Chicagoland researchers came together with about one hundred members of the community in downtown Chicago on April 25 to share stories about their groundbreaking research and receive live feedback from the audience during the Eureka Talks 2025 event.
Hanna Molla, PhD, Instructor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, kicked off the presentations with a talk on benefits and risks of marijuana use, and how much is too much.
“There’s been an increase in the use of cannabis over the past decade among adults in the United States,” said Molla. “As of 2022, about 1 in 4 individuals report using cannabis at least once over the past decade. If you look to the left or to the right or in front of you, chances are one of you have used cannabis pretty recently.”
She went on to share an example of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the potential benefits they experience when using cannabis. Cannabis may help calm people’s nervous systems, which many of the 20 million individuals with PTSD find helpful.
But more research on cannabis and its risks and benefits is necessary, especially because historically it’s been hard for scientists to conduct cannabis studies due to legal and logistical reasons.
The audience next heard from Kevin McNerney, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Northwestern University. McNerney started with a story of a young patient diagnosed with leukemia. Two rounds of chemotherapy and radiation couldn’t beat it. The patient and his family decided to participate in a clinical trial that used a special treatment where the patient’s cells are extracted, modified in a lab, and then given back into the patient, where they attack and kill the cancer cells. This patient went from having a 20% survival rate after his last chemotherapy treatment, to still being cancer free years later thanks to the CAR-T cell therapy used in the clinical trial.
“I didn’t expect to get emotional,” said McNerney as he teared up. “But this is something that made me get really passionate about CAR-T cell therapy and made me pursue a career in research and what I do clinically.”
But the treatment is not risk-free. Side effects range from milder flu-like symptoms to more intense complications like seizures, kidney failure, and more, that can lead to hospitalizations and even death. The worse the cancer is, the worse the treatment’s side effects.
Sarah Sansom, DO, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, and Director of Infectious Diseases at RUSH, closed the presentation portion of the afternoon.
Anti-microbial resistance happens when the germs that cause infections outsmart how medicines like antibiotics work, making those medications completely ineffective.
The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 5 million people will die this year because of anti-microbial resistance. That’s more than the number of people dying from colon, lung, and breast cancers combined. And the number is expected to keep growing.
“Anti-microbial resistance can literally happen to anyone,” said Sansom.
After the talks, audience members had an opportunity to connect with the researchers and enjoy a red-carpet reception with food and ITM cupcakes.
“My favorite part about the event was being able to listen to speakers engage with the audience in a way that’s not typically done in science,” said event attendee Kara Ferracuti from Northwestern University. “It was nice to hear people really connect with the audience and communicate in ways that everyone can relate to.”
“It was amazing,” said Gonzalez about Eureka Talks. “We were able to see top researchers presenting their research for a broader audience in a very cool way, very engaging. Very good learning experience. As a researcher, it was pretty nice to see those teaching and presentation techniques in practice.”
“For me the passion of people talking about their research was amazing and really got my attention,” said Moore. “It was really good to not be in the field but still be able to understand everything that they’re talking about.”
