Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
A bioengineering (BE) PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania (after beginning my graduate studies at Duke University) with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and minor in Biology from Georgia Institute of Technology. Interested in creating personalized therapies and research tools using molecular engineering (e.g. targeted proteome editing, gene editing, and epigenome engineering).
Research/Thesis Advisor: Dr. Pranam Chatterjee (lab affiliated with the Center for Precision Engineering for Health, or CPE4H) - Continued my PhD thesis after moving with the lab from Duke University to the University of Pennsylvania
Research/Thesis Advisor: Dr. Pranam Chatterjee (lab affiliated with the Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies, or CAGT) - Served as a TA in Molecular Engineering (BME 305L) course, primarily guiding students through wet labs/final projects and grading problem sets/exams (Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024) - Mentored high school students as a part of the Duke Research in Engineering Program (DukeREP) in Summer 2023 and Summer 2024 - Presented oral talks at the BMES Annual Meeting (October 2023 & October 2024), the Biotherapeutics and Vaccines Development Gordon Research Seminar (March 2024), and the inaugural AI x Bio conference (June 2025) - Prepared poster presentations at the 2023 ASGCT Annual Meeting (May 2023), the Biotherapeutics and Vaccines Development Gordon Research Conference (March 2024), and the Enzymes, Coenzymes, and Metabolics Pathway Gordon Research Conference (July 2025) - Selected for the CAGT Travel Award in November 2023; collaborated with Dr. Matt DeLisa's group at Cornell University on projects - Coordinated student- and postdoc-focused seminar series on AI/Automation in Biodesign for Duke's Center for Quantitative Biodesign (Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025) - Co-organized the 2025 ICLR GEM workshop in Singapore
- Served as senior TA for four semesters (Spring 2021, Summer 2021, Fall 2021, and Spring 2022) after starting as a junior TA in Fall 2020 (served for five total semesters) - Suggested improvements in BMED 2310 curriculum to better achieve learning outcomes based on experience and student feedback - Advised junior TAs about how to communicate and mentor students - Organized standardized announcements to distribute to all TAs in different sections for students - Mentored student teams on project for designing new biomedical devices based don physiological needs - Provided feedback and grade assignments relating to Autodesk Fusion360, sketches of design ideas, ideating and prototyping, and device pitching to potential investors
- Served as a TA and tutor for the Excel Program at Georgia Tech from Spring 2020-2022 - Assisted students with job/internship searches and applications as well as transitioning to careers after graduation (Career Success IV TA) - Taught students how to use LinkedIn and practiced for mock interviews as a Career Success III TA - Worked with students one-on-one and created exams and study guides as a biology (BIOL 1520: Organismal Biology) tutor - Helped integrate students into GT 1000 (a freshman-oriented course) focused in industrial design
- Began as an undergraduate student researcher in the Kemp Lab in the spring semester of first year (volunteered in the fall semester) - Focused project on optimizing three-dimensional cell culture formation protocol for analysis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) - PI: Dr. Melissa Kemp
- Conducted research for six consecutive terms under Dr. Karmella Haynes (Summer 2020 - Spring 2022) - Presented a poster at the 2021 BMES Annual Meeting about activating tumor suppressors with synthetic chromatin proteins in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) - Focused on understanding tumor-suppressor genes (TSG) in TNBC to be targeted by epigenetic therapy - Examined publicly available patient and model cell line gene expression profiles to find epigenetically repressed TSGs - Designed CRISPRa fusion proteins to activate silenced TSGs
- Selected as one of ten summer scholars selected to work with clinical oncologist at Emory University School of Medicine for six weeks - Conducted research under Dr. Jane Meisel to understand features that can predict a good response neoadjuvant chemotherapy for ER+ breast cancer patients