Bridging Horizons
innovation, Identity and Global Futures
Volume 1, Issue 3 — March 2026
Published July 2026
ISSN: 3069-8200
The Princeton Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (PJIR) proudly presents Volume 1, Issue 3 (2025), Bridging Horizons: Innovation, Identity, and Global Futures — the third installment of our inaugural publishing year.
Building upon the foundations of Voices in Convergence and Frontiers of Inquiry, this issue deepens PJIR’s commitment to rigorous, cross-disciplinary scholarship that confronts both emerging and enduring global questions. The research featured in this edition traverses scientific innovation and technological transformation; re-examinations of social, cultural, and political identities; ethical dimensions of public policy and governance; and evolving intersections between health, economics, and global development.
Two Best Paper selections exemplify this breadth: "Deepfakes On Trial: A Mixed-Methods Study of Student Perceptions and Regulatory Concerns about Non-Consensual Deepfakes at the London School of Economics and Political Science," which interrogates the ethical and regulatory implications of emerging synthetic media technologies. Meanwhile, "Interpretable Transfer Learning with EfficientNetB0 for Automated Detection of Rare Anemia Morphologies in Peripheral Blood Smears" demonstrates how advances in machine learning and biomedical imaging can be translated into clinically meaningful diagnostic tools, highlighting the growing convergence of computational innovation and medical practice.
Alongside the two Best Paper selections, this volume features contributions addressing religion and social meaning, structural inequality, developments in the life sciences, and more. We hope these studies encourage readers to draw connections across fields and to approach complex contemporary questions with intellectual openness.
All accepted articles are published online under ISSN 3069-8200.
Editor’s Note
Serious scholarship often begins with a single, well-defined question. Yet the moment we follow that question far enough, we find it rarely stays in one place. Questions about attention become questions about education and equity. Questions about algorithms become questions about trust and accountability. Questions about biological systems quickly intersect with questions about human experience. This issue brings together work that reflects precisely this movement across boundaries.
In this volume, we are proud to feature research on ADHD, the effects of racial bias in dermatology datasets on convolutional neural networks, the emerging legal terrain of deepfakes, sustainable building materials, structural inequality, developments in the life sciences, and more. The issue also includes work engaging questions of religion and belief, examining gender and social identity, and exploring problems in linguistics, and more.
We celebrate interdisciplinary scholarship not as a slogan, but as a practice. The work collected here demonstrates careful technical reasoning alongside ethical awareness and social sensitivity. It shows that strong research does not dilute disciplinary rigor; rather, it is often strengthened when scholars remain attentive to the wider implications of their methods and findings.
PJIR Editorial Team
Articles in This Issue
Addressing the Organ Donor Shortage Through Organoid Transplantation
Author: Vicky Qin
Affiliation: Lynbrook High School
Abstract:
Organoid transplantation is an emerging regenerative medicine with the potential to address the global organ shortage. Organoids, as three-dimensional (3D), miniature structures derived from stem cells, can mimic structural and functional aspects of human organs. This paper explores the current research and clinical testing of organoid transplantation and states the advantages of organoid transplantation...
Keywords: organoids, organoid transplantation
Collection And Analysis of PAX8 Variants and Their Impact on Protein Function Via ClinVar and AlphaMissence
Author: Twisha Sharma
Affiliation: Valley Christian High School
Abstract:
This study analyzes the genetic influences of paired box gene 8 (PAX8) on Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) by examining PAX8 protein structure and function. Using a computational approach by comparing data from ClinVar and AlphaMissence databases, PAX8 variants and their impact on protein function were classified...
Keywords: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, PAX8, gene variants, ClinVar, AlphaMissence
Epothilone B and D: Microtubule Stabilization and Axonal Regeneration in Central Nervous System Repair
Author: Meghana Kumar
Affiliation: Cambridge Centre for International Research
Abstract:
The central nervous system (CNS) exhibits limited regenerative capacity following injury, often resulting in permanent neurological deficits. Axon regeneration, essential for functional recovery, is hindered by intrinsic barriers, such as microtubule instability, and extrinsic factors, including glial scarring. Microtubules, dynamic cytoskeletal components, rely on polymerization to support neuronal structure...
Keywords: microtubule stabilization, axon regeneration, epothilone B, epothilone D, central nervous system repair
INSR–PIK3CA Dysregulation as a Molecular Link Between PCOS-Related Insulin Resistance and Endometrial Cancer
Author: Jennifer Choi
Affiliation: Chadwick International School
Abstract:
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder strongly associated with insulin resistance and an elevated risk of endometrial cancer. To investigate whether shared molecular disruptions underlie this link, genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma cohort and related cBioPortal datasets were analyzed, focusing on the insulin signaling genes INSR and PIK3CA...
Keywords: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), Insulin resistance, INSR, PIK3CA, Endometrial cancer, PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling
Citation for This Issue
Princeton Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. (2026). Volume 1, Issue 3 — Bridging Horizons. PJIR.
https://www.princeton-press.com/pjir/issues/vol-1-issue-3
Open Access Statement
This journal is fully open access. All articles are freely available to read, download, and share without subscription or access barriers. We encourage scholars to cite and engage with the research published here, as such scholarly exchange plays an important role in supporting emerging and early-career researchers and advancing ongoing academic conversations.