Team

Image by Sunanda Sharma, Rachel Smith, Christoph Bader, Dominik Kolb, Neri Oxman

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

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