Pharmacy PhD Student Wins First Place in UC Grad Slam

Sophia Miliotis, a PhD student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics (PSPG) program, captured the top prize at the University of California’s systemwide Grad Slam on April 29, 2025 in Sacramento.

Miliotis was one of 10 finalists representing each of UC’s 10 campuses. She became the first UCSF graduate student to take first place in the competition’s history, with her presentation “Finding HIV: A Swipe in the Right Direction,” which compared the matchmaking of the Tinder dating app to our immune system.

Grad Slam is an annual research communication contest in which participants deliver snappy, three-minute talks that engage a broader audience in their work. Each UC campus holds a local Grad Slam contest. The first-place winners from each campus then compete for the UC systemwide title and a cash prize.

At the UCSF Grad Slam organized by the Graduate Division on April 2, 2025, Miliotis earned both first place and the People’s Choice award.

Maggie Colton Cove, also of the school’s PSPG program, took second place with her talk “Building Biological Sleeper Agents to Fight Brain Tumors,” in which she summarized her work on enabling the efficacy of Chimeric Antigen Receptors T cell (CAR-T cell) therapy against brain tumors.