TBG Presidents
Isabelle Neisewander
President of GSBS TBG, PhD Candidate Isberg Lab
Isabelle (Izzy) is a PhD candidate in the Isberg lab where she is using CRISPRi to interrogate the role of essential genes in Acinetobacter Baumannii‘s ability to persist antibiotic treatment. She graduated Boston College with a B.S. in Biochemistry, where she was the senior managing editor of the school’s Life Sciences Journal. Prior to her current work at Tufts University, she worked at Addgene, where she was part of the viral vector team, and Sanofi, where she worked in protein production and optimization.
Isabelle.Neisewander@tufts.edu
Sean Williams
President Medford TBG (AS&E), PhD Candidate Van Deventer Lab
Sean received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Tufts. He is advised by Professor James Van Deventer and is interested in the high throughput discovery of proteins using yeast surface display and expanded genetic codes. Sean is looking forward to expanding the club’s footprint on the Medford/Somerville campus!
Sean.Williams641299@tufts.edu
TBG Members
Chantal Aaron
TBG member, PhD Candidate Byrnes Lab
Chantal was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to the United States in 2014 where she received her Bachelor of Science degree from Ferrum College in Virginia in 2019. She pursued a Post Baccalaureate in Neuroscience from Boston University School of Medicine. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience department at Tufts University. Her thesis project investigates the role of the endogenous opioid system in compulsive behavior in rodents prenatally exposed to oxycodone. She is an active member in the Tufts organizations Black in Neuro and Graduate Women in Science. She is a Neuroscience Scholars Program Associate. She is also avid reader and plant enthusiast, and her newest hobby is creating youtube videos.
Mossab Alsaedi
Vice President Medford TBG (AS&E), PhD Candidate GENE Lab
Mossab is a joint PhD candidate in chemical engineering and materials science & engineering. He obtained his BS in chemical engineering with a minor in materials science & engineering from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and his MS in chemical and biological engineering from KAUST. At Tufts, Mossab is interested in researching novel soft materials with applications in biomarker sensing, energy storage, and drug delivery.
Mossab.Alsaedi@tufts.edu
Ali Bootwala
Co-VP of Biotech, PhD Candidate Aldridge Lab
Ali earned his B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University where his coursework focused on cardiac bioelectricity. He went on to complete an M.S. in Medical Sciences at Boston University where he researched the functions of PD-L2 expressing B1a cells in murine models of melanoma and colorectal carcinoma. After graduating he worked mostly recently at Generate Biomedicines Inc. as a founding member of the Immunogenicity team where his work focused on de-immunizing clinically relevant therapeutic enzymes and target evaluation for strategic pipeline development. Currently, Ali conducts research in the Aldridge Lab at Tufts where he uses computational biology, machine learning methods, and fundamental immunobiology to improve in vitro systems and develop predictive models capable of improving multi-drug regimen design for clinical trials in the treatment of Tuberculosis.
Rebecca Condruti
Former President GSBS TBG, PhD Candidate Nair Lab
Rebecca (Bec) works in the Nair Lab with a focus on protein engineering for enhanced stability as well as broadening substrate specificity in the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia-lyase. She graduated with her B.S. in Microbiology from Arizona State University in 2020.
Rebecca.Condruti@tufts.edu
Jon Hacker
Co-VP of Biotech, PhD Student Yang Lab
Jon is a PhD student in the Yang Lab at Tufts University. He received his BA in neuroscience from Hamilton College in 2020. His current research focuses on key proteins involved in microglia exosome biogenesis and how exosomes are involved in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Mei Houser
VP of Marketing and Social Media, PhD Candidate Tesco Lab
Mei is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Department at Tufts University. She earned her B.A. in Neuroscience from Boston University, where she investigated cellular prion proteins as part of her early interest in neurodegenerative diseases. After graduating, she worked as a research technician at Massachusetts General Hospital, studying Presenilin-1, a key protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Currently, Mei conducts her thesis research in the Tesco Lab at Tufts, using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to investigate the roles of two prominent risk variant genes in the progression of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Tien Huynh
TBG member, PhD Candidate Isberg Lab
Tien is a PhD student in the Isberg lab at the Microbiology department of Tufts GSBS. His thesis work involves characterizing Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV) as a pre-replication compartment, and the roles of DupA/B, SidJ, SdjA effector proteins in mediating LCV breakdown and access to host factors. Before attending Tufts, Tien was at George Washington University where he got a double degree in Molecular Biology and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Jinglin (Doris) Ji
VP of Consulting, PhD Candidate Moss Lab
Doris is a neuroscience PhD student at Moss Lab. She studies neuro-immune interaction and the mechanism of post-seizure neuronal death. Doris got her BSPH in Nutrition at Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Archana Nagarajan
VP of Venture Capital, Postdoctoral Researcher Kaplan Lab
Archana received her B.A. in Biochemistry from Columbia University. She received her PhD from the lab of Christine Larry at Tufts where she identified novel pathways using biostatistical and computational biology tools to research co-occurence of Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis. Currently, she is a postdoc in the Kaplan lab studying cellular agriculture.
Erin Sanders
TBG Member, PhD Candidate Alcaide Lab
Erin is a PhD candidate in Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She received her BS from Tufts University in Biology in 2018. Prior to graduate school, Erin worked at Addgene in Watertown, MA. Currently, she is studying the cell specific role of a highly inflammatory protein in heart failure pathogenesis.
Panorea Tirja
Co-VP of Pharma, PhD Student Dulla Lab
Panorea graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a BS in Chemistry. Currently, she is a graduate student at Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in the Neuroscience program. She joined the Dulla lab, and her research project involves exploring the role of atypical astrocytes in Alzheimer’s Disease and aging.
Navita Shivsawak
TBG member, PhD Candidate Mecsas Lab
Navita Shivsawak is a PhD student in the Mecsas lab. She graduated from Hofstra University with a B.S. and M.S. in Biology. Her current research focuses on examining antibiotic combination therapy in different media conditions that model tissue environments and the rates of persister cell formation under the same conditions in Klebsiella pneumonie.
Ioannis Siokas
Co-VP of Pharma, PhD Candidate Degterev Lab
Ioannis is a graduate student in Tufts University’s Genetics, Molecular & Cellular Biology PhD Program. He received his BS in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 2019. His thesis work in Dr. Alexei Degterev’s Lab focuses on a form of cell death called necroptosis and the development of inhibitors against this pathway for application against various diseases.
TBG Alumni
Yuzo Kevorkian
Former President of TBG
Yuzo graduated from Tufts University’s Molecular Microbiology PhD Program in 2022. His thesis work in Dr. Shumin Tan’s Lab focused on elucidating the environmental cues sensed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis as part of its interactions with the host. Yuzo has since been a senior consultant at Simon-Kutcher & Partners, and has recently begun a new adventure by co-founded Stealth startup.