Image by Sunanda Sharma, Rachel Smith, Christoph Bader, Dominik Kolb, Neri Oxman
Explore
Exposure to the wide variety of career options available to a student interested in the biotechnology industry, including discussion panels and site visits.
Learn
Seminars and mini-courses on topics identified by biotechnology industry leaders as common knowledge gaps for undergraduates, PhD students, and postdocs transitioning from academia.
Connect
Network with professionals and executives from biotechnology companies, and various sub-sectors of the biotechnology industry from Boston’s booming biotechnology cluster.
Vision
The MIT Biotechnology Group aims to increase the pace of biotechnological innovation by building strong, symbiotic relationships between the MIT community and thought-leaders in academia, industry, and business. We endeavor to serve the MIT community by facilitating development of the knowledge, skills, networks, and experiences to prepare members for biotechnology-related careers
Explore our virtual drug development seminar series:
The World of Biologics
Mondays, 4:30-5:30PM ET
#BlackLivesMatter
MIT Biotech Group condemns police brutality, racism, and systemic oppression. We stand in solidarity with other biotech organizations to promote knowledge about racial inequality within the biotech industry, increase the representation of Black and minority perspectives in our events, and outreach. Read more about our coalition and action items at diversitybiotech.org
Executive Team
Lena is a PhD candidate in the Department of Biology at MIT. Her research focuses on transcriptional control in cancer. She has worked with MBG for several years, previously as co-Director of the Entrepreneurship Initiative, and in collaborations as president of Harvard’s undergraduate biotech group.
Lena Afeyan
Co-President
Joshua Murdock is a PhD candidate in the Department of Health Sciences & Technology at MIT. His research focuses on the design of magnetic resonance-readable nanoparticle diagnostics for continuous monitoring of cardiac disease biomarkers in vivo. He has been involved in developing educational opportunities to expose and connect students to local biotech as part of the Industry Initiative since 2017.
Josh Murdock
Co-President
Desmond is an undergraduate student double majoring in Biology and Biological Engineering, with a minor in French. He has research experience both in industry and academia, and is currently a member of the Lamason Lab working on cell-to-cell spread in R. parkeri. He has been involved with the MIT Biotech Group since his freshman year in 2018.
Desmond Edwards
Undergraduate President
Jenna is a third year PhD Student in Brain & Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She is advised by Dr. Ed Boyden as a member of the Synthetic Neurobiology Group and is a Neurobiological Engineering Training Fellow. Her research is focused on developing and applying technology for understanding and diagnosing the neurodegenerative brain.
Jenna Aronson
Vice President of Finance
Susana Hawken is a Ph.D. candidate at MIT in the Computational and Systems Biology program. Her research focuses on the regulation of transcriptional program in development and disease. She has been involved in the Entrepreneurship Initiative since 2019.
Susana Hawken
Vice President of Professional Development
Maria is a PhD candidate in Biology at MIT. Her research is focused on understanding how immune cells can detect cancer growth and mount a protective response against it. She has been involved with the MBG Industry Initiative since 2017.
Maria Zagorulya
Vice President of Communications
Meet our Initiative Directors
Eliot is a PhD candidate in Biology at MIT. His research focuses on the roles of phase transitions in cellular organization, disease, and therapeutic targeting. He has been involved with the Entrepreneurship Initiative since 2019.
Eliot Coffey
Entrepreneurship Initiative Co-Director
Sam Goldman is a PhD Student in Computational and Systems Biology at MIT. He is advised by Dr. Connor Coley and is primarily interested in developing machine learning methods for enzyme discovery and engineering. He has been involved in the Entrepreneurship Initiative since Fall 2019.
Sam Goldman
Entrepreneurship Initiative Co-Director
Catherine is a PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. Her research is focused on developing high-throughput, quantitative platforms to identify the targets of small molecules. She has been involved with the MBG Entrepreneurship Initiative since 2018.
Catherine Henry
Industry Initiative Co-Director
Morgan is a second year PhD student in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT. She is a member of Samir Mitragotri’s lab at Harvard SEAS, where she develops cell-based drug delivery platforms for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. She has been involved with the industry initiative since starting at MIT in 2019.
Morgan Janes
Industry Initiative Co-Director
Sherry is an undergraduate student in Computer Science and Molecular Biology at MIT. Her research in the Rouskin Lab is on RNA secondary structure and its effect on alternative splicing. Sherry aspires for a career applying technical skills to advance biotech, and hopes to start her own biotech company someday. She has been involved in MBG since 2019.
Sherry Nyeo
Undergraduate Initiative Director
Meet our Senior Associates
Matt is a second year MBA at MIT Sloan and is focusing on finance and biotech entrepreneurship. Matt is the operations co-lead for Activate, a life sciences entrepreneurship program at Harvard and MIT, a team lead within the MESH Innovation Teams program at Mass General Brigham, and works in corporate development at Valo Health, a recent spin-out from Flagship Pioneering. He holds a B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Tufts University.
Matthew Lanchantin
Activate
Keegan Mendez is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Health Sciences & Technology at MIT. Her research focuses on the design and development of devices for epicardial drug delivery and intracardiac defect repair. She holds a master’s degree in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge and has been involved in the Entrepreneurship Initiative within MBG since Fall 2019.
Keegan Mendez
Diversity & Outreach
Shruthi Rengarajan is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Biology at MIT. She works in the Page Lab at the Whitehead Institute. Her research focuses on how differential regulation of sex chromosome genes gives rise to sex differences in human cells and disease. She has been involved in the Industry Initiative since 2019.
Shruthi Rengarajan
Fall Seminar Series
Eileen Tan-Aristy is an undergraduate at MIT studying Biology and Computer Science, Economics and Data Science. She has a strong interest in startups/entrepreneurship, healthcare and tech. Previously, she worked as a researcher designing constructs to investigate protein misfolding. Eileen has been involved in the media and digital efforts at MBG
Eileen Tan-Aristy
Digital Content Manager
Belen is a second year MBA at MIT Sloan, where she focuses on biotech entrepreneurship, while working at the leading AAV company AskBio. She has been involved in the MBG Entrepreneurship Initiative since Fall 2019 and is also Healthcare Practice Leader at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship. She holds a BSc in Biotechnology from U. of Salamanca
Belen Vicente
Ideation
Chensu Wang is a Postdoc Associate in the Koch Institute at MIT. She holds a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from UT Southwestern Medical Center. Her research focuses on the design and development of combination immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. She has been involved with the Industry Initiative since 2019.
Chensu Wang
Alumni Relations
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