Matthew Chi ’26 was named as first author on a poster presentation at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research in Phoenix, Arizona, in early December 2025. His presentation, “Exploring the Effects of Oxidative Stress on Sulfur Compound Metabolism and Biosynthesis in the Liver” discussed liver datasets OSD-245 and OSD-686 and analyzed their transcriptomes from NASA’s Open Science Data Repository.

Chi participated in the NASA GeneLab for High Schools (GL4HS) program over the summer of 2025 and was selected to do research on the rodent liver dataset OSD-245. Following the summer program, he conducted further analysis on OSD-686 and submitted his findings to the conference independently.

At the event, Chi learned from a panel of professionals working in government and space research. “Space is something that isn’t well understood and is constantly being questioned, so it’s a field where there is so much yet to be discovered and seminal research has yet to be done,” he said. 

Chi’s research focus has included computational biology and pure astrophysics, and he also has a solid interest in ophthalmology, having attended a conference on that topic previously. But the experience in Phoenix cemented his fascination for the exploration of the universe: “It made me certain I want to continue space research, especially as it’s one of the rapidly developing fields.”

Congratulations, Matthew!