Rachel Shen ‘22

NEET Living Machines ‘22Ph.D. Student, MIT

Rachel Shen: After completing her undergraduate degree, Rachel broadened her research experience by working on plant-based heterologous production of secondary metabolites at the Earlham Institute with the Patron Lab, and on optimizing protein expression in soy to make vegan cheese at Mozza Foods. She later returned to the Babbin Lab in the EAPS department in 2024 as a to pursue her doctoral studies. Her current research investigates how partitioning of the denitrification metabolic pathway and trace metal availability act as levers to regulate denitrification rates in the ocean. She also works on studying how plant secondary metabolites affect biogeochemical cycling in soils.

Rebecca Kusko, Ph.D. ‘09, ‘14

Chief of Staff & Head of Strategy, Cellino

Rebecca Kusko, Ph.D., is Chief of Staff & Head of Strategy at Cellino. She brings more than a decade of biotech expertise and two successful exits. Prior to Cellino, Dr. Kusko was VP, Head of Business Development and Corporate Affairs at Immuneering Corporation (NASDAQ:IMRX), where she steered the company through a successful public listing. She has raised $275M in financing, M&A and other business development transactions. Dr. Kusko is a founding member and deputy chair of the FDA-led Massive Analysis and Quality Control Society, which establishes best practices for emerging technologies such as deep learning and genomics. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Nature Biotechnology, and has co-authored with the FDA on the topics of AI/ML, genomics, drug development, and toxicology. She is a frequent guest lecturer at MIT. Dr. Kusko received her Ph.D. in Genetics & Genomics from Boston University School of Medicine, and received her S.B from MIT in Biological Engineering.

Antonio Rios ‘23

Graduate Research Fellow, National Science FoundationPh.D. Student, Harvard–MIT Health Sciences and Technology

Antonio Rios is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Ph.D. student in the Harvard–MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Program, where he develops genomic technologies to causally study how cells interact within complex tissues in the laboratory of Dr. Evan Macosko at the Broad Institute. He previously worked at Genentech, where he developed active learning–guided approaches to efficiently map how pairs of genes interact to control cellular behavior. He earned his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from Stanford University.

Yoonjeong Cha ‘15

Co-Founder, Alleo Labs

Yoonjeong Cha is the co-founder of Alleo Labs, a biopharmaceutical company developing neurodegenerative disease therapies. Her work focuses on using computational models for drug discovery, and she has a decade of R&D experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was Senior Director of Computational Biology at Immuneering, a public clinical-stage oncology company. She utilizes biological data to identify novel targets and drug candidates for central nervous system diseases. She has authored several publications, including papers on data analysis best practices in drug discovery. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Molecular Biology from MIT in 2015.