Interdisciplinary Team

Anusha leads the Manufacturing operations at Strand. Anusha brings more than 10 years of experience in GMP manufacturing spanning various modalities from antibodies to cell and gene therapy. Anusha’s career is focused on late-stage PD and CMC. Prior to Strand, she was at Elevatebio, as part of the technical operations teams which helped bring several tech transfers of both Cell therapy and viral based processes from partners in to Elevatebio’s manufacturing facility. She also was part of Bluebirdbio’s manufacturing team and helped bring commercial therapies to the market. Anusha’s late-stage PD experience, her eye for Quality and her passion for problem solving have helped her solve manufacturing problems. Anusha received her MS in Biological Sciences with a certificate in Bioprocessing from UMass Lowell and her B.S in Biotechnology from A.C College of Technology, India.

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.

Ashley Njiru is a Senior Associate Scientist for the mRNA Programming Department at Strand Therapeutics. She has previously worked in developing gene editing constructs and dermatological cancer models at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She received her B.S. in Molecular Biology at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University in Boston, MA.

Bree Burgett is an Associate Scientist I 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.

Brett Rickeard is currently a Principal Associate Scientist in the mRNA Lipid Nanoparticle Formulation Development group at Strand Therapeutics. Brett completed both his B.S. in Forensic Science and his M.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Windsor. His graduate research project focused on investigating the biophysical impact of a potent anti-cancer agent on lipid membranes by using non-invasive techniques, such as neutron and X-ray scattering. Brett has been authored in several journals, including Nanoscale and Biophysical Journal.

Colleen is a Senior Associate Scientist on the mRNA Programming 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.

Dahyana is a Senior Scientist of RNA Discovery Biology at Strand Therapeutics. She is a molecular biologist interested in the development of new mRNA therapeutics. Prior to joining Strand, Dahyana received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. Her research interests at Yale included developing new tools and techniques to understand biological systems, specifically those involved in RNA processing. Dahyana’s PhD research focused on comprehensively characterizing the Cajal Body, a nuclear body essential for proper RNA processing in cells. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Mount St. Mary’s University.

Danielle leads the Regulatory Affairs function at Strand Therapeutics. She joins with 14 years of expertise in emerging biotech, big pharma, and consulting. Danielle’s career spans Regulatory and CMC functions across a broad range of therapeutic areas, technological modalities, and stages of development. She comes most recently from Verve Therapeutics where she was primarily responsible for all Reg CMC activities contributing to the FIH use of base editing. Previously, she served as a regulatory consultant on a high variety of projects with Halloran Consulting Group. Earlier in her career, she held roles in analytical development at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology) working at the laboratory benchtop and creating a strong CMC foundation for her career. Danielle earned her BS in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.

Danish is a Senior Associate Scientist in the Vector Engineering team at Strand Therapeutics. Prior to joining Strand, Danish completed his bachelor’s in biology from Calvin University and a master’s in biotechnology from the University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center where his research focused on generating chimeric viruses containing highly conserved SARS-CoV-2 broadly neutralizing epitopes as vaccine candidates. In his free time, Danish likes playing/watching soccer, watching movies, and exploring.