USC students put their bioscience research in the spotlight at the inaugural BioFestival, competing for a share of $30,000 in grants and cash prizes. Hosted by USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the event featured poster presentations and five-minute “lightning talks” showcasing breakthrough discoveries.
Zachary Krieger, a molecular biology PhD student at USC Dornsife, took first place and a $5,000 prize for his lightning talk on designing “A Minimal Saccharomyces cerevisiae Chromosome.” His molecular biology colleague, PhD student William Fried, earned second place and $2,500, while Riva Verma, a PhD student at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, won third place and $1,500.
Three USC Dornsife PhD students claimed prizes for their poster presentations: Muchen (Betty) Liu, Alexandra Christensen and Sakibur Rahat for most sustainable, most disruptive and most innovative research, respectively.
Held at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, the BioFestival also gave students the opportunity to network with researchers from global biotechnology company Zymo Research, which sponsored the competition prizes.