The 2025 Pearl Cohen Scientific Poster Competition Winners Are:
LABEST Pearl Cohen Scientific Poster Competition – 2025 Winners
Cancer - 1st Place
Elizabeth Fernandez, David Nathanson Lab, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, UCLA
Poster title: GliomaDPDOX – A direct brain-to-brain glioma xenograft library for drug discovery and
development
Cancer - 2nd Place
Anael Rizzo, Dept of Urology, UCLA
Poster title: 3D Digital Prostate Models in Robotic Surgery: Surgeon Survey Analysis From a
Randomized Clinical Trial
Cancer - 3rd Place
William Fried, Xiaojiang Chen Lab, Molecular and Computational Biology, USC
Poster title: PolQ Inhibitor Suppresses PARP Inhibitor Resistance and Acts via an Allosteric DNA
Trapping Mechanism
Cancer - 4th Place
Dimitri Cadet, David Nathanson Lab, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, UCLA
Poster title: GBM neurodevelopmental lineage reprogramming mediates rapid adaptation to oncogene
inhibition.
Cardiovascular & Metabolism - 1ˢᵗ Place
R M Imtiaz Karim Rony, Dept of Diabetes Complications & Metabolism, Arthur Riggs Diabetes &
Metabolism Research Institute, City of Hope
Poster title: Human pluripotent stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles provide cardioprotection
against hyperglycemic cardiotoxicity in vitro, improve cardiac function in aged mice in vivo, and
promotes primary human islets cell proliferation in vitro.
Cardiovascular & Metabolism - 2nd Place
Hirotaka Iwasaki, Andrea Hevener Lab, Dept of Medicine, UCLA
Poster title: ER⍺ Controls Mitochondrial Iron Metabolism and Innate Immunity by Mex3b/SFXN
Regulatory Nexus
Neuroscience - 1st Place
Jose Soto, Aparna Bhaduri Lab, Department of Biological Chemistry, UCLA
Poster title: Metabolic Atlas of Early Human Cortical Development
Regenerative Medicine - 1st Place
Eva Segura, Donald Kohn Lab, Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, UCLA
Poster title: Lentiviral Vectors for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy Restore α-Globin
Expression in α- Thalassemia Major Red Blood Cells
Immunity, Inflammation, Infection and Transplantation (I3T) - 1st Place
Anne Zaiss, Vaithi Arumugaswami Lab, Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, UCLA
Poster title: Drug Screen Reveals New Potent Host-Targeted Antivirals Against Mpox Virus
Immunity, Inflammation, Infection and Transplantation (I3T) - 2nd Place
Bo Li, Lili Yang Lab, Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, UCLA
Poster title: Serotonin transporter inhibits antitumor immunity through regulating the intratumoral
serotonin axis
Startups - 1st Place
Lulan Wang, Genhong Cheng Lab, Molecular Biology, UCLA
Poster title: SynaptiFlow, World’s Most Advanced AI for Research and Medicine
MedTech - 1st Place
Shun Ye, Dino Di Carlo Lab, Bioengineering Department, UCLA
Poster title: Automated Digital Microfluidics with Lab-on-a-3D-Printer driven Ferrobots
