Three-Minute Thesis Triumph: Natasha Khatwani’s Winning Cancer Immunotherapy Story
Natasha Khatwani followed up on her University of Miami 3MT victory with a win at the recent southern regionals hosted by the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools.
Natasha Khatwani didn’t discover her love for science communication in a med school lecture hall or even in the lab. She discovered it at home, long before she ever stepped onto a Three-Minute Thesis stage.
Khatwani, a cancer immunotherapy researcher who recently earned her Ph.D. from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, won first place at the Southern Regional Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition hosted by the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools (CSGS). Her winning presentation, which also garnered top honors at Miller School and University of Miami competitions, showcased a promising line of research in lymphoma immunotherapy a personal, lifelong talent for turning difficult concepts into language people can understand.
Immune Cell Exhaustion in Three Minutes
Khatwani said condensing a years-in-the-making thesis to three minutes is not just about speed. 3MT is about who you’re speaking to.
“It’s for a non-specialist audience,” she said. “I first had to condense what my research really means scientifically and then translate it to people who may not have done any college-level science classes.”
Her work sits in cancer immunotherapy and explores how the body’s immune system reacts to lymphoma. Khatwani studied a molecule called microRNA‑29a.
“Increasing this molecule in immune cells can help them survive much longer,” she said. “It’s almost like giving them a boost of energy.”
To explain the mechanism, Khatwani leaned on a phrase many people recall from their own formative education.
“They always say that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell,” she said, adding that line reliably clicks with non‑specialists because “they remember it from grade school.”
From there, she described the work that led to her successful Ph.D. defense in a way anyone can understand. Even when immune cells show up to fight cancer, she explained, they lose energy over time. When that happens, cancer wins.
“But when we boosted this molecule in the immune cells, their mitochondria grew,” Khatwani said. ” And when they engineered immune cells with microRNA‑29a and tested them in a lymphoma model, “the immune cells resisted exhaustion and were able to kill the cancer cells more effectively.”
Communication Shaped by Family
After her regional win, Khatwani says she may have discovered a discipline that rivals her passion for scientific research.
“I really love making people understand science by breaking down complex concepts,” she said.
Perhaps that’s because she’s been doing it most of her life. She grew up in Belize, but Khatwani’s father is from India and her mother from Guatemala. They’re non-English speakers, so as Khatwani’s education progressed, she developed personal strategies for success.
“I felt like I always had to self-teach. I was surviving through school by breaking things down in the simplest way to myself,” she said. “Then I started doing that for my younger siblings, and then for classmates. It became a way for me to understand the world.”
Her 3MT victories didn’t reveal a new skill. It was a recognizable version of something she’s been doing for decades.
“I’ve been practicing it for about 30 years now, and that’s why I was able to do it for the 3MT,” she said. “My test audience was truly my family.”
As Khatwani continues her work as a post-doc researcher at the Miller School and prepares for upcoming state and national 3MT competitions, she’s been thinking about a piece of advice she once heard, and considering other avenues — teaching, perhaps — of professional fulfillment.
“I heard somewhere that the happiest career you can have is when you can find that intersection between doing what you love and doing something you’re good at,” she said. “Science has always been something I love to do. But with this 3MT competition, I discovered the thing that I might be good at, as well.”
Tags: cancer biology, cancer research, immunotherapy, lymphoma, medical education, Newsroom, student research, Three-Minute Thesis