Behind the flashy, electric blue and yellow poster lies hours of intensive labor and hard work. Allison Roll spent long hours in the library learning computer code and researching the way certain vitamins affected certain genes. 

After conducting much research, Roll, a senior at Fairfield Ludlowe High School, compiled her new found data into an infographic poster and submitted it to the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Scholars Program, a competition for high schoolers who have conducted bioinformatics research to present at the 2019 AMIA symposium in Washington D.C.. 

Roll was selected as one out of fourteen students in the nation to compete and would go on to present her research about nutrigenetics at the national AMIA competition in Washington D.C. in the summer of 2019.

For four months, beginning in June, Roll worked alongside a bioinformatics researcher from Brown University to conduct a data analysis project on nutrigenetics, the study of interactions between nutrition and genetic variation.

Roll’s love for nutrigenetics stemmed out of her passion for nature and how natural systems work. 

“Since I was little, I was always very interested in animals. I would walk through the woods near my house and look at all the nature,” Roll stated.

Roll also has a passion for science and math. During her sophomore year of high school, Roll matriculated at Bridgeport Regional Vocational Aquaculture School, a school which emphasizes science and technology instruction. 

At this school, she felt a “true sense of community among people with a shared passion”.

Although she has always been geared to math and science, she also sees herself as a creative and inventive person. 

“While I love biology and chemistry, I feel that in many ways those disciplines do not allow much room for creativity,” says Roll on why she is so interested in bioinformatics. 

“It encompasses possibilities for putting together these disciplines in new ways that can contribute to the greater good on a grand, even global scale.” 

The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics field has traditionally been more occupied by men. However, today there is a big movement among women in STEM. 

Roll definitely pushes the boundaries discovering new research in this field at only seventeen years old, and hopefully younger students can look up to her to conduct research in the field themselves.