Meet our team

Sangeeta Bhatia, M.D., Ph.D. 

Principal investigator

John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Engineering
Director, Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies

Sangeeta N. Bhatia MD, PhD is an inventor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and biotech entrepreneur who adapts technologies developed in the computer industry for medical innovation. At MIT, she is the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Engineering, Director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Trained as both a physician and engineer, Sangeeta’s laboratory leverages miniaturization tools from the computer industry for medical innovation with applications in liver disease, cancer and infectious diseases. She and her over 150 trainees have contributed to more than 50 issued or pending patents, launched multiple biotechnology companies to improve human health, and published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. Bhatia was the 25th person in history to be an elected member of all three US National Academies: NAS, NAM, and NAE. She has been honored with the Lemelson-MIT Prize (known as the “Oscar” for inventors), the Heinz Medal, and the Othmer Gold Medal for groundbreaking inventions and advocacy for women in STEM fields. She has presented her vision for the application of engineering solutions to solve medical problems on international stages such as the World Economic Forum, TED, the Gates Grand Challenges, and the Biden Cancer Moonshot. She currently serves as a Trustee at Brown University and Director at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Read more about Sangeeta here...

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Learn more about each lab member by clicking on their name.
You can also learn more about our group by checking out our gallery.

Administration

Lian-Ee Ch'ng
    Lab Manager

lechng@mit.edu

I work on internal day-to-day lab operations and budgets and am the #fixer and safety 'czar' of the lab!

Prior to my time at LMRT, I also worked as a lab manager at Brigham and Women's and Children's Hospital, and have also held positions as a research technician at Mt Sinai School of Medicine (with R. A. Lazzarini) and Dana Farber Cancer Institute (with David M. Livingston).

Education:
- Eons ago, Cornell University: Biochemistry
- Decades ago, Tufts University School of Medicine: Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology (Effects of the chromosome environment on retroviral expression with John Coffin)

Tarek Fadel
    Assistant Director of the
    Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine    ,
    Founder of CSP

tfadel@mit.edu

Before coming to LMRT, I worked as a Product & Systems Engineer at Hewlett-Packard, Staff Scientist at the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, VP of Research at the International Technology Research Institute, Postdoctoral fellow at Yale Univ.

I am a multilingual, father of 2, croissant connoisseur, and judo instructor (MIT and Yale judo clubs, formerly).

Education:
- 2003 Oregon State University: BS in Chemical Engineering
- 2011 Yale University: PhD in Chemical/Biomedical Engineering

Awards: Executive member of the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association Board (maybe that goes above), Advanced Graduate Leadership fellow (Yale), Harding Bliss Prize for excellence in engineering (Yale).

Socials: LinkedIn, Google Scholar, Instagram , Twitter

Heather Fleming
    Research Director

hfleming@mit.edu

I serve as a secondary mentor to all, with a focus on the professional development, research planning, and communication skills of all trainees. Before working at LMRT I was a postdoc at Harvard / MGH in the lab of Dr. David Scadden (2004-2007). I also worked as a co-founding Editor at Cell Stem Cell from 2007-2011.

Outside of LMRT, I volunteer as a career coach, and work to establish networking links to share best practices in trainee development between research management, communication, and mentoring professionals. I am also heavily involved in promoting civic, scientific, and conservation engagement within my rural/suburban community.

Education:
- Queen's University, Kingston, ON: BScH in Life Sciences
- University of Toronto: PhD Department of Immunolgy (Laboratory of Dr. Christopher Paige)

Socials: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram

Susanna Elledge
    Postdoctoral researcher

elledge@mit.edu

I am interested in developing sensitive diagnostics for early detection of ovarian cancer. Additionally, I'm interested in developing microenvironment stimulated therapeutics for immune cell activation in cancer.

Education:
- 2016 BSc, University of California Berkeley - Chemical Biology
- 2021 PhD, UCSF - Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Sue Kangiser
    Senior Administrative Assistant

kangiser@mit.edu

I am the administrative assistant of Sangeeta Bhatia and LMRT. I grew up in California, New Jersey, and Texas and started working at MIT in 2000, joining LMRT in 2005.

Education:
- UT Austin: B.S. in Psychology
- Texas A&M University: M.S. in Educational Psychology

Group members

Kasia Grzelak
    Graduate Student
    (HST-MEMP)

kgrzelak@mit.edu

I am interested in leveraging chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering tools to create bio-responsive implantable engineered tissues.

Education:
- 2018 BSc University College Roosevelt (Utrecht University) - (Investigated inhibitors of the ALKBH protein family expressed in head and neck cancers; Analyzed biosurfactants and siderophores microbial produced by an Antarctic bacterium)
- 2019 MSc Yale University (Investigated revascularization and remodeling of fibrotic tissue)

Sofia Neaher
    Lab technician

sneaher@mit.edu

Under the mentorship of Dr. Susanna Elledge, I will explore protease-activatable nanoparticle technology as a possible diagnostic and/or treatment of early stage ovarian cancer.

Education:
- 2022 Williams College: Biology (Highest Honors). Worked in a microbiology lab investigating the host-pathogen relationships, and the unique defensive systems in retaliation to bacterial secretions.

Awards:
- Erastus C. Benedict Prize in Biology

Socials: LinkedIn

Joa Yun
    Lab technician

yunj@mit.edu

Under the guidance of my postdoctoral mentors, I am currently working on establishing in vitro model systems to study liver disease pathogenesis as well as engineering protease-based diagnostics for liver cancer.

Education:
- 2022 Columbia University: BS in Biomedical Engineering. Worked in a microfluidics lab where I focused on barcoded microparticles for selective drug release.

Socials: LinkedIn

Daniel Kim
    Graduate Student (MD/PhD)

danmkim@mit.edu

I am interested in studying new physics and systems to advance early detection of cancer and other diseases. Additionally, I am interested in applying nanoscale tools to develop new therapeutic modalities for clinical efficacy.

Education:
- 2019 Harvard University: BA in Chemical and Physical Biology

Awards:
2022 Irving M. London Fellowship, 2020 NIH MSTP

Socials: Linkedin, Twitter

Jesse Kirkpatrick
    Postdoctoral researcher

jk15@mit.edu

I engineer protease sensors to diagnose and monitor pulmonary diseases. I'm also interested in using in vitro model systems to better understand and treat liver disease.

Education:
- 2015 MIT: BS in Biological Engineering (I studied innate immunity in digestive diseases. I also helped characterize a microfluidic device for intracellular delivery.)
- 2020 MIT: PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics

Awards: Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology Graduate Fellowship

Socials: LinkedIn, Google Scholar, Twitter

Henry Ko
    Research Technician

hko@mit.edu

My research focuses on optimizing in vivo viral and bacterial models of pneumonia for activity-based nanosensor detection.

Education:
- 2015 University of Maryland: BS in Bioengineering at the (Three years in bioreactors & 3D bone tissue engineering research in Dr. John Fisher's lab.)

Vardhman Kumar
    Postdoctoral Researcher

vkumar5@mit.edu

My research focuses on employing microfabrication tools for liver tissue engineering. I am also interested in engineering protease sensors for liver diseases.

Education:
- 2022 Duke University: PhD in Biomedical Engineering
- 2017 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay: BTech. and MTech. in Chemical Engineering

Sandra March-Riera
    Research Scientist

smarch@mit.edu

I work on establishing and applying an in vitro human liver platform for studying circadian rhythms and characterizing their impact on liver physiology and disease. Between 2010 and 2020, I was also the project leader of a team at LMRT that developed an in vitro system to recapitulate the liver stage of human malaria infection.

Education:
- 1999 University of Barcelona: B.S. at the School of Pharmacy
- 2008 University of Barcelona/Hospital Clinic: PhD in Liver pathophysiology/Immunology (working on the biology of hepatic stellate cells in the context of liver pathophysiology.)

Carmen Martin-Alonso
    Graduate Student (HST-MEMP)

mcm114@mit.edu

I am developing high throughput tools to understand and leverage protease biology for molecular diagnostics and therapeutics.

Education:
- 2017 Imperial College London: BEng Biomedical Engineering. (UROP: Engineering a POC device for amplification-free detection of microRNAs for prostate cancer detection)
- 2018 Imperial College London: MEng Biomedical Engineering (Master Thesis: Next-generation intracellular delivery device for NAVAN Technologies, CA.)

Awards: La Caixa Fellowship for Postgraduate Studies in North America 2020, Governor’s MEng Prize 2018 (best MEng student in the final year of Imperial College's undergraduate Biomedical Engineering course for all-round excellence)

Socials: LinkedIn, PubMed, WiSDM

Lucia Castello-Pedrero
    Graduate Student (HST-MEMP)

lucia111@mit.edu

I am interested in developing nanotechnologies for non-invasive early detection and effective interception of disease.

Education:
- University of Cambridge (2021-2022): MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise
- Polytechnic University of Valencia (2017-2021): BSc in Biomedical Engineering

Awards:
- “la Caixa” Foundation Postgraduate Fellowship Abroad
- First position in the national Biomedical Engineering ranking performed by SEDEA
- Selected on the Nova 111 Student List in Spain
- Best Student in the School of Industrial Engineering (XXI Edition of UPV's Social Council Awards)
- Extraordinary End-of-Degree prize for achieving the best overall grade in the Biomedical Engineering graduating class of 2021


Socials: LinkedIn, Google Scholar

Savan Patel
    Graduate Student (HST-MEMP)

savanp56@mit.edu

I am interested in developing nanoparticle systems for early cancer diagnostics and solid tumor therapeutics. I am particularly interested in how we can target specific cell types and tissues to amplify diagnostic signals or achieve tumor-specific therapeutic outcomes.

Education:
- 2023 University of Pennsylvania: BSE in Bioengineering, Minor in Computer Science
- 2023 University of Pennsylvania: BS in Economics

Awards: NSF GRFP; MIT Presidential Fellowship; Tau Beta Pi Fellowship 2023

Socials: LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Scholar

Kasturi Chakraborty
    Postdoctoral Researcher

kasturic@mit.edu

I am interested in understanding how nanoparticles and cancer related biomarkers are eliminated from circulation to aid the development of novel and translatable nanotechnologies.

Education:
- PhD in Chemistry 2019, University of Chicago
- B.Sc in Chemistry 2010, St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, India
- M.Sc in Chemistry 2012, University of Pune, India

Awards: Robert Dirks Molecular Programming Prize 2022
Schmidt Science Fellowship-ASG 2020
Schmidt Science Fellow 2019
International Society for Nanoscale Science, Computation and Engineering Best Presentation Award at 2018
William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship 2018

Socials: LinkedIn, Google Scholar

Sahil Patel
    Clinical Fellow

spatel109@mgh.harvard.edu

My research focuses on developing methods to improve early diagnosis of lung cancer utilizing nano-based techniques and next-generation sequencing.

Prior work: Clinical Instructor, Division of Hospital Medicine at the San Francisco VA Medical Center

Education:
- 2009 Duke University (Majors: Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering)
- 2014 David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
- 2017 UCSF Internal Medicine Residency
- 2021 Harvard Combined Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship (MGH and BIDMC)

Tahoura Samad
    Postdoctoral Researcher

tahoura@mit.edu

I am engineering drug delivery technologies to improve the therapeutic efficacy of antimicrobials.

Education:
- 2013 UC Berkeley: Bioengineering
- 2019 MIT: PhD in Biological Engineering

Awards: 2018 Siebel Scholar, 2018 Collamore-Rogers Fellowship, 2014 NSF GRFP

Socials: LinkedIn

Qian Zhong
    Research Scientist

qzhong@mit.edu

I am interested in advancing cancer diagnosis and therapies with multidisciplinary tools, as well as promoting clinical translation of new technologies. After earning my PhD in 2016, I started my postdoctoral training at joined School of Medicine of Stanford University co-advised by Drs. Raag Airan and Sanjiv Gambhir, where I used ultrasound-mediated nanoparticles to modulate neural activity.

Education:
- 2008 Tongji University (China): Bachelors in Material Science and Engineering
- 2011 Fudan University (China): Master of Engineering in Material Science
- 2016 Wayne State University (Detroit, MI): PhD in Material Science (Doctoral research was on design of novel stimuli-responsive therapeutics for cancer treatment advised in the da Rocha lab.)
Awards: 2015 Ralph H. Kummler Research Excellence Award, College of Engineering, Wayne State University.

Socials: LinkedIn, Twitter

Cathy Wang
    Graduate Student
    (MIT-Bioengineering)

catwang@mit.edu


Developing locally activated cancer therapeutics via protease profiling

Education:
- 2020 Harvard University: Bachelors in Bioengineering (Undergraduate research in Prof. David Mooney's lab developing hydrogel scaffold for tendon cell delivery)

Awards: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Socials: LinkedIn, Twitter, WiSDM

Christine Wang
    Postdoctoral researcher

stwang76@mit.edu

Designing Molecular Probes for Cancer Profiling.

Education:
- Master 2012-2013, National Cheng Kung University, Materials Science and Engineering, Photoluminescence of Nanoparticle-conjugated Graphene Oxide
- PhD 2013-2017, Imperial College London, Materials Science, Type 2 Diabetes Related Biosensing and Amyloid Fibrillation"

Awards: 2021 STAT+ Wunderkind; 2021 MIT Technology Review (TR) Innovators under 35 Asia Pacific; 2018-2022 Junior Fellowship, Harvard Society of Fellows; 2018 Ambassador Award for Excellence from the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, DC; 2017 Siebel Scholar; 2017 MIT Hugh Hampton Young Fellowship; 2014-2017 Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Student Research Fellowship

Socials: LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Scholar

Ashley Westerfield
    Graduate Student
    (HST-MEMP)

ashleydw@mit.edu

My project focuses on fabricating 3D lumenized bile duct networks in vitro, with the goal of building functional engineered liver tissue constructs for transplantation.

Education:
- 2020 Stanford University: Bachelors in Bioengineering

Awards:NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Socials: LinkedIn

Alumni

Postdoctoral researchers

Novalia Pishesha - Assistant Professor, Boston Children’s Hospital

Soonjo Kwon - Assistant Professor, Utah State University

Greg Szulgit - Assistant Professor, Hiram College, OH

Elliot Hui - Associate Professor, UC Irvine

Warren Chan - Professor, University of Toronto

Greg Underhill - Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

David Eddington - Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dal-Hee Min - Professor, Seoul National Univ.

Amit Agrawal - Global Head of Portfolio Strategy & Management, Novartis

David Wood - Professor, University of Minnesota

Neetu Singh - Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology

Kelly Stevens - Associate Professor, University of Washington

Robert Schwartz - Assistant Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College 

Gabe Kwong - Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Salil Desai - Director of Engineering, Bayesian Diagnostics

Kathleen Christine - CEO, Sweet Cakes

Sabine Hauert - Lecturer in Robotics, Engineering Mathematics, Univ. of Bristol

Tal Danino - Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia U.

Ester Kwon - Associate Professor of Bioengineering, UCSD

Arnout Schepers - Director Research, Cellpoint

Piyush Jain - Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Univ. of Florida

Simone Schürle - Associate Professor, ETH Zurich

Alex Albanese - Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT

Justin Voog, MD/PhD - Instructor, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Leslie Chan - Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tiffany Vo - Scientist, In-Vivo Biology at Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc.

Jiang He - Research Scientist, Harvard University

Liliana Mancio Silva - Research Associate at INSERM

Allison Demas - Scientist, Syros Pharmaceuticals

Quinton Smith - Assistant Professor, University of California Irvine

Ahmet Bekdemir - Scientist at Xilio Therapeutics, Inc

Liangliang Hao - Assistant Professor, Boston University

Edward Tan -

Chayanon Ngambenjawong - Faculty, Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC)

Graduate students

Mihrimah Ozkan - Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, UC Riverside

Jared Allen - Physician, Radiology

Valerie (Liu) Tsang - Technical Development Program Lead, Biogen / IDEC

Vicki (Chin) Albrecht - Head and VP, Cardio-Renal-Metabolic Patient Services, Novartis

Dirk Albrecht - Associate Professor, Worcester Polytech Institute

Christopher Flaim - Senior Medical Device Engineer at Vaxxas, Australia

Salman Khetani - Professor, Bioengineering, UIC

Austin Derfus - Director of Consumables Engineering, Abbott

Geoffrey von Maltzahn - Partner, Flagship Pioneering

Todd Harris - Founder & CEO, Tyra Bioscience

Alice Chen - VP, Product and Head PMO, GRAIL, Inc.

Yin Ren - Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Ohio State College of Medicine

Jing (Meghan) Shan - Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, UCSF

Nathan Reticker-Flynn - Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology, Stanford

Kartik Trehan - Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company

David Braga Malta - Co-Founder, Neurimm Therapeutics

Kevin Yu-Ming Lin - Senior Manager, Provider Data Strategy, Oscar Health

Cheri Yingjie Li - Bioprocess Engineer, Memphis Meats

Alex Bagley - Resident Physician, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Justin Lo - Instructor in Medicine, Division of Hematology Oncology, Vanderbilt

Shengyong Ng - Chief Technology Officer, Ants Innovate

Vyas Ramanan - R&D, Maze Therapeutics

Andrew Warren - Senior Associate, Third Rock Ventures

Jaideep Dudani - New Opportunities, Relay Therapeutics

Nil Gural - Consultant, Bain & Company

Colin Buss - Biotechnology Specialist, Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.

Arnav Chabra - Co-founder, Satellite Bio

Amanda Chen - Scientist, Satellite Bio

Ava Soleimany - Senior Researcher, Microsoft

Melodi Anahtar - Program Manager, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Lab managers and technicians

Alex Miller - Graduate student, MIT-Harvard HST Program

Ani Galstian - Research associate, Kallyope

Benjamin Tschudy-Seney

Candice Gurbatri - Scientist II, Tempus AI

Chelsea Fortin - Scientist II, Shape Therapeutics

Emilia Pulver - Graduate student, Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI)

Kelsey Hern - WIES Fellow, Innovative Genomics Institute, UC Berkeley

Lia Ingaharro

Maria Ibrahim - Graduate student, Rutgers University

Matt Skalak - Physician, Urology

Meghan Marquette - Scientist, bluebird bio

Renee Zhao - Medical student, UCLA

Trevor Nash- MD/PhD student, Columbia University

Keval Vyas - Scientist, Satellite Bio

Niketa Nerurkar - Graduate student, Tufts University

Nour-Saïda Harzallah- MD/PhD student, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology

Anisha Jain - MD/PhD student, University of Pittsburg