People

Krystyn Van Vliet

Associate Provost and Koerner Professor

Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Department of Biological Engineering

[Biography, Research, Teaching & Leadership]

Email: krystyn@mit.edu
Office: MIT Room 8-237
Mail: MIT Room 8-237; 77 Massachusetts Avenue; Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

Anna Jagielska

Research Scientist, MIT Materials Science & Engineering

Anna is interested in understanding the interplay between in vivo chemomechanical environment and stem cell differentiation, with an ultimate goal of improving stem cell based therapies. She is currently focused on the role of mechanical factors in neural stem cell differentiation and myelin repair in neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis. Anna’s past research fields include quantum chemistry (PhD), and computational biology and biophysics (postdoctoral).

Yen-Ting Chi

PhD Candidate, MIT Materials Science & Engineering

Yen-Ting’s research focuses on the oxygen vacancy migration mechanism under external drive. He uses both density functional theory and nano indentation to study the mechanism, which can be further applied to high performance energy product and next generation memory device. In his spare time, Yen-Ting enjoys playing badminton, board games and movies.

Camille Farruggio

PhD Candidate, MIT Materials Science & Engineering

Camille is interested in understanding the relationship between the physical properties of cells, their biological attributes, and their success as therapeutic agents. Her work is currently focused on mechanical and morphological characteristics as indicators of differentiation in stem cells, or of status and quality in T-cells. In her spare time, Camille likes to read, bake, and participate in public science outreach.

Mingyu Yang

PhD Candidate, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology

Ming’s research lies at the intersection of polymer engineering and neurobiology. His current work leverages additive manufacturing technologies to develop in vitro models of myelination. Ming is also passionate about democratizing STEM education, and he enjoys developing content for MIT’s open education / MOOC initiatives.

Brandon Krupczak

PhD Student, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology

Brandon is interested in the use of stem cells, tissue engineering, and genetic drug delivery for applications in regenerative medicine. His current research is focused on improving MSC characterization and culture conditions in order to streamline the pathway to clinical translation. When he grows up, Brandon wants to be a NASA Astronaut and apply his regenerative medicine research at the final frontier. Outside of lab, Brandon enjoys backpacking, woodworking, and photography.

Eric Lee

PhD Student, MIT Materials Sciences & Technology

Eric is interested in how different processing conditions affect polymers, cells, and the interactions between the two, with the ultimate goal being clinical translation of stem cell therapies to improve human health. His current research is focused on optimization and processing of polymer microcarriers for long term stability and use in MSC culture. In his spare time, Eric enjoys baking, playing the piano/trombone, and playing video games.

Yie Hou Lee

Scientific Director, SMART CAMP

Dr Lee obtained his Ph.D. in Singapore, and continued his postdoctoral work with Prof. Steven Tannenbaum in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering, at both the Singapore and MIT locations. He joined SMART-CAMP as scientific director where he works with Prof. Krystyn and Prof. Yu and interfaces with the Singapore-based and MIT-based researchers who work on CAMP flagship projects of critical quality attributes and process analytic technologies for cell therapy manufacturing. Dr Lee also engages the larger cell therapy manufacturing ecosystem of clinics, companies, and complementary research teams in Singapore and globally.

Bala Narayanan

Senior Program Manager, SMART CAMP

Bala is CAMP’s Senior Program Manager. He brings years of experience in R&D program management and process engineering in industry and academic research settings.

Nishtha Singh

Postdoctoral Associate, SMART CAMP

Nishtha is interested in developing process analytic technologies for cell therapy manufacturing. Specifically, she aims to understand how the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of microcarriers influence the 3D-proliferation and recovery of mesenchymal stem cells that are culture-expanded in microbioreactors. Nishtha’s past research experience includes non-viral gene delivery for cancer theranostics and microfluidic flow cytometry. She is also a keen Netflixer and an enthusiastic yoga learner.

Naresh Gnanasegaran

Postdoctoral Associate, SMART CAMP

Naresh currently serves as a post-doc at SMART CAMP, where he explores the intrinsic features of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and ways to leverage them for therapeutic applications. To this end, extensive cell culture and molecular approaches will be explored with the end goal of bridging these findings from bench to bedside. Naresh also helps in conducting pre-clinical works while considering the regulations involved from the current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) perspectives.

Senior Postdoctoral Associate, SMART CAMP

Lakshmi uses computational techniques to correlate morphology of MSCs with their phenotypic behaviour and in vivo efficacy. She applies  image analysis, proteome and trascriptome profiling methods together with machine learning to study the critical quality attributes of the MSCs. She is also in involved in the design of a control feedback for the MSC bioreactor at CAMP. Lakshmi is interested in running, glass painting and reading.

Postdoctoral Associate, SMART CAMP

Shu Hui is interested to explore the MSC heterogeneity and identify critical quality attributes of MSCs that will provide guidelines for expansion during cell manufacturing. She aims to establish the relationship between expressions of genes/secretory proteins and biophysical parameters of MSCs with profiling approaches. She also investigates the mechanism about why cells of certain size are more inclined towards a certain differentiation pathway, or towards a certain function (immunomodulation). Shu Hui is interested in animal photography and hiking.