Lockerby student earns Bronze Excellence Award at Canada-Wide Science Fair

After garnering “Best in Fair” at the Sudbury Regional Science Fair, Grade 10 student Ariana Demers of Lockerby Composite School captured top honors at the Canada-Wide Science Fair held May 23 to 30, 2026 in Edmonton, Alberta. Ariana earned a Bronze Excellence Award in the Intermediate Division for her project “Conserved Regeneration Signatures in Human Wound Biology”.

“I extend sincere congratulations to Ariana Demers for her exceptional showing on the national stage,” said Bruce Bourget, Chief Executive Officer for the Rainbow District School Board. “This outstanding achievement is a reflection of Ariana’s curiosity, dedication and commitment to scientific inquiry.”

He added: “I would also like to acknowledge the students who won the honour of showcasing their projects nationally and thank staff for their tremendous leadership and support of all students who participated in the science fair experience.”

Ariana Demers’ project “Conserved Regeneration Signatures in Human Wound Biology” used machine learning to study axolotl regeneration data and compared it with human gene activity. For this, she built two models: logistic regression, which finds simple patterns, and a random forest model, which can detect more complex biological relationships. The models were combined to give each human gene a “regeneration-likeness” score. Ariana tested this on RNA-seq data comparing keloid scars to normal scars – helping to identify genes linked more closely to healing and regeneration instead of fibrosis. Several of the top-scoring genes are still largely unstudied, suggesting they could play important roles in healing and may be promising targets for future regenerative medicine research.

Ariana Demers was among six young scientists from Rainbow Schools who competed at the 2026 Canada-Wide Science Fair. Participating students included Farheen Shams, a Grade 10 student from Lockerby Composite School with “Echoes in the Genome: Identifying Cardioprotective Agents”; Alexander Crossgrove and Maria Luisa dos Santos, Grade 10 students from Lockerby Composite School with “The Peatland pH Project”; Kruz Bradley, a Grade 7 student from Northeastern Elementary School with “De-Muck the Yuck”; and Ishan Shukla, a Grade 7 student from Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School – Intermediate with “Bio-plastics”.

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Media Contact:

Nicole Charette, Senior Advisor,
Corporate Communications and Strategic Planning,
Rainbow District School Board, 705-674-3171, ext. 7217.