LANSDALE – The North Penn School District is proud to announce that North Penn High School student Lijia Xie received first place at Discovery Day 2011, an event sponsored by Drexel University College of Medicine, for his research on “Specificity of the Methylated RASSFIA Gene as a Biomarker for the Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma”.

Discovery Day is a new competition that was introduced last spring by Drexel University College of Medicine. Xie entered this competition with the research project he completed over the summer at Drexel University College of Medicine under the direction of a team of researchers. These researchers, from Drexel University College of Medicine and the National Cheng-Kung University Medical Center of Taiwan, acted as mentors for Xie as he carried out his portion of the research project. At Discovery Day 2011, he entered the High School Student Poster category to explain his project and was awarded first place.

For more information on this student achievement, please contact North Penn High School biology teacher Melody Leithold at [email protected].