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
    Associate 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, 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


Isabelle Miserani
    Lab technician

imiser@mit.edu

Under the guidance of postdoctoral fellows, my current work focuses on liver-targeted malaria therapeutics and liver tissue engineering.

Education:
- Quinnipiac University (2025): MHS Biomedical Sciences. Worked in a project at the Pilotte Lab to develop a more integrated approach to detecting parasites in Aedes mosquitoes.

Socials: LinkedIn


Constantine Tzouanas
    Postdoctoral Researcher

ct24@mit.edu

I am interested in how tissue-scale (dys)function arises from communication between cells and how intercellular signaling can be leveraged for new therapeutics.

Education:
- PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 2024, Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology
- B.S. in Bioengineering and Minor in Neuroscience, 2019, Rice University

Socials: Google Scholar, Twitter, BlueSky


Sakshi Bansod
    Lab technician

saksh281@@mit.edu

I am working alongside Dr. Elledge and Dr. Chakraborty aiding in the discovery of potential early diagnostic tools for ovarian cancer. Been passionate about cancer research makes it a project I look forward to make a significant impact.

Education:
- Bachelor's Degree 2021 Dr. D.Y. Patil Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Institute, Pune B.Tech Medical Biotechnology.

Socials: LinkedIn


Sydney Hummel
    Graduate Student

shummel@mit.edu

I am interested in leveraging nanoparticle therapeutics and non-invasive diagnostics to study immune modulation in disease.

Education:
- MPhil in Medical Science, University of Cambridge
- B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Purdue University

Awards: 2025 NSF GRFP; 2024 Churchill Scholarship

Socials: Google Scholar, Twitter, 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

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.)

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


Vanessa Kelley
    Postdoctoral Researher (co-advised by Viktor Adalsteinsson)

vkelley@broadinstitute.org

I investigate novel methods to increase tumor fraction to improve the limit of detection of liquid biopsy for early cancer detection.

Education:
- PhD in Pharmacology, Yale University in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program.
- BA in Biological Sciences, Wellesley College

Socials: LinkedIn


Emma McDougal
    Graduate student (PhD at MIT in Chemical Engineering, co-advised by Paula Hammond)

e_mcd@mit.edu

Interested in studying conditionally fusogenic liposomes as a platform for context-specific detection and treatment of ovarian using targeted surface chemistries.

Education:
- B.S. In Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri in 2025


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, University of Chicago
- B.Sc in Chemistry, St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, India
- M.Sc in Chemistry, University of Pune, India

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

Socials: LinkedIn, Google Scholar

Sahil Patel
    Clinical Fellow (co-advised by Viktor Adalsteinsson)

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)


Amy Stoddard
    Research Technical Associate

aestod@mit.edu

I am interested in integrating synthetic biology with learnings from liver regeneration to build smart implantable liver tissue therapeutics.

Education:
- Ph.D MIT/Harvard Medical School - Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (2025)
- B.Sc University of Michigan Ann Arbor - Biomedical Engineering (2018)

Socials: LinkedIn

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


Arya Rao
    Graduate student (MD-PhD co-advised by Pardis Sabeti)

arya_rao@hms.harvard.edu

I am interested in developing computational techniques to dissect the evolutionary forces behind human genetic adaptation and to engineer new regulatory sequences beyond evolution’s natural repertoire.

Education:
- Columbia University (2022): BA in Biochemistry and Computer Science

Awards:
Massachusetts Medical Society Information Technology Award; Dean’s Innovation Award, Harvard Medical School; Rhodes Scholarship Finalist; David B. Truman Alumni Award, Columbia University; Bridges and Sturtevant Prize, Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University; Outstanding Scholar-Athlete, Collegiate Water Polo Association; Laidlaw Scholar, Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Program

Socials: LinkedIn

Alumni

Postdoctoral researchers

Soonjo Kwon - Professor, Inha University

Greg Szulgit - Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London

Elliot Hui - Associate Professor, UC Irvine

Warren Chan - Professor, University of Toronto

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

David Eddington - Dean of the Graduate College, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dal-Hee Min - Professor, Seoul National Univ.

Amit Agrawal - Chief Scientific Officer, Diagnostics Platform at Danaher

David Wood - Professor, University of Minnesota

Neetu Singh - Chief Scientific Officer, Diagnostics Platform at Danaher

Kelly Stevens - Associate Professor, University of Washington

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

Gabe Kwong - Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Salil Desai - Director of Engineering, Bayesian Diagnostics

Kathleen Christine - CEO, Sweet Cakes

Sabine Hauert - Professor University of Bristol

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

Ester Kwon - Associate Professor of Bioengineering, UCSD

Arnout Schepers - Founder & CEO, TenAces Biosciences

Piyush Jain - Associate Professor, University of Florida

Simone Schürle - Associate Professor, ETH Zurich

Alex Albanese - Senior Staff Scientist, Boston Children’s Hospital

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

Leslie Chan - Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tiffany Vo - Principal Scientist, Ensoma

Jiang He - Co-Founder & Vice President, Visgen

Liliana Mancio Silva - Group leader at Inserm, Institut Pasteur

Allison Demas - Senior Scientist, Moderna Genomics

Quinton Smith - Assistant Professor, University of California Irvine

Ahmet Bekdemir - Principal Scientist I, Novartis Biomedical Research

Liangliang Hao - Assistant Professor, Boston University

Edward Tan - Equity Research, Leerink Partners

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

Jesse Kirkpatrick - Resident Physician, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Qian Zhong- Assistant Professor, University of Texas, Austin

Christine Wang- Assistant Professor, Northwestern University

Novalia Pishesha - Assistant Professor, Boston Children’s Hospital

Bess Miller - Scientist, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Zhiyang Jin - Co-Founder, Merge Labs

Graduate students

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

Jared Allen - Physician, Radiology

Valerie (Liu) Tsang - Director, Biogen

Vicki (Chin) Albrecht - Head of Strategy, Metsera

Dirk Albrecht - Associate Professor, Worcester Polytech Institute

Christopher Flaim - Manager, Vaxxas, Australia

Salman Khetani - Professor, University of Illinois, Chicago

Austin Derfus - Director, Hologic

Geoffrey von Maltzahn - CEO, Lila Sciences

Todd Harris - CEO, Tyra Bioscience

Alice Chen - COO, Curve Biosciences

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

Jing (Meghan) Shan - Assistant Professor, UC San Francisco

Nathan Reticker-Flynn - Assistant Professor, Stanford

Kartik Trehan - CEO, Millions of Monsters

David Braga Malta - Manager, Pictet Private Equity

Kevin Yu-Ming Lin - Senior Directo, Ixlayer

Cheri Yingjie Li - Bioprocess Engineer, Memphis Meats

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

Justin Lo - Instructor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Shengyong Ng - CEO, Ants Innovate

Vyas Ramanan - Partners, Third Rock Ventures

Andrew Warren - Senior Director, Cure.Bio

Jaideep Dudani - CEO, Ouro Medicines

Nil Gural - Principal, Polaris Partners

Colin Buss - Biotechnology Specialist, Wolf Greenfield .

Arnav Chabra - Co-founder, Satellite Bio

Amanda Chen - Associate Director, Septerna

Ava (Soleimany) Amini - Senior Researcher, Microsoft

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

Carmen Martin-Alonso - Founding Scientist, Amplifyer Bio

Ashley Westerfield - Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT (McClatchey lab) 

Kasia Grzelak

Cathy Wang

Lab managers and technicians

Alex Miller - (PhD) Associate, RA Capital Management

Ani Galstian - Senior Research Associate

Benjamin Tschud - Physician Associate, Epiphany Dermatology

Candice Gurbatri - (PhD) Senior Computational Biologist, Tempus AI

Chelsea Fortin - (PhD) Senior Scientist, Shape Therapeutics

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

Kelsey Hern - (PhD) Postdoctoral Scholar, Northwestern University (Prindle Lab)

Lia Ingaharro - Pfizer

Maria Ibrahim - (PhD) Postdoctoral Researcher, Rutgers Cancer Institute 

Matt Skalak - (MD) Resident Physician, Detroit Medical Center

Meghan Marquette - Senior Scientist, BioNTech

Renee Zhao - (MD) Resident Physician, UMass

Trevor Nash- MD/PhD student, Columbia University

Keval Vyas - Medical student, Chicago Medical School

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 Pittsburgh