We looked back at our newsletters from 2019 and found an impressive compilation of accomplishments by our community. Did we miss yours? Send it to linqnews@mit.edu and we will include it in the next edition. Always feel free to share with us publications, awards, recognitions, career milestones, and career opportunities!—Amanda and Eric
12 publications in scientific and medical journals
IMPACT 2017B faculty mentor Ali Guermazi’s research on the implications of hip and knee steroid injections was featured in the EurekAlert!
IMPACT 2017B Fellow, Daniel Reker recently published a review in Nature Chemistry on “Computational advances in combating colloidal aggregation in drug discovery” and published an Advanced Editorial to announce a JCAMD Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Andrew Jones, IMPACT 2018A Fellow, published an article in Science Advances on how “Microfluidic dielectrophoresis illuminates the relationship between microbial cell envelope polarizability and electrochemical activity” and another in Scientific Reports on how “Continuous shear stress alters metabolism, mass-transport, and growth in electroactive biofilms independent of surface substrate transport”
IMPACT 2016 Fellow Shoh Asano was recently published in Science, “Cortical column and whole-brain imaging with molecular contrast and nanoscale resolution.”
IDEA² Global faculty member and previous IDEA² Madrid Awardee, Jose Garcia-Martin published “Synergic antibacterial coatings combining titanium nanocolumns and tellurium nanorods” in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.
IMPACT Fellow 2016B and Peer Mentor Ester Caffarel-Salvador published in Science on “An ingestible self-orienting system for oral delivery of macromolecules.”
Ace George Santiago, IMPACT Fellow 2019A published Mechanical stress compromises multicomponent efflux complexes in bacteria in PNAS
IMPACT 2017B Fellow Ritu Raman was selected as a finalist for her essay titled “Modeling muscle” published in Science.
Catalyst alumni Nick Durr, Shivang Dave, Eduardo Lage and Daryl Lim published Quality of eyeglass prescriptions from a low-cost wavefront autorefractor evaluated in rural India: results of a 708-participant field study in BMJ Open Ophthalmology and “Validation of an Affordable Handheld Wavefront Autorefractor” Optometry and Vision Science.
11 high profile awards and recognition
Ritu Raman, IMPACT 2017B, was featured in STAT Wunderkinds for her biohybrid device. She also recently signed a solo book deal with MIT Press.
Di Feng, IMPACT 2016A, was named a STAT Wunderkind for her research in genetic mutations and kidney disease
Professor Susana Marcos Celestino won the National Research Award ‘Leonardo Torres Quevedo’ in the area of Engineering for its pioneering contributions to optical and photonic engineering and to the industrial development of diagnostic and correction instruments in ophthalmology which have benefited thousands of patients.
Ida Pavlichenko, IMPACT Fellow 2016A and Ritu Raman, IMPACT Fellow 2017B, were named in the Technology Review 2019 Global Innovators under 35 list
Teresa Arroyo Gallego, member of Catalyst project NeuroQWERTY startup nQ Medical and Ester Caffarel Salvador, IMPACT program Fellow and peer mentor, were named in the Technology Review Innovators under 35 Europe list
linQ faculty member Tim Padera was inducted as an AIMBE College of Fellows, one of the highest professional distinctions given to a medical and biological engineer.
IDEA² Global Program Chair Mercedes Balcells-Camps was recognized by MIT for Excellence Advancing Inclusion and Global Perspectives.
Shriya Srinivasan, IMPACT 2018B Fellow, won the 17th annual Delsys Prize from Deluca Foundation for innovation in electromyography
Marta Mele, IMPACT 2017A Fellow, was awarded the L’Oreal-Unesco For Women in Science Program
10 IMPACT alumni coached SPARC
IMPACT Program Fellows William Chen, Rob Knoerl, Khansa Sidahmed, Pere Dosta Pons, Nic Schwarz, Latrice Landry, Amanda Bolgioni-Smith, Filiz Yetisir, Collette Ncube and Dennis Jones provided valuable peer mentorship to undergraduates from UMass and regional community colleges.
9 program editions
This year, linQ conducted two editions of IMPACT plus the pilot IMPACT US, two editions of Catalyst (one in partnership with the VA and another focusing on Down Syndrome), the 2019 edition of IDEA2 Global, the special edition IDEA2 Global SPARC, and two editions of Rising Stars in Biomedical (one focused on women in biomedical and the other on underrepresented minorities).
8th IMPACT cohort finishes program
Plus the pilot IMPACT US cohort in the summer 2019, for a total of 155 Fellows since spring 2016!
7 media features
Ester Caffarel, IMPACT Fall 2016B and Peer Mentor, was profiled in the Catalonia press and in Science in Boston for her new ingestible microneedle medicine delivery technology to treat diabetes.
Catalyst Team Placenta’s research on improving pregnancy imaging techniques was featured in engadget.
Susan Conover was featured by The Capital Network for her success in closing fundraising for LuminDx (startup from Catalyst project Skin) and joining the Techstar 2019 cohort.
Martha Gray revealed lessons from MIT linQ in MIT spectrum.
Catalyst alumni’s Shivang R. Dave, Nicholas Durr, Daryl Lim and Eduardo Lage recounted experiences from their startup PlenOptika in a linQ news interview.
Suelin Chen, a jury panelist for IDEA2 in 2018, was featured in MIT News on the startup she co-founded that helps people share their end-of-life wishes with loved ones.
6 networking events
linQ and partner networking events attracted members of New England’s biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship community throughout the year.
(We couldn’t find only five of anything this year 🙂
4 growing linQ program communities
LinQ’s four main programs, Catalyst, IDEA2, IMPACT, and Rising Stars, involved 135 active participants and 76 faculty in 2019!
3 community members promoted to Assistant Professor
Amanda Bolgioni-Smith, IMPACT 2017B, IMPACT Peer Mentor, and linQ Community Manager joined Boston University as an Assistant Professor in October.
Andrew Jones, IMPACT 2018A, joined the faculty in Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor on August 26.
Danielle Mai, IMPACT fellow 2018B, will be starting as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University in January 2020.
…and Ester Caffarel-Salvador, IMPACT Fellow 2016B and Peer Mentor, accepted a position as a Senior Scientist in the Regenerative Medicine team at Leo Pharma in the Boston Tech Hub.
2 stage talks
Susan Conover (LuminDX, startup from Catalyst project Team Skin) pitched her company’s focus on using their app to detect skin disease with high accuracy from their large data set.
Lydia Bourouiba gave a TEDMED talk on the physics behind “How disease and epidemics move through a breath of air.”
1 Over $1.8 million in project funding raised
Leuko, a startup making the first device for non-invasive white blood cell monitoring and a spinoff from Catalyst, announced it raised $1.8 million in seed financing. Leuko is also hiring a software engineer and a hardware engineer
Maria Yañez Mo, 2018 IDEA² Global team member, received funding from UAM for a new antiviral therapeutic target.
Congratulations everyone and Happy New Year