International Community School student Aidan Hurst is the first place Washington Regional winner of the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research’s Biomedical Breakthroughs and My Life Essay Contest.

Hurst chose to write about a rare visual condition known as Mild Enhanced S-cone Syndrome. He could speak knowledgably about the diagnosis and symptoms of this genetic disease because he experiences it on a daily basis. Hurst researched the genetics behind the disease and wrote about gene therapy research with dogs, rabbits and mice that may provide a cure for this and other retinal diseases. In his reflective paragraph, Hurst stated, “There will always be diseases that will have to be researched and that, along with many other reasons, is why I want to someday be either a heart surgeon or an eye surgeon.”