Research on cell health earns graduate student international awards

Santiago with her winning poster on selenium and metabolic diseases.

A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa graduate student earned top honors at a major international medical science conference, taking home two awards for her research.

Princess Jena Dalit Santiago, a second-year graduate student in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience’s Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, won both the “Best Graduate Student Talk and Poster” award at the International Symposium on Selenium in Biology and Medicine in Daejeon, South Korea, and the “Best Trainee Award” from the acclaimed Royal Society of Chemistry in the U.K.

“I was more nervous thinking of something to say when I received the award than when I presented my research,” Santiago said.

Her award-winning presentation dives into how the loss of the antioxidant enzyme peroxiredoxin 6 changes how the body uses selenium, which is essential to regulating a cell’s energy and repairing damaged lipid cell walls. Santiago’s passion for the field comes from watching her grandmother live with diabetes and other metabolic diseases. This inspiration aligns perfectly with Santiago’s research, where imbalances of antioxidants in the body is a major factor in metabolic illnesses.

Santiago’s research is conducted with associate professor Lucia Seale at the Pacific Biosciences Research Center, which is part of the School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology. She is on track to finish her master’s project and graduate in May 2026. While she loves research, she’s drawn to practicing medicine and has submitted her medical school applications. Her ultimate goal is to return home to Maui and serve her community as a surgeon.

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