Two Nampa High School seniors finish each other's sentences, love art and science, and plan on winning the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.

Chelsi Carroll, 17, and Britney Meza, 18, who share the same 3.9 grade point average, can also explain what the "Characterization of a Potent Inhibitor (KIF3) of Human Carbonyl Reductase" means.

And, they should be able to. It was the title of a research poster they presented in August at the Idaho Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence conference (INBRE) at the University of Idaho. Carroll and Meza were the first high school students to present at the conference.

"Oh, I really like to explain this," said Carroll as she and Meza spent time last week talking and giggling about their research in a Boise State University chemistry lab last summer and their futures at Ivy League schools. Or, of course, BSU.

Basically, the girls verified research by Henry A. Charlier, associate professor at BSU and an undergraduate student, Christopher Ewing, by repeating the same work on a drug that may improve the safety of chemotherapy treatments, said Charlier.

The drug, KIF3, combats a toxic by-product of chemotherapy that can damage the heart, said Carroll.

Carroll and Meza classified the research as "intense" and "so much fun."

"I was completely naive about lab processes," said Meza, who now wants to major in biochemistry and go to medical school.

"I want to research AIDS," she said. "That is my thing right now."

Carroll will also major in biochemstry. Neuro-science is her "thing right now."

"I really want to do research with the brain. It's so different from anything else," she said.

Carroll and Meza became close friends while living in the dorms at the Upward Bound program, a pre-college project designed to help low-income and first-generation college students prepare for college entrance. They found they had so much in common — from wanting to be writers as children to loving to volunteer — that their friendship was a natural.

But science isn't the only topic of interest for the teens. Carroll is involved in theater at Columbia High School; Meza is in ballroom dance and is the president of the Associated Student Body at Nampa High.

Jim Kusterer, their high school chemistry teacher, is especially proud of the teens.

The girls also are co-captions of TEAM+S, a national high school program that tests engineering, math and science skills during regional competitions, he said. They are sure their team will take first place this year.

Kusterer said Carroll also helped start a physical chemistry class this year that he teaches. She wanted more chemistry in high school and found students both interested and qualified to take the class.

Students in the class can get college credit through Northwest Nazarene University.

"Faculty members from other institutions were stunned to find that this pair of student presenters were in high school rather than college," said Charlier.

"Britney and Chelsi just further show me that high school students can do work that forwards my research project," he said.

Charlier plans to include the teens as authors on the work when it submitted for publication in a peer review journal. 

Gene Johnson from Caldwell High School also worked with Carroll and Meza as part of the Upward Bound program that brought them to BSU. Carroll and Meza continued the research as volunteers after the Upward Bound segment of the program ended.