Rose-Weller

[Music plays and images of award participants flash by on screen. Text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Image changes to show Rose Weller rock climbing and then moves to show a shot of Rose standing and smiling at the camera]

Rose Weller: Hi, my name’s Rose Weller and I am in Year 10 at Daramalan College in Canberra. My project was called: Three variations to an arylsulfatase enzyme for the detection of steroids.

[Image changes to show Rose seated and working on a computer]

Currently in urine samples there are steroids going undetected because we don’t yet have enzymes to make them detectable, so I wanted to find an enzyme to make steroids more detectable in drug tests.

[Image changes to show Rose working in a laboratory type setting]

I was really fortunate that I got access to the Research School of Chemistry in the labs there, and there was a guy there who was willing to help me and allow me to finish the project and investigate everything I wanted to.

[Image has changed back to show Rose seated and talking to the camera and then changes back to show Rose working in the laboratory]

I wasn’t really expecting to find anything because when I had done my research I found that a lot of people had tried to do this and were unsuccessful, but we found a mutation to an enzyme which was better than anything else out there at the moment and if it was implemented in drug tests it would allow this certain type of steroid to be detected.

[Camera zooms in on samples being stored in trays on wire racks and then camera pans over other samples in beakers and test tubes on tables]

It’s really exciting for me, the universities have already taken my research and had a look at it and tried to use that to see if they could improve their enzymes.

[Image changes back to show Rose seated and talking to the camera]

The people who would benefit most from this research are the sporting performance athletes. If people are being caught then they can be disqualified and it’s fair for everyone.

[Image changes to show a collection of Rose’s medals]

When I was a child I loved being outdoors, seeing how things worked, I hated sitting inside watching TV, I thought it was pointless because you can be outside enjoying what’s there.

[Image changes back to show Rose seated and talking to the camera and then moves to show Rose working on a laptop]

After school I would love to be a doctor, a medical researcher, I think it would be a really interesting career and you’d be able to help lots of people in different ways.

[Image changes to show Rose standing alongside a tent and other camping equipment which is set high on a hill overlooking other mountains and trees]

In my spare time I like rock climbing, bushwalking and photography.

[Image changes back to show Rose seated and talking to the camera]

In rock climbing I also do it competitively, so I compete at the state championships and at national championships, currently I’m A.C.T. and New South Wales champion and I came second at nationals.

[Image has changed to show Rose rock climbing]

The thing I love about rock climbing is it’s a challenge and there are problems and you’ve got to solve the problems, kind of like science in a way.

[Image changes back to show Rose seated and talking to the camera]

Science and engineering for me is just possibilities. There’s so much you can do and you can do it in so many different ways and it brings technology and life together, which I think is really cool and interesting.

[Camera zooms in on Rose’s face]

Science will change a lot, it will be very different to what we know it as now and I think things we think are impossible will definitely be possible and hopefully everyone can benefit from it.

[Music plays and text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Sponsors logos appear on screen]