Abby Mungcal is a Senior Associate Scientist, Analytical Development at Strand Therapeutics. She received her BS in Chemistry from Northeastern University, where she worked with the Analytical Development group at Vertex as a co-op. Previously, she has worked at Vor Biopharma, where she ran, developed, and validated several HPLC based assays.
Aidan Coia is a Principal Associate Scientist conducting mRNA/pDNA process development. He is working to scale mRNA production by optimizing processes related to both synthetic biology and mRNA development. Prior to joining Strand, Aidan worked in pharmaceutical drug development and, most recently, worked to develop high-throughput COVID-19 testing processes. He received his B.S. degree in cell and molecular biology/genetics from Boston University.
Aidan Simpson is a Principal Associate Scientist in Strand Therapeutics’ mRNA Programming Department who started in November 2021. Aidan graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2021 with a B.S. in Biological Engineering and Business Management. During his undergrad at MIT, Aidan interned in the Weiss Lab and the Del Vecchio Lab, both of which focus on synthetic biology. He is currently supporting drug discovery at Strand by performing cell-based assays and molecular biology experiments.
Akshay Mavani is a Senior Associate Scientist for the mRNA process development department at Strand Therapeutics. Prior to working at Strand, he started out his career in biotech as a Manufacturing associate at Moderna Therapeutics supporting Intermediate mRNA upstream and downstream processes in large scale commercial mRNA covid vaccine team in 2021. He also worked at Tessera Therapeutics as Research Associate II within gene writing rewriting space manufacturing small scale RNA, supported process development, and early scale up activities to drive preclinical stage in vivo and ex vivo programs in 2022. He received a M.S. in Industrial Engineering at Wayne State University in Michigan with certification in lean sigma green belt and a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering.
Alexander Lemaire is an experienced process and analytical development associate in Strand’s Process Development group. He’s tasked with building Strand’s mRNA production and analytical platform. Alexander has experience in developing robust analytical assays and release strategies for regulatory interactions and IND enabling activities. Additionally, Alexander prides himself on making processes and analytics higher throughput and scalable through the use of automation and robotics. Previously, Alexander was at bluebird bio, where he developed, qualified and implemented novel release assays to evaluate clinical grade mRNA. Alexander graduated with a B.S. in Biology.
Wen Allen Tseng is a Senior Principal Scientist in Synthetic Biology at Strand Therapeutics. Prior to joining Strand, he was in the Research and Development group at Solid Biosciences, a company focused on developing gene therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Before working in industry, Allen was a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Synthetic Biology Center, where he engineered mammalian cells with genetic circuits to control cellular processes such as antibody glycosylation. He obtained his B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware and earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University, where he studied the involvement of an innate immune danger-sensing pathway in age-related macular degeneration.
Angelena Simms is a Principal Associate Scientist in the mRNA Process Development Department at Strand Therapeutics. She graduated in 2018 from Hofstra University where she received her B.S. degree in Biology. Prior to joining Strand, Angelena worked as a Senior Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Associate at GSK where she developed downstream protein purification skills in a GMP environment.
Apurva Upasani is an Associate Scientist I in the Nanoparticle Process Development team at Strand Therapeutics. She works on bridging the gap between LNP Discovery and MSAT by scaling the drug product from research/proof-of-concept to manufacturing scale as well as optimize and scale-up LNP formulations for pipeline applications. She also delivers and supports larger LNP production batches for in vitro/in vivo studies. Prior to joining Strand, Apurva was an LNP Process Development Co-op at Moderna, where she contributed to late-stage vaccine process optimization and scale-up. She earned her M.S. in Biotechnology with a concentration in Biopharmaceutical Analytical Sciences from Northeastern University.
Ashlesha is a cell and molecular biologist passionate about developing the next generation of cell and gene therapies. Her research expertise involves cell and gene engineering using systems such as viral vectors and gene editing platforms like CRISPR/Cas9 to deliver therapeutic cargo for translational applications in primary cells. As a Senior Scientist for Immune cell engineering at Strand, she is aiding the development of Strand’s unique mRNA-based cell therapy platform for applications such as CAR-T cells as cancer therapeutics. Before joining Strand, Ashlesha was working as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Michel Sadelain at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, focusing on developing novel synthetic biology approaches to improve CAR-T cell therapy particularly for solid tumors. Her work also involved developing novel constructs for optimized, cell-type specific expression of beta globin in erythroid cells for application in gene therapy for beta thalassemia. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University where she worked on identifying novel genomic locations for targeted CAR-T cell therapy using CRISPR/Cas9. She also holds a Master’s in Biotechnology from the University at Buffalo and a Bachelors in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Mumbai. She has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Nature and Nature Medicine and also has patents to her name based on her work.
Bree Burgett is an Associate Scientist II in the Bioanalytical Sciences group. She received a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Biomedical Sciences from the College of Coastal Georgia while competing on a nationally ranked collegiate softball team. After completing her playing years, Bree coached 2 seasons with the Brunswick High School softball program before entering the biotech industry. Before joining Strand, Bree analyzed a variety of drug products for stability and purity in a GMP environment at STC Biologics and performed RT-qPCR COVID-19 testing as a Process Development Associate at LabCorp and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Britt DiMarzio is a Senior Associate Scientist, In Vivo Pharmacology, at Strand Therapeutics. She has previously worked as a research assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital with the Genetics and Aging research Unit studying Alzheimer’s disease and Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 1 through analyses of mouse models and cell culture. Britt received her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Vermont.
Colleen is a Principal Associate Scientist on the Vector Engineering team at Strand Therapeutics. She previously worked studying novel gene functions in the malaria causing parasite at Boston Children’s Hospital. Colleen is a graduate of Union College, where she received her B.S. degree in Biology.
