Los Angeles, CA – January 27, 2026 -The Terasaki Institute is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 Media Contest, themed “Shaping Life, One Breakthrough at a Time.” This year’s entries celebrated the innovative spirit driving advances in healthcare, capturing moments where discovery, technology, and impact intersect, from lab-bench breakthroughs to real-world applications shaping the future of health and medicine.
Reflecting on this year’s winning works, President Stewart Han shared: “This year’s submissions highlight the many ways innovation can be interpreted and expressed, through technology, design, and emerging tools such as artificial intelligence. Together, these works reflect the evolving landscape of biomedical discovery and the creative approaches shaping its future.”
The Grand Prize was awarded to Mohammad Nazeri for his submission, “A Single Droplet Shaping the Future of AI-Driven Discovery.” A third-year PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Frank Gu, Nazeri is a returning awardee who previously placed third in the Institute’s 2024 Media Contest. His winning work highlights the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in biomedical research, using a singular, evocative visual narrative to illustrate how small-scale scientific moments can catalyze large-scale breakthroughs in discovery and healthcare innovation.
The Runner-Up award was presented to Tanishkaa Reddy Pannala, a student artist whose work explores the convergence of environmental realities, technological development, and human choice. Her submission, “Heartbeat of My Health,” depicts two coexisting worlds one defined by health and harmony, the other burdened by disease, pollution, and waste offering a compelling reflection on the consequences of innovation and progress.
The 2025 Media Contest once again demonstrated the inspiring potential that emerges when art, technology, and biomedical science converge. The Terasaki Institute thanks all participants for their outstanding contributions and looks forward to continuing this celebration of creativity and innovation in future contests.