Image by Sunanda Sharma, Rachel Smith, Christoph Bader, Dominik Kolb, Neri Oxman
Executive Team
Desmond is a fourth-year undergraduate double majoring in Biology and Biological Engineering with a minor in French. His research in the Lamason lab focuses on understanding the lifecycle of the tick-borne bacterial pathogen, Rickettsia parkeri, both through development of genetic tools and characterisation of novel genes of interest. He has been involved with MBG since his freshman year in 2018, having previously served as Undergraduate President (2020-2021) and Co-Director of the Industry Initiative (2019-2020).
Desmond Edwards
Co-President
Sam 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
Co-President
Sherry is an undergraduate student in Computer Science and Molecular Biology at MIT. Her research in the Bartel Lab is on host and viral mRNA metabolism post viral infection. 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, serving as the Director of the Undergrad Initiative in 2020-21.
Sherry Nyeo
Undergraduate President
Keegan is a PhD Candidate in the Health Sciences & Technology (HST) program at MIT. Her research focuses on the design and development of medical 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 with MBG since Fall 2019 as a member of the Entrepreneurship Initiative and chair of the DEI Committee.
Keegan Mendez
Vice President of Finance
Morgan is a 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
Vice President of Professional Development
Initiative Directors
Meilin is a PhD Student in Biological Engineering at MIT, and is advised by Dr. Paul Blainey. She uses microfluidics to discover new antibiotic therapies and study how microbial communities can be shaped and manipulated across health and disease. She has been involved with MBG since Fall 2020.
Meilin Zhu
Entrepreneurship Initiative Co-Director
Vikram is a PhD student in Computational and Systems Biology at MIT, advised by Dr. Kevin Esvelt and co-advised by Drs. Regina Barzilay and Tommi Jaakkola. He is interested in machine learning for structural biology and currently researches the application of machine learning to phage-assisted continuous evolution for protein design. He has been involved with MBG since Fall 2020.
Vikram Sundar
Entrepreneurship Initiative Co-Director
Drew is a PhD Student in Chemical Engineering at MIT, advised by Dr. Chris Love. His research focuses on the computational design and development of manufacturing techniques for ultra low-cost vaccines. He has previously been involved with MBG as a Senior Associate in the Entrepreneurship Initiative where he organized discussions on public biotech investments.
Drew Biedermann
Entrepreneurship Initiative Co-Director
Keith is a PhD Student in Chemical Engineering at MIT. He is advised by Dr. Dane Wittrup and Dr. Ronald Raines and is primarily interested in developing strategies for the intracellular delivery of cancer-targeting protein drugs. He has been involved with MBG since Fall 2020, previously as an Associate of the Industry Initiative.
Keith Cheah
Industry Initiative Co-Director
Gurrein is a PhD candidate in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. Her research in Dr. Steven Flavell’s lab investigates the genes and circuits that underlie the serotonergic control of behaviors. To do so, she employs genetic, molecular biology, GCaMP imaging and behavioral analysis tools. She has been involved with MBG since Fall 2020, first as an associate and then as a senior associate in the Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Gurrein Madan
Industry Initiative Co-Director
Sarah is a second-year undergraduate in Biological Engineering and Biology at MIT. Her work in the Grossman Lab focuses on studying mobile genetic elements and horizontal gene transfer in bacteria to gain insight on how microorganisms evolve, communicate, and coordinate to meet their needs. She has been involved with MBG since Fall 2020, previously serving as Senior Associate for Undergraduate Education.
Sarah Syed
Undergraduate Initiative Director
Vincent is a PhD Candidate in the Health Sciences & Technology (HST) program at MIT. His research with Dr. Alex Shalek focuses on applying cutting-edge genomics approaches to understand host-pathogen interactions in infectious disease. He has previously been involved with MBG as an Associate in the Entrepreneurship Initiative and Senior Associate coordinating MBG’s partnership in the Diversify Biotech Coalition.
Vincent Miao
Diversity & Outreach Chair
Meet our Senior Associates
Jon is a PhD student in Biological Engineering at MIT, co-advised by Dr. David Gifford and Dr. Michael Birnbaum. His research focuses on using machine learning to design targeted cancer therapeutics. He has been involved with MBG since the fall of 2020 working with the Industry and Entrepreneurship initiatives.
Jon Krog
Public Investing Nanocourse
Brandon is a PhD student in the HST Program of Harvard and MIT. His work in Krystyn Van Vliet’s lab focuses on the intersection of drug delivery and cell-based therapies for improved clinical translatability of regenerative medicine. Brandon has been involved with the Entrepreneurship Initiative since arriving at MIT in Fall 2020.
Brandon Krupczak
VC Dinner Series
Megan is a PhD candidate in the Biological Engineering department at MIT, advised by Dr. Paul Blainey. She is generally interested in infectious diseases and drug discovery. Her current research focuses on using microfluidics and imaging for antibiotic combinations discovery.
Megan Tse
Mentorship Program
Jessie is a sophomore intending to major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a passion in creating novel computational solutions in the healthcare industry. She has worked in the Langer Lab developing nanoparticle-based targeted drug delivery system for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). She is interested in developing AI and machine learning models that can be applied to improving the current challenges in the biotech industry.
Jessie Lee
Digital Content Manager
Anru is a third-year undergraduate student in Biological Engineering. Her research interests mainly revolve around sustainability, plants, and the environment tracing back to gravitropism research in the Wyatt lab at Ohio University and her current work on natural product discovery and metabolomics in the Weng lab at the Whitehead Biomedical Institute at MIT. Anru hopes to make the world a better and more equitable place through science and her youth outreach work at MBG. She has been involved since Fall 2020.
Anru Tian
Education & Outreach
Lauren is a PhD Student in Biological Engineering at MIT, advised by Dane Wittrup. She is interested in protein engineering approaches to downregulate immunosuppressive cell surface receptors involved in cancer immunotherapy within the tumor microenvironment. She has been invovled with MBG since Fall of 2020.
Lauren Duhamel
Open Problems in the Field
Jeff is a 2nd year MBA student at the Sloan School of Management. He works on the MBG entrepreneurship initiative and co-manages or directs the Boston Chapter of Nucleate, the Sloan Healthcare Innovation Prize, and the Harvard-MIT Ideation Initiative. Prior to Sloan he worked in life sciences strategy consulting.
Jeff Knox
Nucleate
Rona is a 2nd year MBA student at the Sloan School of Management. She works on the MBG entrepreneurship initiative and is a Co-President of the MIT Sloan Healthcare Club. Rona has previous experience in life sciences strategy consulting, digital therapeutics, and biopharma business development.
Rona Sun
Life Sciences Consulting
Leadership Alumni
Founders
James was a Founding President of MBG as a PhD student in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Computational & Systems Biology Initiative at MIT. He is currently Founder and CEO of Nest.Bio Labs.
James W. Weis
Founding President
Nathan was a Founding President of MBG as a PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is currently Senior Associate at Flagship Pioneering.
Nathan Stebbins
Founding President
Vyas was the Founding Treasurer of MBG as a PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He is currently Principal at Third Rock Ventures.
Vyas Ramanan
Founding Treasurer
Andrew was the Founding Secretary of MBG as a PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He is currently Senior Associate at Third Rock Ventures.
Andrew Warren
Founding Secretary
Leadership Alumni
Raven was President of MBG as a PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is currently the Chief of Staff at BridgeBio.
Raven Reddy
President, 2016-17
Minsoo was one of the Founding Officers of MBG as an undergraduate student majoring in Biological-Chemical Engineering at MIT. She is currently a PhD candidate at Yale.
Minsoo Khang
Founding Officer
Tony was one of the Founding Officers of MBG as a PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is now the Co-Founder of Petri.
Tony Kulesa
Founding Officer
Anika was a Founding Undergraduate President of MBG, as a sophomore majoring in Computer Science and Molecular Biology at MIT. She is currently a bioinformatics PhD student at Harvard and the Broad Institute.
Anika Gupta
Founding Undergraduate President
Hao was a Founding Undergraduate President of MBG, as a senior majoring in Biomedical Engineering at MIT. He is currently a PhD student at Yale.
Hao Xing
Founding Undergraduate President
Brett was President of MBG as a PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is currently Senior Analyst at Science & Technology at Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Brett Geiger
President, 2017-18
Ashvin was President of MBG as a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at MIT. He is currently Associate Director at 5AM Ventures.
Ashvin Bashyam
President, 2017-18
Sam was the Undergraduate President of MBG, as a senior majoring in Chemical Engineering at MIT. He is currently Analyst at BVF Partners L.P.
Sam Huang
Undergraduate President, 2017-18
Greg was Director of Finance at MBG, as a PhD candidate in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at MIT. He is currently Co-Founder and CEO at Stratagen Bio.
Greg Ekchian
Director of Finance, 2017-18
Jessica was Director of Communications at MBG, as a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. She is currently Lead Reviewer, Engineer at FDA.
Jessica Carr
Director of Communications, 2017-18
Rachit was President of MBG, as a PhD candidate in the Department of Biology at MIT. He is currently Senior Associate at Clarion.
Rachit Neupane
President, 2018-19
Catie was President of MBG, as a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT and MBA student at Sloan. She is currently Business Leadership Development Associate at Regeneron.
Catie Matthews
President, 2018-19
Kristen was Undergraduate President of MBG, as an undergraduate majoring in Biological Engineering and Chinese at MIT. She is currently Advisor at MIT Alumni Life Science Angels of Boston.
Kristen Overly
Undergraduate President, 2019-20
Dave was Undergraduate President of MBG, as a senior majoring in EECS and Biological Engineering at MIT. He is currently Associate at Citadel.
Dave Lin
Undergraduate President, 2019-20
Lena was President of MBG, as a PhD candidate in the Department of Biology at MIT.
Lena Afeyan
President, 2019-21
Josh was President of MBG, as a PhD candidate in the Department of Health Sciences & Technology at MIT.
Josh Murdock
President, 2019-21
Jenna was Vice President of Finance, as a PhD Student in Brain & Cognitive Sciences at MIT.
Jenna Aronson
Vice President of Finance, 2019-21
Susana Hawken was Vice President of Professional Development, as a Ph.D. candidate at MIT in the Computational and Systems Biology program.
Susana Hawken
Vice President of Professional Development, 2020-21
Maria was Vice President of Communiciations, as a PhD candidate in Biology at MIT.
Maria Zagorulya
Vice President of Communications, 2019-21
Interested in joining our team? Learn more about our Initiatives!
Industry
This initiative focuses on preparing MBG members for careers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. MBG has engaged industry professionals to find out how to best prepare students and postdocs for careers in biotech and pharma. We are building a program which delivers the four key elements necessary to give students the edge on careers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
Entrepreneurship
The biotech entrepreneurship initiative focuses on exposing MBG members to the vibrant Cambridge/Boston biotech startup community, and giving them opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills to aid in starting, or joining, an early-stage biotech venture. Future events include professional development seminars (e.g. university IP/licensing, early-stage partnerships, market analysis), panels with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, and more.
MIT Undergraduates
MBG’s Undergraduate Engagement serves as an avenue for MIT undergraduates to gain exposure and networking opportunities within the biotechnology industry. We host events to encourage students to expand their networks and gain mentorship by connecting with industry professionals and graduate students. Additionally, we aim to connect students with members of the MIT community who are also interested in biotechnology entrepreneurship.
How to join?
Thank you for your interest! Check out our Get in Touch page to learn about joining the team.