People

The people behind IPI share a passion for science. We are driven by our mission to power discovery and improve human health.

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Our Team

Commercial Development Manager
Yamina A. Berchiche

Accounts Payable and Payroll Specialist
Salma Clark

Information Technology Manager
Stephen Sousa

Principal Scientist and Team Leader
Haisun Zhu

PrincipalScientist, Antibody Production
Shaotong Zhu

Research Associate

Mina Abdollahi

Mina Abdollahi earned her first MS degree in inorganic chemistry in Isfahan, Iran and her second pharmaceutical sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. She worked as a pharmacy supervisor at CVS. After graduating, she joined IPI’s Antibody Production team. Fun fact: she enjoys woodworking with her husband.

Research Associate

Krishna Anand

Prior to joining the IPI team, Krishna Anand earned her BS degree at Reed College, where she worked in the Shampay lab, designing protein constructs in the model organism Xenopus laevis. Her protein is potentially involved in suppression of DNA damage at the chromosome ends.

Scientist Biophysics

Murali Anuganti

Murali Anuganti comes to IPI from his postdoc at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. Before that, he received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, in 2018, studying the kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis using a model cellulose film and surface plasmon resonance method. Originally from Telangana, India, Murali says that if he were a car, he would be a Ferrari.

Research Associate

Filmawit Belay

Filmawit Belay earned her BS at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts. She completed an internship at Boston University in the chemistry REU program, followed by an intership at Biogen in pharmaceutical operations and technology. She cannot live without Injera, a type of Tigrigna flatbread.

Commercial Development Manager

Yamina A. Berchiche

Yamina A. Berchiche earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Montreal, specializing in G-protein-coupled receptor molecular pharmacology. Before IPI, she worked as a scientist in academia, government and the private sector. Most recently, she was a scientific account manager at Abcam, a global life sciences company. Yamina speaks five languages and, in her free time, makes handcrafted soap.

Accounts Payable and Payroll Specialist

Salma Clark

Salma Clark previously worked for Herb Chamber BMW of Boston and has been to Thailand three times.

Accountant

Kathy Chen

Kathy Chen is responsible for purchasing supplies and equipment and performing accounting tasks such as preparing monthly journal entries, completing monthly prepaid expenses, payroll, and deferred reconciliations here at IPI. She has worked at IPI for two years, and loves that she can learn about procurement, accounting and the Institute.

Bioinformatics Scientist

Sun Sook Chung

Sun Sook Chung was a postdoctoral research fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute following her PhD studies at King’s College London, UK. She is a hybrid systems biology scientist, having studied leukemia via computational analysis and wet-lab experiments. Sun’s fun fact is that she has lived in three countries: South Korea, UK and, of course, US.

Administrative Assistant

Joana Dhima

Originally from Worcester, Massachusetts, Joana Dhima worked at Boston Medical Center, helping customers at the podiatry clinic. If she were a car, she would be a Jeep–she loves going on big adventures! Her favorite thing about IPI is the diversity.

Science Writer

Caitlin Faulds

Prior to joining IPI, Caitlin Faulds covered climate change and environmental justice as a multimedia journalist. She’s written and podcasted about COVID-19, new technology in psychiatry and breakthroughs in detecting alien life. Find her covering IPI’s big goals—and the people achieving them—or reading through old newspaper archives to see what dramas made the front page centuries ago.

Research Associate

Elizabeth Gavin

Elizabeth Gavin earned her BS in global biology from Georgetown University, in Washington DC, where she worked in the Schlegel Lab repurposing currently FDA-approved drugs (such as artesunate for malaria) to improve cervical cancer treatments. She also worked in the Umemori Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, studying the effects of particular biomolecules in the brain. Prior to IPI and during the pandemic, Eliza worked as a medical assistant in family medicine at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. Elizabeth has flown on an airplane over 2,000 times.

Antigen Scientist

Anita Ghosh

Anita Ghosh studied and worked at Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, and Boston University. In her previous roles, she used structural, biochemical, and biophysical methods to understand the roles proteins play in disease pathogenesis and drug resistance. Anita is from Kolkata, India and a movie that defined her childhood is Jaws.

Research Associate

Ngan Ho

Ngan Ho comes to IPI from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry. Her favorite things about IPI are the professional workplace and friendly colleagues. A fun fact: while people think she’s skinny, she actually loves to eat snacks constantly!

Research Associate

Nick Hollmer

Nick Hollmer is from Clifton Park, NY, and recently graduated from Syracuse University with a BS in Biology. He spent his undergraduate research experience studying transcriptional targets of drug resistance pathways in yeast. If Nick were a car, he would be a Bugatti and he loves that everyone at IPI is willing to help out if he ever has questions.

Science Writer

Halle Marchese

Halle Marchese is a science writer from Florida, where she covered research in fields ranging from ichthyology to information science. Now, she writes about the science and scientists that fuel IPI’s mission. She once hitchhiked 100 miles in Alaska to get to Denali National Park – and made it alive! Her favorite thing about IPI is that everyone is here for a purpose.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ben Meinen

Ben Meinen obtained his BS and MS at Martin-Luther University in Germany, and his PhD in a joint program between MLU Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Michigan (UM) in Ann Arbor. He has worked with protein chaperones, intrinsically disordered protein–protein folding, and amyloid formation. He also led the analytical ultracentrifugation unit at the UM. Ben’s hometown is Dusseldorf, Germany.

Executive Assistant

Sarah Merry

Before IPI, Sarah Merry was the executive assistant to the Chair of the Genetics Department at Harvard Medical School. Three fun facts about her: she loves British history, has two Tonkinese cats and enjoys audiobooks- she has over 400 in her library!

Lab Manager

Amita Patel

Before joining IPI, Amita Patel worked for Foundation Medicine Inc as a molecular technologist III, where she performed molecular testing to identify cancer care for targeted cancer treatment. She also worked at Boston Children’s Hospital as a medical technologist III, performing laboratory testing. Something fun to know about Amita: if she were a car, she’d be Toyota Rav 4: strong, capable and ready for an adventure!

Senior Research Associate

Matt Salotto

Matt Solotto worked in antibody discovery at Adimab for five years, managing many antibody campaigns. He focused on platform optimization, testing nanodiscs and whole cell selection for G protein-coupled receptor targets. Matt ran poker club at Adimab and his hometown is York, PA.

Information Technology Manager

Stephen Sousa

Stephen Sousa is an IT Professional with 26 years of IT experience and 20 years of experience implementing technology solutions. Before IPI, he worked as the IT manager at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Poverty Action Lab, and as a Senior Database Programmer/Analyst at the Archdiocese of Boston.

Research Associate

Sophia Ulmer

Sophia Ulmer is from Denver, CO, and recently graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a degree in chemical and biological engineering. While there, she was an undergraduate research assistant in Timothy Whitehead’s lab. One fun fact about Sophia is she drafted an entire fantasy novel while in middle and high School and hopes to one day publish a work of creative writing.

Senior Research Associate

Chang Yang

Chang Yang is from Taiyuan, China, and worked as a research associate at AB Biosciences, focusing on antibody-antigen interactions. Chang loves Disney princess movies and if there is one food she cannot live without, it is fruits.

Scientist

Roushu Zhang

Roushu Zhang joined IPI after earning BS degrees from the Sichuan University in China and the University of New Mexico, as well as a PhD from the University of Maryland. She focused on biochemistry and glycobiology and is currently working on antibody production. Roushu has an additional bone in her ankle, making the total number of bones in her body to be 207!

Principal Scientist and Team Leader

Haisun Zhu

Before joining IPI, Haisun Zhu was a principal scientist at Novo Nordisk research center in China, where he developed antibodies and biologics to treat hemophilia and diabetes. One antibody he discovered is currently in clinical trials. A fun fact: Haisun once put together a 6000-piece jigsaw puzzle in three months, which covered his entire living room floor.

PrincipalScientist, Antibody Production

Shaotong Zhu

Shaotong Zhu comes to IPI from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she worked as a postdoc, studying the structure and function of human neurotransmitter receptors. A fun fact about Shaotong: she reads her horoscope every week!

Interested in joining our team?

View our open positions