Thao Cao’s love for biology was the catalyst behind her presentation during the 2025 University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) Research Symposium on May 22.
“Growing up, I was fascinated by biology and the beauty of it,” Cao said after giving her presentation. “Seeing patients in hospitals and how much they look forward to clinical trials, drugs and new methods to help them find answers, and find some sort of certainty in navigating their disease really moved me to pursue biological research.”
Cao, a fifth-year graduate student researcher at UChicago PME, was one of multiple presenters who shared their research findings on topics ranging from biodegradable plastics and the gut microbiome to cellular processes and artificial intelligence during the symposium. After a keynote speech by Stuart Miller, vice president and executive director of the Materials Discovery Research Institute of UL Research Institutes, the graduate students and postdoctoral researchers shared their findings before an intimate audience of other students, researchers and a panel of expert judges as part of the second UChicago PME symposium during oral or poster presentations.
Cao, whose presentation was titled “Spatial Analysis of Tissue Compartments Delineates Inflammatory Patterns in Kidney Pathologies,” said she hopes her research will help doctors feel more confident in their diagnoses in the future.
“We can translate what we learned from our data set, which is highly curated and not quite accessible to all the patients. However, we can take the patterns that we learn from our data set and translate that onto the more commonly used stainings that are used in the hospital,” Cao said.
With the Research Symposium, UChicago PME aims to highlight the variety and depth of research that graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are conducting, said Vipul Sharma, director for postdoctoral affairs at UChicago PME. In the second year of the symposium, the event is meant to cultivate interdisciplinary collaboration, build professional presentation skills, and celebrate scientific innovation within the UChicago PME community, he said.
The symposium “offers a platform for early-career researchers to share their findings with peers, faculty, industry partners, and invited guests, and it reinforces UChicago PME’s commitment to training scientists who are not only technically exceptional but also effective communicators and thought leaders,” Sharma said.
Industry veterans from companies like UL Research Institutes, AbbVie, Baxter, Hollister Incorporated, Ecolab, Bluefors Inc., QuantCAD, PsiQuantum, Signl, and InverseOutsights participated in the event.
Before the presentations began, Miller gave a keynote speech detailing the importance of his family, his career trajectory, and his current work at UL Research Institutes. The Scotland native also shared his standard for success, which focuses more on impact and value rather than publications and citations.
The University selected Miller to give the keynote speech because his career and expertise offer attendees a distinctive perspective at the intersection of science, safety, and societal impact, Sharma said. His speech not only set the tone for the symposium, but it also encouraged attendees to rethink the boundaries of the discipline and consider the broader purpose of their work, he added.
“His work reflects a deep understanding of how fundamental research contributes to public well-being and technology innovation,” Sharma said. “I believe his insights will challenge attendees to think expansively about the purpose and potential of their science and encourage them to navigate not only the technical frontiers of their fields, but also the ethical and societal landscapes that surround them.”
Aaron Fluitt, senior director of technology partnerships at PsiQuantum, participated in the symposium as one of the expert judges. For the UChicago PME alumnus, serving on the judges panel was a rewarding opportunity to give back to the university, Fluitt said.
“All the presenters showed outstanding scientific and technical work,” Fluitt said. “I hope they took away that communication skills are a multiplier that, over time, can elevate their work and make a real impact on people's lives.”
Pam Cai, a PME postdoctoral researcher, won first place for her oral talk titled, “Enhancing Polyelectrolyte Strength of Biopolymers for Fully Recyclable and Biodegradable Plastics.” Shima Shabani, a PME PhD student, won first place for her poster presentation titled, “Rapid Development of Patient-Specific CAR-T Cells for Novel Cancer Biomarker Targeting Using Integrated Ribosome and Yeast Display Techniques.”
Cai said she hoped that viewers of her presentation would come away from her talk with a broadened perspective on what’s possible to reduce the use of non-biodegradable plastics.
“Given that everyone uses more and more plastic every single year, it'd be really nice to have something that we can replace these environmentally polluting plastics with,” Cai said.
Reflecting on all the presentations, Cai “really took to heart that a broad audience needs to know the essence of the idea and its impact,” Fluitt said. “She spoke at the audience's level, and her presentation was exceptionally clear both verbally and visually.”
Echoing Fluitt’s sentiment, fellow judge Carlos Romero, executive vice president of innovation at InverseOutsights, commended the presenters for conveying such complex topics in a comprehensible way for business and non-technical listeners to grasp. Despite the highly technical nature of their work, the ability to clearly communicate the significance of one’s work for the business world and the community is critical for researchers, Romero said.
“By nature, engineering solutions solve problems or address needs in our world,” Romero said. “However, it is also important that stakeholders outside of the labs understand the value and the impact of these breakthroughs in our daily lives.”