longer.
Enhancing the Efficacy of Ingested Lactase by Altering Gastric pH
Project Background
Using vinegar to simulate stomach acid, Olivia added milk to 12 test tubes. Half of the test tubes also got Tums, calcium carbonate tablets, to increase the pH. Then, she applied lactase to two of the test tubes, one with calcium carbonate and one without. She measured the pH of each tube and also measured the amount of glucose produced 鈥� a measure of the breakdown of lactose with lactase 鈥� for 60 minutes.
Vinegar alone had a pH of 3, which rose to 4 when milk was added. Calcium carbonate increased the pH to 6. Olivia showed that alone, lactase produced 70 mg/dL of glucose alone. If it was combined with calcium carbonate, however, it produced 183 mg/dL of glucose. 鈥淭hese findings suggest that combining calcium carbonate with lactase will increase the efficacy of ingested lactase in lactose intolerant people,鈥� Olivia says.
Beyond the Project
Olivia developed her interest in science by reading science comics. Now, she animates math and science cartoons herself. 鈥淚 created a website of educational videos and I recruited several classmates to help make them,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 do this to help my fellow classmates learn 中文无码 in a fun way that everyone can understand.鈥� She has a passion for medicine and for the environment and would like to become a doctor. Inspired by her sister鈥檚 severe mushroom allergy, she would like to be a pediatric allergist.
