Saint Vincent College senior Chad Purnell's three-semester senior research project may someday benefit another kind of seniors.

Purnell, a Hempfield Area High School graduate and a biology major at Saint Vincent, started his work by researching studies on cell phone radiation.

He found no special effects felt by cell phone users. Except one.

"Cell phone radiation activated a protection protein called heat shock protein 27," he said. "I realized that activation of this protein might help the body protect itself against Alzheimer's and other neural degenerative diseases."

Backed by a Saint Vincent research grant, Purnell took neural cells and artificially induced an Alzheimer's-like state using an active protein from the disease. He exposed some to cell phone radiation and then determined if the radiation stopped the cells from dying.

No one can say if Purnell's experiment will lead to a medical miracle, but the student concedes it opens up another avenue of research for controlling the disease affecting many older people.

The son of Jim and Penny Purnell, of Hunker, Chad Purnell carries a 3.8 cumulative grade point average. He is planning a career in optometry and has been accepted at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia.