The Team

Post-doctoral Fellows

DI HUANG

Visiting Scholar

Di received her PhD from The University of Auckland in New Zealand, where her research emphasis was on formulating hyaluronic acid coated nanoparticles for the delivery of peptides in the treatment of retinal ischaemia. In 2018, she moved to the U.S. and worked as a postdoc at Purdue University in Indiana, where she spent most of her time in uncovering pharmacological function of small molecule compounds and fabricating polymeric nanoparticles to combat obesity and muscular dystrophy. Di joined Mass Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School in 2020 and has been working in the Amiji lab as a visiting scholar since. She is currently interested in understanding the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis and developing targeted therapeutic strategies. When not in the lab, Di enjoys cooking, travelling, and spending time outdoors.

ANISHA DSOUZA

Visiting Scholar

Anisha DSouza, PhD, is currently a Research Fellow at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School and a Visiting Scholar at Dr. Amiji’s lab in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston. Her areas of research involve formulation development including colloidal carriers for targeted delivery and bioenhancement strategies. Currently, she is working on non-invasive strategies for the delivery of nucleic acids to the brain.

VALENTINA DI FRANCESCO

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Valentina obtained her PhD from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)/University of Genoa, focusing her research on preparing lipid/polymeric nanoparticles for delivering small drugs in treating cardiovascular disease. In 2021, she initiated a project at IIT, employing artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop a model for predicting lipid nanoparticle features. By 2022, she moved to the USA, joining Northeastern University and working in Amiji lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Her current focus lies in investigating nose-to-brain delivery of small and large molecules for CNS disease using the Minimal Invasive Nasal Depot (MIND) technique. Outside the lab, Valentina enjoys spending time with friends, engaging in outdoor activities, and making pizza.

SATVEER JAGWANI

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Satveer Jagwani obtained his Master’s degree in Pharmacology from Navodaya Pharmacy College, India in 2012 and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from KLE University, India, in 2021. His primary area of research includes the design and characterization of polymeric and lipid micro/nanoparticles for applications in cancer and infection management. In 2021, he moved to the USA and joined Massachusetts General Hospital, where he worked on developing sustained-release polymer and lipid-based formulations for orthopedic applications. In 2023, he joined Professor Dr. Mansoor Amiji’s lab as a postdoctoral research associate, focusing on the biodistribution and pharmacokinetic evaluations of a novel taxoid nanoemulsion. He has been awarded the International Travel Grant twice by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, for attending the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists conference, USA in 2018 & 2019.

MOHAMMAD YASEEN ABBASI

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Fellowship Supported by Moderna Therapeutics

Dr. Abbasi possesses knowledge and skills in Clinical Pharmacology with specialization of Pharmacometrics Modeling and Simulation.My academic qualifications include a B.Pharm, PharmD and PhD degrees with a concentration in Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, Pharmacology, and Pharmaceutical Care. Additionally, I have completed an advanced Clinical Pharmacology program through a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship funded by the NIH, hosted by the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Indiana University School of Medicine. My practical skills encompass NCA analysis, Allometric Analysis, Population Pharmacokinetics, PBPK, and QSP. Currently, I am undergoing specialized training in Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapeutics for protein therapeutics, including mRNA and monoclonal antibodies.

MIAO ZHANG

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Fellowship Supported by Moderna Therapeutics

Dr. Miao Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern and Moderna, a role she has held since January 2024. Her current project focuses on developing mechanistic PBPK and PKPD models for new mRNA drugs to support clinical development. Dr. Zhang earned her PhD from China Pharmaceutical University, where she focused on developing mechanistic PBPK absorption models to improve model’s predictive performance in fasted and fed states. Prior to her current role, she completed postdoctoral research at the University at Buffalo (2023-2024), focusing on developing PopPK model to estimate systemic exposure in both plasma and CSF of HIV patients. To date, Dr. Zhang has published 10 papers as the first author.

ROBYN NOVOROLSKY

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Fellowship Supported by Moderna Therapeutics

I am from Canada and grew up in a town just outside of Toronto, Ontario. For my undergraduate studies I attended Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada and graduated with a BSc Honours Biology degree in 2017. I then moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada where I started my graduate studies in the department of Pharmacology at Dalhousie University, and in 2023 I graduated with my PhD in Pharmacology. The main research areas of the lab I did my PhD in were neuropharmacology, examining how mitochondrial dysfunction can contribute to neurodegeneration, and looking at ways in which improving mitochondrial performance may be neuroprotective. Specifically, my research looked at inhibition the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) complex as a neuroprotective strategy for ischemic stroke. The MCU is the main channel for calcium influx into mitochondria, and mitochondrial dysfunction and mitochondrial calcium overloading are widely accepted as early pathological events in ischemic injury that are known to trigger the initiation of multiple cell death pathways. I utilized various cell based assays and molecular techniques to examine the protective effects of novel small molecule MCU inhibitors in an in vitro model of ischemic reperfusion injury, and initiated the start of some of the in vivo studies with those small molecules in the lab. I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Northeastern-Moderna joint fellowship program, working with the Amiji Lab and the in vitro investigative pathology team at Moderna.

BEATRICE MURIUKI

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Fellowship Supported by Moderna Therapeutics

Beatrice Muriuki is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Northeastern University/Moderna Therapeutics Inc. She completed her PhD thesis at WACCBIP-University of Ghana. Her PhD research in Ann Moormann’s laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School investigated genetic associations of pediatric lymphomas. Prior work experience in drugs and immunotherapies discovery in Lisa Cavacini’s lab at MassBiologics include ELISA, Luminex, Cell sorting and Flow cytometry, PCR and gel electrophoresis, protein expression and purification from bacteria and mammalian cells, and synthesis of monoclonal antibodies from humans and mouse fusions for Lyme disease. Her current project in pathology sciences seeks to build in vitro models to develop and derisk advanced mRNA therapeutics.

 

Ph.D. Candidates

MEGHA SURESH

Industrial PhD student

Megha is an Industrial scientist with 6+ year experience in early discovery research with Extensive experience in myeloid cell biology, antigen presentation assays, T cell fates, functional cellular assays, FACS, ELISA, WES, apoptosis assays, In vitro disease models, co-culture disease models.

SHASHANK BHANGDE

Experiential PhD Fellow (Fellowship with GSK Vaccines)

I hold a Bachelor of Technology (Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology) from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India and a Master’s of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Major: Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery Systems) from Northeastern University, Boston, MA. During my MS at Northeastern University, I completed two industrial research co-ops at Merck ESC and Laronde Inc. (Cambridge, MA). My primary focus lies in the creation of novel therapeutics and advancements in drug delivery systems and technologies. I firmly believe that these innovations hold the potential to revolutionize patient care, making it more accessible and effective. Equipped with a deep understanding of both computational and experimental techniques, bolstered by comprehensive coursework. Project area: Novel emulsion adjuvant development for improving immune responses for sub-unit vaccines.

APURVA KRISHNA

Experiential PhD Fellow (Fellowship with GSK Vaccines)

Apurva is currently pursuing his Industrial PhD degree in Bioengineering which is a joint collaboration of GSK and Northeastern University. He completed his Bachelors’ in Biomedical Engineering from his home country , India. He came to US and joined Northeastern University in 2019 to pursue his Masters’ Bioengineering. Apurva also holds diploma in Nanomedicine. He has expertise in nanoparticle formulations especially Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs). His current PhD project is related to LNPs, where he is aiming to encapsulate STING agonists and use it as an adjuvant for vaccine.

TAYLOR HICKMAN

Industrial PhD student

Taylor is an Industrial scientist with 8+ years of experience as an Investigative Toxicologist at Takeda.

PRASHANT AGARWAL

Senior Scientist , Preformulation at Amgen / Interdisciplinary PhD student , College of Engineering, Northeastern University

Prashant Agarwal received Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from University of Pune, India. Then received his Master’s in plastics engineering from UMass Lowell. Prashant worked at Lonza/Capsugel for 5 years focused on developing lipid-based drug delivery systems for clinical development. Prashant joined Amgen’s Preformulation group in 2015. Prashant supports form selection, developability molecule assessment and formulation development for various preclinical discovery research projects across multiple therapeutic areas. Prashant’s research interests include enabling formulation development (lipid-based formulations and amorphous dispersions), sustained release injectable technologies and application of data analytics tools to aid formulation development. Prashant plans to study CNS delivery of Targeted Protein Degraders (PROTACs) for his PhD research.

RAQUEL SEVILLA

Industrial PhD student

I’m a preclinical discovery scientist specializing in small animal, in vivo, multimodal imaging. I have hands-on experience with both data acquisition and analysis. Our team works with a wide range of preclinical imaging systems, including: MRI, CT, Ultrasound, bioluminescence, and fluorescence. Therefore, I have experience with functional, anatomical, and molecular readouts. I have worked on the neuroscience, oncology, respiratory, and immunology disease areas supporting multiple stages of drug discovery including target validation, lead ID, and optimization. I also have experience in developing and validating novel animal models.

ANNA PRYZBYLA

Graduate student

I have a Master’s degree in Biomedical Science from Rutgers University and 7 years of research experience in the industry. I am currently an industry-PhD student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences program with a focus in Biomedical Science. I am interested in antibody-drug conjugates and how their mechanism of action/resistance may be affected by different immune cell populations in the tumor microenvironment.

MATTHEW CHANG

Graduate student (Experiential PhD)

I am a research scientist with a strong engineering background focused on developing novel biologic based cancer therapies. After completing my MS in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University in 2016, I joined the lab of Dr. Wayne Marasco at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where my research focuses on discovering novel antibodies and engineering cellular therapies with unique functions.

ANIKA PAVIS

Experiential PhD student

Anika is an Experiential PhD student in Bioengineering as part of a collaboration between Ascidian Therapeutics and Northeastern University. After graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, she worked in a stem cell research laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical School and as a clinical technologist at the Laboratory of Personalized Genomic Medicine at Columbia University, where she got her Masters in Biomedical Engineering. She now works as a scientist at Ascidian Therapeutics, where novel RNA exon editing is used to circumvent the limitations of other gene therapies. Anika looks forward to combining this unique technology with the Amiji Lab’s drug delivery expertise in a new approach to macrophage polarization and modulation of immune response.

 

 

 

Masters Students

AVENDHIKA RAJA

Master’s Student- Research Assistant

Hello! My name is Avendhika, and I am currently pursuing my Master’s in Biotechnology at Northeastern University. I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Rajalakshmi Engineering College in Tamil Nadu, India. My research journey began with a focus on the genetics of Diabetic Retinopathy, where I investigated Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms. In this lab, I am excited to be working with various cancer cell lines, particularly focusing on cancers of the reproductive system. I am passionate about this research and eager to see the progress and impact of our findings. Looking ahead, I aspire to pursue an MD-PhD, with the goal of becoming a physician-scientist specializing in pediatric oncology. My ambition is to contribute to groundbreaking research and clinical practice, ultimately improving outcomes for young patients battling cancer.

SAAKSHI SHAH

Master’s student

Hi, I’m a science enthusiast driven by curiosity. Currently pursuing a Master’s in Biotechnology, I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy. My interests include cancer research, stem cell technology, and synthetic biology. Beyond the lab, I’m a passionate science communicator and enjoy writing science blogs on Medium as well as for NU Sci Magazine. In addition to my academic and communicative pursuits, I’m also driven by an entrepreneurial spirit. This drive led me to achieve a platinum badge in a Women Entrepreneurship Development Program hosted at KSV University.

NARELA MAGRASSI

Master’s Student

My name is Narela Magrassi, and I am currently a master´s student in the Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery program at Northeastern University. Before starting my journey as a graduate student, I have been academically formed as a Doctor of Pharmacy by the National University of La Plata in my home country, Argentina, as well as gained experience as a health care professional mainly in the hospital setting. Throughout my years working close to patients and, particularly, close to cancer patients and their relatives, I have experienced firsthand the shortcomings and struggles these people undergo. Today, by furthering my education and working on my graduate thesis in this lab, I am actively committing to the development of new cancer therapies and aiming to significantly contribute to this field and overcome the challenges that currently available cancer therapies face.

SAKSHI J. CONTRACTOR

Graduate Research Assistant

My name is Sakshi Contractor, and I am currently pursuing an MS in Biotechnology at Northeastern University. I hold a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology and am deeply fascinated by the ever-evolving fields of biotech and pharmaceuticals. Currently, I am a part of Dr. Amiji’s lab, where I am exploring new research opportunities and gaining hands-on experience in various skills, particularly cell culture. My primary research interests lie in cell culture and molecular biology. Previously, I worked as a lab technician, where I performed RT-PCR and various bacterial cultures and staining techniques. A fun fact about me is that I am extremely detail-oriented and organized.

JISEON JANG

Master’s Student

I am currently pursuing a Master of Science in Biotechnology at Northeastern University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmaceutical Science from MCPHS University. I am passionate about exploring the intersections of biotechnology and pharmaceutical sciences, particularly in areas of drug delivery systems for the cancer treatment. I am excited to be part of the lab and contribute to the innovative research projects.