While many high-schoolers were lounging by the pool this summer, Peter Fan of Cary was in the lab every day, working on a project that might one day help prevent diabetes.

His work paid off with one of five spots in the regional Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta Nov. 4 and 5.

Fan and his partner, Aakash Indurkhya, both seniors at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics didn't win, but they enjoyed the competition and got a lot of positive feedback on their work.

The two plan to continue working on the project through the rest of the school year.

Their work focuses on a gene network that functions as a "toggle switch" that turns stem cells into pancreatic beta cells, which secrete insulin, Fan said.

Fan and Indurkhya, who is from Charlotte, figured out how to turn this gene network on and off using a chemical that resembles a simple sugar.

"Since diabetes is a disease that affects millions of people, we decided that it would be a good project to work on," Fan said.

He and Indurkhya started work this summer, staying on the NCSSM campus and working in a lab at Duke University every day.

They had to look through hundreds of journals, which they got access to through the Duke library.

The pair said they were motivated by facing new challenges each day they went into the lab.

Fan, who started at NCSSM as a junior, said he applied because of his love of biology that started as a freshman at Raleigh Charter High School.

His interest in science has expanded at NCSSM, he said. He has become particularly interested in the relatively new field of synthetic biology, a combination of biology, chemistry and engineering.

He doesn't know where he will attend college yet, but he plans to major in biochemistry or molecular biology.

Fan's interest in biology dovetailed nicely for this project with Indurkhya's expertise in engineering and computer science.

"By the end, we taught each other a lot about our fields," Indurkhya said. "We played off each other a lot, and it helped in the long run."

The competition attracted more than 1,500 entries from around the country, so Fan and Indurkhya said they were honored to have been selected to give their presentation for the regional competition.

There was a poster presentation, a 12-minute oral presentation and a question-and-answer session with the judges.

"The other teams had projects in areas different from ours, so we got to see a lot of science and math," Fan said.

"Peter and I will probably be lifelong friends because of this," Indurkhya said. "Collaboration is very important to science, so who knows? If we end up in the same field, we could be working together again in 20 years or so."