In 2022, Luiza Abdo traveled from her home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to the United States to visit the Promega campus in Madison, WI. A PhD student at the time, Luiza was one of ten finalists for the inaugural Young Researchers Award sponsored by Promega Brazil.
In 2025, Luiza was invited to Promega Madison once again, but this time she came as a customer and collaborator. Now a postdoctoral researcher at the Brazil National Cancer Institute, she was excited to return to Madison to discuss technologies that may help advance her project.
“Once I saw the Kornberg Center, I remembered everything from my last visit,” Luiza says. “It was one of the best travels I’ve ever had, and I made great friends.”
Luiza studies immunotherapy in the lab of Martin Bonamino, Head of Cell and Gene Therapy, at the National Cancer Institute. When she visited Promega in 2022, Luiza presented her project aimed at producing CAR-T cell therapies in under 24 hours. She and the other nine award finalists toured Promega facilities, networked with industry researchers, and went on adventures around the Madison area. They went to a baseball game, played sand volleyball against Promega employees and manipulated giant molecules in virtual reality.
“This was a different kind of visit. I’m here with my PI, and we learned several ways Promega technology can make our lives and research easier,” Luiza says in 2025. “The conversations are more specific to our field of work.”
Today, she’s working on translating her CAR-T production methods into clinical applications. This visit introduced her to new technologies like cell fitness and metabolism assays that may help with this new phase. Promega researchers such as Julia Gilden joined to talk through challenges and solutions in cell therapy research.
“We’re making a new kind of product, which is very innovative, but we also have to prove a lot of different things to translate it to the clinic. We have many challenges, but we’ve found several ways Promega can help us solve our problems.”
Three years after her initial visit, Luiza says that visiting Promega has impacted not only her research, but also how she looks at her research field and potential career paths.
“My first visit was very good for me because I come from academic research, and we don’t have many interactions with industry. After touring Promega, I started to look at industry with new eyes. Even if I’m not working in an industry position, I see how there are people who can help with your needs, and work with you to solve problems.”
“I’m very happy to be here again,” she laughs. “I’m thankful to have this opportunity twice.”
