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
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
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, 2018-19
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
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.