Chemical Engineering PhD student in Dr. Sanjay Kumar's lab investigating and characterizing matrix digestion as a mode for facilitating invasion in glioblastoma (primary brain cancer).

As an innovation fellow, I have developed a 30+ page investment thesis about a focus area in the biotech space, where I landscaped my focus area by combining information from science journal articles, analyst reports, and Pitchbook data. Additional duties have included: performing market research and due diligence, participating in KOL calls, drafting investment memos, recruiting and interviewing new interns, and administrative tasks.

Six week course co-hosted by Nucleate, Genentech, and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals regarding principles of business development in biotech. In this process, my team and I completed an internal analysis of Genentech's portfolio, landscaped an oncology indication area, identified top potential partners, conducted diligence on assets, and designed a deal framework. We presented our pitch on our top asset choice to a Genentech/Roche leadership panel at the end of the program.

At BioMarin, I was responsible for analyzing competitor’s pipeline products and strategy to understand scientific and business implications to BioMarin’s current and future state portfolio. To do this, I first familiarized myself with assets of competitors: I read scientific literature (patents, peer-reviewed articles, clinical trial design/results) to understand the technical strengths of competitors’ technologies and targeted patient populations. I then utilized business (Pitchbook, Factset) and biotech databases (Cortellis, Biomedtracker, Citeline, GlobalData) to determine strengths of competitors’ positioning within the respective therapeutic landscape. Throughout the internship, I collaborated with various functions (regulatory, medical, clinical operations, alliance management etc.), to understand the implications of one-off events, such as drug-drug interaction studies, Chinese players entering the U.S. market, and competitor acquisition on competitor asset positioning. I presented my findings to a large (20+) cross functional audience at the end of the summer.

I guided authors to develop pieces that are scientifically informative and easily digestible to broad audiences. To do this, I led the authors through a multi-draft revision process of several articles; communicate revisions to authors, coordinate deadlines.

I spent over half a year working in Dr. Hanne Morck Nielsen’s, Ph.D., drug delivery lab at the University of Copenhagen through a Fulbright research grant. I arrived in early January 2021, and spent the next almost seven months designing and testing a thiomer based drug delivery system. The goal was to create a system that would be both mucoadhesive and would loosen cellular tight junctions in the intestine and allow for the uptake of orally ingested, larger therapeutic drugs, such as insulin, which are traditionally administered subcutaneously. This project included several components, such as: optimizing a conjugation reaction for thiolating hyaluronic acid, quantifying thiol content of the resulting thiomer, preparing and characterizing colloidal characteristics of thiolated hyaluronic acid hydrogels, and in vitro evaluation of the drug delivery system on Caco-2 (human small intestine) cells. I troubleshooted the conjugation reaction, fine tuning reaction conditions until achieving a molar substitution of 9-11% (comparable to literature), gained experience in numerous colloidal/particle classification techniques (Dynamic Light Scattering, Transmission Electron Microscopy, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCMD)), and performed several weeks of preliminary in-vitro testing through transport, viability, and transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) experiments. While corona-virus limited my time in Denmark to seven months instead of the year I originally designed my research project timeline on, I was still able to make significant progress in the design of the drug delivery system. I obtained nanosize confirmation and characterization of my hydrogels, demonstarted a stronger mucoadhesive characteristic for my thiolated system when compared to non-thiolated hyaluronic acid using QCMD, and obtained preliminary data on the function of the delivery systems in vitro.

As an academic tutor, I have been assisting students ranging from primary education through high school Regents and AP Courses with the hybrid learning system. In addition to assisting with assignment completion, I provide additional practice problems and questions to ensure students are fully grasping content.

As a TA for Chemical Reactor Design, I was responsible for communicating with students in weekly office hours, as well as grading homework and exams.

My project centered around reverse blood flow that occurs in the bulge of the carotid artery. We used two programs, Slicer and Meshmixer, to convert CT scans of the carotid into 3D computational models. We inputted these models, along with the patient's unique flow parameters, into ANSYS, a CFD program, and ran flow simulations. Our goal was to deduce patterns between certain flow characteristics and the patient's medical complications or lack thereof. If a pattern can be detected, then this work has high potential to be used in preventive medicine by allowing for prediction of future stroke through analysis of flow. My major contribution to this project was streamlining the process from CT scans to simulations by creating and notating a detailed pipeline that could be followed by younger students who took on the project.

As a Peer Career Adviser, I met with students during 15 minute drop in appointments, where I helped students by critiquing resumes and cover letters, and provided job search and networking guidance. In addition, Peer Career Advisers also give presentations in residential halls about topics ranging from resumes to internship search, and serve as Career Center Ambassadors to the student body.In addition, I was also assigned various projects by the professional staff. For instance, I have experience evaluating various electronic resources by considering students' needs and expectations. Further, having served in this role for three years, I served as a mentor to younger students in the role. Through this role, I provided guidance, assisted with training, and developed training exercises to be used for future on-boarding. Finally, I served on an internal on-boarding brainstorming group to provide a student perspective for on-boarding improvement.

As a TA for Biotransport Phenomena, I held weekly office hours where I worked one on one with students to assist in solving homework problems. I also was responsible for grading homework.

Through the REU at Tufts University, I worked on a project in Dr. Madeleine Oudin's lab in the Biomedical Engineering Department. In the lab, I focused on trying to predict Triple Negative Breast Cancer metastasis based on ECM cues. I worked to apply machine learning data science to adhesion, 2D Migration, and 3D Spheroidal data to work to uncover the predictive relationship between these assays. Through this research, I gained experience in cell culture, microscopy, staining, as well as machine learning analysis in Python. I presented my work on this project in a poster at the Biomedical Engineering Society National Conference in October 2019.

As a teaching assistant, I held weekly office hours where I assisted students with homework sets and lab reports. I was responsible for grading homework and lab reports, and I assisted with labs.

As a teaching assistant, I led weekly office hours, where I assisted students with conceptual understanding of basic chemical process analysis principles and Python code. I also assisted with grading homework and proctoring exams.

My project at Regeneron focused on the analysis of Amino Acid concentrations via chromatography to support upstream development. Specifically, I worked to implement an automated method for derivatizing amino acids for UPLC analysis. Doing so required a learned understanding of this assay's chemistry and a knowledge of UPLC machines. Through proof of concept, a preliminary linearity study and other additional tests, I was able to verify the success of the assay to support future development. During my project, I gained experience with troubleshooting UPLCs, using Empower Chromatography and JMP software, and preparing and executing my own development experiments. Additionally, I worked to support the ongoing Amino Acid Analysis workflow by manual prepping, running, and analyzing data to meet the timelines required by upstream colleagues. I presented all of my work to the Analytics Department at the end of the summer.

As a First Year Fellow, I lived in First Year Housing and served as a residential academic mentor and liaison to the academic resources available to students on campus. I assisted students with course registration, and was responsible for creating various residential programs that served to foster academic development and prosperity. In addition, I worked as a part of the residential life team throughout orientation and the academic year to provide a smooth transition for first year students.