{"id":237958,"date":"2025-11-13T11:17:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T16:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=237958"},"modified":"2025-11-13T12:50:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:50:40","slug":"uconn-pharmacy-student-honored-with-travel-and-best-poster-awards-in-oligonucleotide-therapeutics-society-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/11\/uconn-pharmacy-student-honored-with-travel-and-best-poster-awards-in-oligonucleotide-therapeutics-society-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Pharmacy Student Honored with Travel and Best Poster Awards in Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from\u00a0Bangalore\u00a0University in India and a\u00a0Master\u2019s in Applied Microbiology\u00a0from\u00a0Vellore Institute\u00a0of Technology,\u00a0Sai Pallavi Pradeep\u00a0has a demonstrated\u00a0love\u00a0for\u00a0research. Diving\u00a0further\u00a0into her passion after obtaining\u00a0her\u00a0degrees, Sai worked as a junior research\u00a0fellow in the Indian Institute of Science, one of the most prestigious institutes in India.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a goal of continuing her education, Sai began applying to graduate programs and chose the UConn School of Pharmacy. For the past five years, she has excelled in classrooms and labs under her advisor and mentor, Raman Bahal (Ph.D.).<\/span><\/p>\n

At the beginning of her journey here at UConn, Sai experienced a learning curve. Working as a teaching assistant and taking courses her first year, she learned how to multitask and balance her busy schedule. Now, being in the research-focused part of her Ph.D., Sai utilizes the writing and communication skills she learned from her classes during her first year in the program to facilitate and advance her research. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Headshot of Sai (UConn photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because presentation and communication skills are a necessity in presenting research findings and in finding areas of improvement, Sai is thankful for the training she\u2019s received from her advisor, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics, Raman Bahal. From discussion to experiments to writing papers and preparing presentations, Raman guides Sai with feedback and enthusiasm. Additionally, Raman pushes Sai out of her comfort zone, something she was anxious about initially but is grateful for now. Raman encourages Sai to try things she never imagined she would, like the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, where she presented her research in a three-minute presentation to a non-specialist audience. In this competition hosted by UConn, Sai won and went on to represent UConn in the global U21 competition. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Passionate about nucleic acid therapeutics, Sai works\u00a0mainly on\u00a0peptide nucleic acids that can be used to target\u00a0DNA,\u00a0coding,\u00a0and\u00a0non-coding\u00a0RNA.\u00a0Her<\/span>\u00a0research centers on synthesizing peptide nucleic acids for antisense and anti-gene approaches aimed at modulating mRNA and reducing pathological protein expression.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSai is an inquisitive student who consistently shows\u00a0an intense\u00a0eagerness to explore interdisciplinary knowledge and learn new experimental skills at the same time. OTS is a prestigious organization, and awarding her travel and poster awards for her research highlights her diligent efforts and dedication to nucleic acid-based therapeutics.\u201d\u00a0– Raman Bahal<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Sai is not in the lab researching, she can be found at the\u00a0UConn\u00a0Rec\u00a0Center or outdoors.\u00a0A traveler on trekking and skiing trips\u00a0with\u00a0the Rec,\u00a0Sai enjoys exploring New\u00a0England in\u00a0every season.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Initially interested in the\u00a0<\/span>Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Conference (OTS) because of the overlap between their work and her research, Sai did research into OTS\u2019s webinars and prolific scientific community. Also wanting to explore the industry component of OTS and their work, Sai applied for a travel grant for graduate or post-doctoral students. Sai was awarded the grant and attended the OTS Conference last month. When there, Sai also presented her research on nucleotides, winning the Best Poster award. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sai
Sai standing beside her poster at the OTS Conference<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although Sai is happy that her hard work\u00a0was\u00a0recognized,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0equally grateful for the opportunity to go to the conference in the first place.\u00a0Learning from talented scientists\u00a0about what she could implement in her own research while working on her professionalism skills, winning the Best Poster Award for Sai was an added bonus.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“When it came to the conference, the interactions that I had with people and also what I got to learn was much more beneficial.” – Sai Pallavi Pradeep<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking to the future, Sai is interested in a career path in the therapeutics field, where she can see her research translate into new medications. From validating peptide nucleic acids in in-vitro and\u00a0in-vivo settings\u00a0with various animal models,\u00a0Sai has gained the confidence to apply\u00a0her findings to an industry setting one day\u00a0and\u00a0is looking forward to\u00a0facilitating\u00a0discoveries that will translate to patient outcomes. This\u00a0goal for translation was\u00a0inspired\u00a0by Sai\u2019s first internship in the Ph.D. program, where she worked\u00a0at\u00a0Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a leading biopharmaceutical company that develops RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics in Boston.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sai\u2019s success in the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Conference proved to be a full-circle moment for the dedicated researcher,\u00a0serving as a\u00a0culmination of\u00a0her\u00a0passion for discovery and\u00a0confidence in her presentation skills\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0built at UConn.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sai Pallavi Pradeep, a fifth-year Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. student, attended the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Conference last month. There, she received two prestigious awards: the Travel Award and the Best Poster Award. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":237966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2644],"class_list":["post-237958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pharm"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 02:17:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237958"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237986,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237958\/revisions\/237986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/237966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237958"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=237958"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=237958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}