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The University of Illinois Cancer Center has awarded its Fall 2025 Trainee Travel Awards to PhD Candidate Chih-Jia Chao, PharmD; Postdoc Diandra Taylor, PhD; and Clinical Fellow Bingtao Xiang, MD.

Picture left to right: Chih-Jia Chao, PharmD; Diandra Taylor, PhD; Bingtao Xiang, MD

The Cancer Center annually funds two rounds of Travel Awards in the spring and fall. Students, postdoctoral fellows, and clinical residents and fellows engaged in cancer-related research, who are mentored by faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), are eligible. The Cancer Center is part of UIC and its academic health enterprise, UI Health.

Each awardee receives $500 to offset the cost of travel and registration to present their cancer-related work at conferences, which are valuable opportunities for young scientists to share their work and to network with other scientists.

Chao will present her abstract, “Advanced Dendritic Cell Therapy: Evolution Toward a Cell-Free Approach,” at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) 2025 PharmSci 360 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in November. She is mentored by Cancer Center member Zongmin Zhao, PhD. 

Taylor will present her abstract, “Investigating the Role of Progesterone in the Metastasis of High-grade Serous Ovarian Cancer,” at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Special Conference in Cancer Research: Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research in Denver, Colorado, later in September. She is mentored by Joanna E. Burdette, PhD, co-leader of the Cancer Biology Research Program at the Cancer Center.

Xiang presented his abstract, “Biomarker Testing Timeliness for Patients with Lung Cancer,” at the World Conference on Lung Cancer, Barcelona, Spain, which wrapped up September 9. He is mentored by Cancer Center member Ryan Nguyen, DO, who practices at UI Health.