Image by Sunanda Sharma, Rachel Smith, Christoph Bader, Dominik Kolb, Neri Oxman
Executive Team
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
Co-President
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
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 to go into biotech after grad school, especially in the RNA therapeutics field, and 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 and the Undergraduate Student President in 2021-22.
Sherry Nyeo
Vice President of Finance
Sarah is a third-year undergraduate student in Biological Engineering and Management 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.
Sarah Syed
Undergraduate President
Vikram is a PhD student in Computational and Systems Biology at MIT, advised by Prof. Kevin Esvelt. 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
Vice President of Communications
Initiative Directors
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
Entrepreneurship Initiative Co-Director
Farhan is a PhD student in Mechanical engineering/Bioengineering at MIT, advised by Dr. Elazer Edelman. He is interested in vascular cell biology and the role of endothelial cells in tumor microenvironment. He uses machine learning and genome-wide screening methods to understand the immunomodulatory role of vascular cells in tumor. He has been involved with MBG since Fall 2021.
Farhan Khodaee
Entrepreneurship Initiative Co-Director
Dilyara is a Chemistry PhD student at MIT, advised by Prof. Ron Raines. Her current research explores enzymology of ribonucleases towards the development of cancer therapeutics. Dilyara has been involved with MBG since Fall 2021 as an Associate in the Industry initiative.
Dilyara Sharipova
Industry Initiative Director
Victory is a second-year undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science and Molecular Biology. Her research in the Weissman Lab involves uncovering and mechanistically characterizing protein domains which can cause long-term gene silencing in order to develop the next generation of epigenetic editors. Victory has been involved with MBG since Fall 2021, previously serving as a Senior Associate in the Undergraduate Initiative.
Victory Yinka-Banjo
Undergraduate Initiative Co-Director
Rac is a second-year undergraduate majoring in Biological Engineering. His research in the White Lab involves the use of phosphoproteomics and machine learning to analyze signaling networks underlying interactions between glioblastoma tumor cells and macrophages. He has been involved with MBG since Fall 2021, previously serving as a Senior Associate in the Undergraduate Initiative.
Rac Mukkamala
Undergraduate Initiative Co-Director
Grace is a first-year undergraduate student at MIT planning to major in Chemical-Biological Engineering. Her research in the Wittrup Lab focuses on engineering proteins to reduce the toxic effects of cytokines as a cancer immunotherapy. She currently serves as a Senior Associate within the MIT Biotech Group.
Grace Yang
Career Fair Chair
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
Social Chair
Senior Associates
Olivia is a PhD Student in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology. She is a member of William Shih’s lab at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering where she develops DNA-based nanoparticle strategies for delivery of therapeutic cargo. She has been involved with MBG since the Fall of 2022.
Olivia Young
Mentorship
Yufei is a second year Biological Engineering PhD advised by Forest White. Her research involves studying tumor and immune cell dynamic in glioblastoma using immunopeptidomics approach to find novel therapeutic targets. She has been involved with MBG since Fall 2021 as an Associate in the Industry initiative.
Yufei Cui
Site Visits
Alysse is a third-year undergraduate student studying biological engineering. She conducts research in the Gehring lab where she investigates seed development. She generates knockout lines of candidate cell-type specific peptide genes to probe the function of these genes. She is ultimately interested in making agriculture more sustainable using biotechnology. She has been involved with MBG since Fall 2021.
Alysse Pusey
Undergrad Education
Elisa is a first-year undergraduate student at MIT who intends to Artificial Intelligence & Decision Making (Course 6-4) with a focus in Computational Biology. Her research with the Kellis Lab at CSAIL involves using machine learning to predict cell subtypes using snATAC-seq single cell epigenomic data. She has been involved with MBG since Fall 2022.
Elisa Xia
Undergrad Education
Anika is a first-year undergraduate student in Biological Engineering and Biology at MIT. Her research at the Irvine lab is focused on cancer immunotherapies and vaccine spacing, dosage, and efficacy. She has been involved with MBG since Fall 2021 as an associate in the Undergraduate Initiative.
Anika Wadhera
Undergrad Big Events
Ayantu is a first-year undergraduate student intending to study Computer Science and Molecular Biology. Her research in the Kamm Lab involves the use of a microfluidic vascular network model to study tumor cell extravasation. Ayantu has been involved with MBG since Fall 2022.
Ayantu Tamene
Undergrad Big Events
Katie is a first-year undergraduate student intending to study Biological Engineering and Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making. In her research with the Bathe BioNanoLab, she develops nucleic acid origami nanoparticles for mRNA delivery, with applications in vaccinology and therapeutics. Katie has been involved with MBG since Fall 2022.
Katie Spivakovsky
Undergrad Big Events
Zi is a second-year undergraduate student studying Biological Engineering. Her research in the Lees Lab involves uncovering the mechanisms by which various cancer cells become resistant to upregulated epigenetic inhibitors through DNA damage response analysis to better understand therapy options. Zi has been involved with MBG since Spring 2022.
Zixuan Liu
Undergrad Professional Development
Clarence is a first-year undergraduate student intending to study Biological Engineering. He conducts research in the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, utilizing whole-brain imaging in conjunction with behavioral assays to analyze the connections between neural computations and short-term decision-making in C. elegans. Clarence has been involved with MBG since Fall 2022.
Clarence Zheng
Undergrad Professional Development
Brandon is a PhD candidate in the Health Sciences and Technology program at MIT. His research in Krystyn Van Vliet’s lab explores novel manufacturing platforms and priming techniques to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of cell therapy. Brandon has been involved with MBG since joining the entrepreneurship initiative in Fall 2020.
Brandon Krupczak
Venture Capital Dinners
Mei Yi You
Boom and Bust Seminar Series
Davy Deng
Founder Panel Series
Faculty Advisory Board
Sangeeta Bhatia
John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Angela Koehler
Samuel A. Goldblith Career Development Professor in Applied Biology of Biological Engineering
Bob Langer
David H. Koch Institute Professor
Jonathan Weissman
Landon T. Clay Professor of Biology
Feng Zhang
James and Patricia Poitras Professorship of Neuroscience and of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering
Sean Clarke
Communication Instructor of Biological Engineering & Biotech Liaison
Leadership Alumni
Founders
James W. Weis
Founding President
Nathan Stebbins
Founding President
Vyas Ramanan
Founding Treasurer
Andrew Warren
Founding Secretary
Leadership Alumni
Raven Reddy
President, 2016-17
Minsoo Khang
Founding Officer
Tony Kulesa
Founding Officer
Anika Gupta
Founding Undergraduate President
Hao Xing
Founding Undergraduate President
Brett Geiger
President, 2017-18
Ashvin Bashyam
President, 2017-18
Sam Huang
Undergraduate President, 2017-18
Greg Ekchian
Director of Finance, 2017-18
Jessica Carr
Director of Communications, 2017-18
Rachit Neupane
President, 2018-19
Catie Matthews
President, 2018-19
Kristen Overly
Undergraduate President, 2019-20
Dave Lin
Undergraduate President, 2019-20
Lena Afeyan
President, 2019-21
Josh Murdock
President, 2019-21
Jenna Aronson
Vice President of Finance, 2019-21
Susana Hawken
Vice President of Professional Development, 2020-21
Maria Zagorulya
Vice President of Communications, 2019-21
Sam Goldman
President, 2021 – 2022
Desmond Edwards
President, 2021 – 2022