About Me. I am a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. I am also an Associate Member at the Broad Institute and Ragon Institute. I received my doctoral degree from Harvard University under the guidance of Prof. George M. Whitesides, and subsequently worked as a post-doctoral fellow and instructor at Harvard Medical School with Prof. Hidde L. Ploegh. The intersection of my research in micro/nanotechnologies and in immunology has formed my primary research interests in the areas we are active in today. The lab’s work is directed at the frontiers of chemical engineering as a field and biotechnology.
My Journey to Date. I have had the opportunity to explore several different areas of research in my career. These experiences have shaped my approach in both research and mentorship.
In high school through a mentorship program, I worked with Dr. James Ellenbogen at the MITRE Corporation on the emerging fields of quantum computation and molecular electronics. As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, I focused my studies on physical organic chemistry. I performed research with Prof. Cassandra Fraser on new synthetic strategies to produce metal-containing polymeric macromolecules with defined and controllable architectures. In a summer research experience at Penn State University, I worked with Prof. Paul Weiss to explore how nanoparticles and structured monolayers can modulate electron transport and photon generation.
In my doctoral research at Harvard University, I developed new approaches to fabricating micro- and nano-scale elements for applications in microfluidics and nanotechnologies. I also conducted mechanistic studies of how alkanethiols assemble into ordered structures on the surface of palladium and its alloys. In these studies, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Prof. Mara Prentiss at Harvard and with Prof. Ralph Nuzzo at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
As a post-doctoral fellow and instructor at Harvard Medical School working with Prof. Hidde Ploegh, I had the opportunity to explore early applications of microfluidic technologies to modulate the microenvironments of lymphocytes while imaging them to assess the dynamics of cellular activation. We also developed a method using arrays of subnanoliter wells to screen antibody-producing cells for specificity at a single-cell level. This work has shaped subsequent research programs in our lab at MIT. Our approaches for single-cell analysis have led to numerous research collaborations in the broader research community as well, including ones with Prof. David Hafler (Yale), Prof. Kai Wucherpfennig (Dana Farber Cancer Institute), Prof. Matthew Meyerson (Dana Farber Cancer Institute), Prof. Gad Getz (MGH/Broad), Prof. Todd Golub (Broad Institute) and Dr. Wayne Shreffler (MGH), among others.