Pioneering AI-designed multiplex gene-edited CAR-T therapies to combat immunosuppression in solid tumors

Nucleate is a national, collaborative student-run organization that facilitates the formation of pioneering life science companies.The Strategy team is focused on the design and execution of the expansion of Nucleate's current programs and relationships with top academic institutions, VC firms, and industry partners.

Thesis: Design and characterization of multiplex gene-edited CAR-T cells resistant to orthogonal immunosuppressive pathways within the solid tumor microenvironmentHatfield Lab, New England Inflammation & Tissue Protection InstituteAdvisors: Stephen Hatfield, PhD and Colby Maldini, PhD

Fifty 50 is for bio and climate-focused PhDs and postdocs who want to bring innovation from their lab to the world to create a massive positive impact with their work. Fifty 50 connects scientists from leading labs interested in commercializing science and teaches them everything they need to know to get started. Fifty Years is a pre-seed and seed focused VC firm. We back founders using technology to solve the world’s biggest problems. We also help start companies.

Applying the Beam platform to explore and vet applications of novel base editing technologies in the context of creating highly engineered, multiplex gene-edited, immune cell-based therapies with a focus on allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy for the treatment of solid tumors Lead in vitro biology efforts to generate a data package which culminated in Beam’s first oncology IND, BEAM-201. Executed all in vitro assays and workflows as a subject matter expert driving initial early discovery up through preclinical development to nominate Beam’s first Immunology development candidate.Pioneered and conceptualized the establishment of the Industry PhD program at Beam, participating as the first Industry PhD graduate student in the program. Created guidelines, workflows, and logistics for the nascent program alongside standard scientific graduate student duties. Completed L.E.A.D. at Beam - Leadership and Management workshop course provided by the Yamartino Group

Managing, supervising, and training a team of CRI Commercialization Specialists.Facilitating daily activities encompassing portfolio technology assignment and review/approval of marketing write-ups and commercialization assessments.Monitoring communications with Northeastern inventors and external industry representatives to engender productive business development relationships between the University academic labs and prospective commercial partners.Guiding discussions and leading efforts on how to build, expand and formalize the Commercialization Specialist program University wide.

Managed a portfolio of solution-oriented research focused on the translation of Northeastern University innovations into tangible assets through licenses, spinouts and collaborations. Paired new inventions with real world commercial needs to enable a productive balance between the exploration of science and implementation of business.

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Lead the evaluation of synthetic biology approaches to enhance the potency, safety and persistence of CART and transgenic TCR cell therapy products for solid tumors.Assessed novel orthogonal strategies for multiplex engineering of T cell signaling cascades to drive overall discovery research strategy.Utilized strategies of lentiviral transduction, AAV transduction, and electroporation of CRISPR or megaTAL mRNA to augment T cell signaling to improve T cell efficacy in the tumor microenvironment Routinely transduced, cultured and characterized primary human T cells via multi-color flow cytometry, immunoassays, western blot and RNA gene arrays

Independently drove experiments which investigated the PK/PD of mesenchymal stem cells and their secreted factors in various mouse models of cell therapy. Involved animal handling, tail vein cell injections and blood/tissue sampling alongside creation of new mammalian cell lines via lentiviral transfection followed by downstream analysis for cell line characterization (Including flow cytometry and cell-based assays).Developed a novel high-throughput method for creating nucleic acid probes which specifically identify a wide variety of bacterial genes in a mixed population of bacterial strains. Assisted with in vivo experiments involving IV,IP,IM drug administration as well as organ collection and processing to study how varying tumor stromal environments affects breast cancer metastasis.

Worked on in vitro evaluation of cardiac ion channel inhibition by small molecules being developed by various discovery programs using an automated Q-patch clamp platforms.Performed various cell based assays to evaluate the efficacy of small molecule and antibodies developed to block target of interest using instruments capable of high throughput analysisMaintained various cell lines in culture to and scale up and prepare samples needed to perform the assays. Provided regular oral and written data reports to team members and participated in group discussions and lab meetings.

Maintained multiple endo- and ecto-cervical epithelial cell lines utilizing aseptic cell culture techniques Cultured many different strains of Trichomonas vaginalis in preparation for experiments with epithelial cells for viral RNA sequencingRan numerous ELISAs and MSD assays on experimental and clinical samples to detect chemokine/cytokine inflammation biomarkers

Created and cultured transgenic strains of E. coli bacteria via P1 virulent transductionCharacterized new created strains of bacteria according to growth rate, MIC’s and sensitivity to ribosomal antibiotics and novel bacterial metabolitesMade media, autoclaved media and glassware, and prepared bacterial cultures of E. coli and Actinomycetes