Student Leadership Council Chair
Chaitanya Tondepu
University of Georgia
I am a 3rd year PhD student in the Neuroscience Program working in Dr. Karumbaiah’s lab at UGA. My research is focused on developing a microfluidic platform to perform high-throughput investigation of immunotherapy efficacy against Glioblastoma.
Student Leadership Team
Margot Amitrano
Student Representative
University of Wisconsin-Madison
I am a 2nd year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I am in Dr. William Murphy's lab developing optimized PEG-based hydrogels to improve the maturation of iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.
Elana Cooper
Industry Representative
Georgia Institute of Technology
I’m a PhD student in the Biomedical Systems Engineering Lab who joined the SLC to increase our trainee exposure to industry opportunities and how to translate our academic research to cell therapy products through IP and commercialization training.
Gabriel Cordero Bruno
Student Representative
University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez
I am a 5th year Animal Science and Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico. My investigation is focused on developing Raman Scattering and Surface Enhanced Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy.
Kanupriya Daga
Student Representative
University of Georgia
I am a 2nd year master's student in Biochemical Engineering at the UGA. Within Dr. Marklein's Lab, my research involves identifying various microglia morphologies under different conditions and developing it as a tools for the potency of MSCs.
S'Dravious DeVeaux
Student Representative
Georgia Institute of Technology
Sphingolipidomic characterization of MSCs cultured in 2D and 3D platforms. We are interested in understanding how 3D microenvironments and material properties affect MSC functions and lipid metabolism.
Jose Encarnacion
Undergraduate Representative
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Michelle Hernandez Torres
Student Representative
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
I’m a 2nd year MBA student at the UPRM. My research focuses on conducting a market evaluation on the cell manufacturing industry, while analyzing various commercialization frameworks that can be used in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry.
Ritika Jain
Student Representative
Georgia Institute of Technology
I’m a second year PhD student in Dr. Krish Roy’s lab at Georgia Tech, and my research is focused on improving feeder-free NK cell manufacturing approaches.
Gaby Lizana Vasquez
Outreach Representative
University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez
I’m a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the chemical engineering program at the UPRM under the mentorship of Dr. Torres-Lugo. I work on the synthesis/characterization of hydrogels as a matrix to grow CAR-T cells and evaluate their functionality in solid tumors.
Priscilla Pedrosa
Industry Representative
University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez
I am an Industrial Engineering and Project Management undergraduate student at UPRM. My contribution to CMat includes supporting the development of the current cell manufacturing technologies industry global value chain.
Dan Pham
Student Representative
University of Wisconsin
I'm a 3rd year PhD student in the Skala lab. My research focuses on using imaging technology to support development of CAR T cells for neuroblastoma.
Priyanka Priyadarshini
Industry Representative
University of Georgia
I am a Biomedical Engineering PhD student in Dr. Luke Mortensen’s lab. My research focuses on understanding immune potency of MSCs by lipidomic and phenotypic characterization.
Daniel Shah
Outreach Representative
University of Georgia
I'm a 2nd year Biological Engineering Master's student in Dr. Gomillion's Lab. My research focuses on optimizing a custom bioreactor for MSC conditioning and assessing their secreted products for changes in immunomodulatory profiles.
Keerthana Shankar
Industry Representative
University of Wisconsin-Madison
I'm a second year PhD Student in the Biomedical Engineering program at UW-Madison. I'm part of the Saha Lab, and my research focuses on using the CRISPR-Cas9 system to develop a non-viral CAR therapy using natural killer cells for neuroblastomas.
Madeline Smerchansky
Outreach Representative
University of Wisconsin
I’m a second year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, coadvised by Dr. Melissa Kinney and Dr. Kris Saha. I work on using systems and synthetic biology approaches for CAR T cell therapy and am focused on deriving therapeutic T cells from iPSCs.
