Congratulations to High School senior Alexis Tchaconas, who has been named a Semifinalist in the prestigious national Intel Science Competition for her genetic research into the cause of Autism. Alexis and Commack High School will each receive $1,000. Intel finalists will be announced later this month, and will compete for more than $630,000 in top prizes. The title of her project was, "A Genetic Investigation of Autism: The Role of Type III Neuregulin-1/ErbB4 Signaling and Contactin4 Expression in Neurodevelopment.”