Oak Park and River Forest High School junior Jaelyn Hammersley was well aware that there are no disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson’s disease.
So as part of OPRF’s Competitive Research, Design and Innovation course, she focused on the nervous system disorder that affects movement, battled by many, including renowned actors Michael J. Fox and Alan Alda.
Her collegiate-caliber research was intense, but it paid off mid-May with a fourth-place finish at the 2026 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair at the Phoenix Convention Center in Arizona.
Certainly an impressive accomplishment, but that pales in comparison to the research itself, which could someday play a role in helping people with the disease.
“I knew early on that I wanted to work on Parkinson’s disease, so I started reading the newest scientific articles I could find about important disease pathways,” Hammersley said. “That’s when I discovered the heat shock response, which became the foundation for my project.”
In layman’s terms, her work found that gedunin, a naturally found molecule derived from the neem tree, significantly improved climbing performance and reduced neurodegeneration in fruit flies with Parkinson’s disease.
In other words, the behavioral improvements seen in the flies suggest that gedunin could have significant therapeutic potential and could contribute to future treatment development.
Her teacher, Allison Hennings, said the research was much more than, well, the research.
“Students are provided with funding as part of the course by our school,” Hennings said. “For specific equipment we don’t have at school already, we look for additional funding. This year, Jaelyn, along with several other students, reached out to the OPRF Booster Club in order to obtain a fluorescent microscope needed for their work.”
But the research itself was a matter unto itself. Hammersley said.
While conducting her research, she found studies on azadiradione, a compound derived from the neem tree that alters heat shocked response. It worked well in fruit fly models, but not as well in humans. Thus, she started looking for similar stronger options with therapeutic potential.
That led to gedunin.
“From there, I had to build the entire experimental design myself; determining concentrations, calculating how much fruit flies consume, scaling treatments for thousands of flies, and deciding which Parkinson’s-related symptoms to measure,” she said. “It was definitely a long and tedious process, but honestly, designing the experiment was my favorite part because it felt like solving a giant puzzle and building something completely original.”
She also gave a lot of credit to Hennings, who has helped many other OPRF students become successful researchers through the course.
“One of the biggest ways she helped me was through accountability and support,” she said. “Research can be incredibly overwhelming, especially when experiments fail or unexpected problems happen, but she always stayed calm and solution focused. Whenever something went wrong, she never treated it like a disaster, she would immediately work to help me figure out the next step.
“I would come in early mornings, stay after school, and spend hours working on my research, and she was always there to supervise, guide me, and encourage me. She genuinely cares so deeply about her students and their success, and I learned so much from her this year, not just scientifically, but also about responsibility, persistence, and how to approach challenges.”
And don’t forget, Hammersley won an award for her efforts at the world’s largest and most prestigious international high school science and engineering competition. Hers was the highest finish ever earned by an OPRF student at the event, and in doing so, she finished fourth against about 70 other finalists in the biomedical and health sciences category.
“Honestly, I was completely shocked when they called my name,” she said. “I truly was not expecting to place at all. I was sitting with my friends during the awards ceremony, just hoping that one of them would win, and when I heard ‘Jaelyn Olivia Hammersley,’ I almost couldn’t believe it.”
Hennings sees a bright future for Hammersley.
“Jaelyn is exceptionally capable of changing the world for the better,” she said. “I know she is interested in going into science in the future and continuing research. It will be very exciting to see what she ends up doing.”
Remember, too, that Hammersley is just a junior. She hasn’t decided on a college yet, but there’s almost no doubt her skills will be in demand.
She’s got a whole summer and school year left to fine-tune her results.
“This summer, I’ll be working in a college lab, which I’m really excited about because I’ll be developing important skills like staining techniques and cell work that will help strengthen my future research,” she said. “I’m excited to learn from experienced researchers in a professional lab environment.”