People
Dr. Anubhav Tripathi
Professor of Engineering & of Professor of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology
Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biomedical
Engineering Executive Academic Director of the Executive Master in Science and Technology Leadership (EMSTL) Program
Ph.D. students
Kiara Lee
Kiara received her Bachelors of Science in Bioengineering in 2018 from the University of Pittsburgh. She joined the lab in 2018 and is working on low cost patient sample preparation for downstream Next Generation Sequencing. Her work focuses on isolating DNA and/or RNA from patient samples from HIV-infected patients and those undergoing IVF. Kiara is also pursuing an MS in Global Public Health through the Open Graduate Program, and is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.
Cel Welch
After receiving a Bachelors of Science from McGill University in 2019, Cel joined the lab and has since obtained a Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Brown in 2022. Cel's thesis research focuses on creating new technologies for cellular diagnostics, such as novel electrical and electronic devices, microfluidics, and machine learning techniques. Cel is interested is in translating low-cost, accessible technologies for cancer diagnostics, fetal health, and minority health and disparities applications.
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Ramisa Fariha
Ramisa Fariha is a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering from Bangladesh. At the Tripathi Lab, her work focuses on the design and development of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based assays for clinical applications, especially in the female reproductive health realm (PCOS, Endocrine Disorders, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring) and oncology (toxicity, in vitro to in vivo extrapolation studies for breast and ovarian cancer). Ramisa utilizes principles of thermodynamics and microfluidics to make analyte detection faster and automatable, for small sample volumes. Ramisa received her bachelor’s (Penn State 2017) and master’s (Brown 2020) in Biomedical Engineering, prior to joining the Tripathi lab.
Adriana Coll De Peña
Adriana received a Master of Science in Public Policy in 2020, a Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering in 2020, and a Bachelors of Science in Molecular Bioscience in 2017 from Rochester Institute in Technology. Adriana joined the Tripathi Lab in 2020 and her research focuses on the development of microfluidic techniques to analyze different characteristics of adeno-associated virus (AAV).
Jennifer pollock
Jennifer Pollock received her bachelor’s of science degree in Chemical Engineering from University of California - Santa Barbara before joining the Tripathi Lab in the fall of 2022. Her research is focused on developing an ultrasensitive immunoassay method for the detection of disease biomarkers. Jennifer is interested in investigating how these ultrasensitive tests can be used to diagnose and monitor the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Christopher tannock
A Rhode Island native, Christopher received his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University in 2018 and has spent 6+ years within industry settings designing diagnostic platforms as a technical lead within new product development groups. Since joining the lab in 2020 to pursue a Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering, his academic work has focused on designing bioelectronic interfaces, biosensors, and oscillating electric fields for DNA and RNA separation.
masters Students
Olivia ott
Olivia received her Bachelor's of Science in Bioengineering (Biotechnology) in 2021 from the University of California San Diego. She joined the Tripathi lab in Fall 2021 and her research focuses on Next-Generation Sequencing library preparation, automation, and assay development for molecular diagnostics.
Jennifer figueroa-cruz
Jennifer received her Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering in 2022 from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. She joined the Tripathi lab that same summer and works with Next Generation Sequencing Library Preparation. Her work focuses on assay development and translating it for automation.
Jen Piserchia
Jen received her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from The College of New Jersey in 2019. She has spent the past 3+ years in the medical device industry as a process development engineer in additive manufacturing. Jen joined the lab in Fall 2022 and intends to work on the development of sensitive assays for the early diagnosis of female reproductive disorders such as endometriosis.
Undergraduate Researchers
Riley Renee Flores ('22.5)
Adam Spooner ('23)
Emma Rothkopf ('23)
Nina Li ('24)
Jessica Jacyno ('24)
Emma Hagenaars ('24)
Matei Vaduva ('25)
Sabrina Tolppi ('25)
David Okoh ('25)
Nicole Chen ('25)
Everett Gutterman-Johns ('25)
Jad Hamze ('25)
Jayson Smalls ('25)
lab alumni
Yasmin Karasu Benyes
M.Sc., 2022
Yasmin obtained her B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering in 2021 and her M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering in 2022. She did her research under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Cel Welch on a novel deep learning model for Pap smear diagnostics. She will continue her work on machine learning techniques for medical diagnostics with Cel Welch and will be pursuing a career in industry.
Prutha Sameer Deshpande
M.Sc., 2022
Prutha was a 2022 M.Sc. Biomedical Engineering graduate. She did her research under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Ramisa Fariha on an LC-MS/MS assay for detection of multiple analytes from breast milk, and worked collaboratively with PerkinElmer Inc. Prutha will be pursuing a career in industry.
Mohannad Jabrah
B.Sc., 2022
Mohannad was a 2022 B.Sc. Biomedical Engineering graduate. He did his research under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Ramisa Fariha on LC-MS/MS assays, working collaboratively with PerkinElmer Inc. Mohannad will be pursuing his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering.
William Brakewood
B.Sc. with Honors, 2022
William was a 2022 B.Sc. Chemical Engineering graduate. He did his Honors research project under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Kiara Lee on the subject of microfluidic extraction of plasma from whole blood using passive filtration and capillary collection. William will be pursuing his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University.
Lucy Masto
B.Sc., 2022
Lucy was a 2022 B.Sc. Biology (Immunology) graduate. She worked under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Adriana Coll de Peña. She will be working as a Clinical Research Assistant at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York before pursuing her M.D.
Claire Aibel
B.Sc. with Honors, 2022
Claire was a 2022 B.Sc. Biophysics graduate. She did her Honors research project under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Adriana Coll de Peña on the subject of an optimized CoBRA-GXT method for the microfluidic detection of breast cancer-associated DNA methylation. Claire will be working for Cambridge Biotech company - Factor Bioscience, post-graduation.
Thomas Usherwood
B.Sc. with Honors, 2022
Thomas was a 2022 B.Sc. Biomedical Engineering graduate. He did his Honors research project under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Dr. Schneider on the subject of microfluidic cfDNA extraction using magnetic beads and electroosmotic flow for NIPT. Thomas will be pursuing his Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics at Harvard and MIT.
Amy Oh
B.Sc. with Honors, 2022
Amy was a 2022 B.Sc. Biomedical Engineering graduate. She did her Honors research project under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi on the subject of multiplexed electric-field based DNA extraction from DBS. Amy will be pursuing her M.D. degree at Brown.
Lindsay Schneider
Ph.D., 2021
Lindsay's research focus was loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and Next Generation Sequencing DNA library preparation automation for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). Lindsay currently works at Detect.
Harry Yu
B.Sc. with Honors, 2021
Harry was a 2021 B.Sc. Biomedical Engineering graduate. He did his Honors research project under the supervision of Dr. Tripathi and Cel Welch on optimizing chemical, mechanical, and electrical parameters for tissue dissociation into single cells.
Mary Machado
Post-Doc, 2020
Mary attained a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University in 2016 with a focus on the materials analysis of nanomodified endothracheal tubes under the dynamic conditions of the respiratory system. Her thesis advisor was Dr. Thomas Webster. Her focus as a Post-Doc was in the electric field extraction of DNA from dried blood spots and multiple other projects. She is now a Professor at the Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Adam Snider
Ph.D., 2020
Adam's work largely focused on microfluidic applications for next generation sequencing. Adam's thesis was titled "Transport, Adsorption and Reaction of Genomic DNA in Nano-, Micro-, and Meso-Scale Geometries." Adam currently works at PerkinElmer.
Christina Bailey-Hytholt
Ph.D., 2019
Christina was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow who worked on developing new technologies for prenatal diagnostics. Christina's thesis was titled "Using Trophoblast Cells to Develop Biotechnological Approaches that Advance Prenatal and Women's Health." Christina is now an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worchester Polytechnic Institute.
Rachel Deraney
Ph.D., MPH, 2019
Rachel's work focused on the intersection of global health and point-of-care diagnostics with microfluidic technologies. Rachel's thesis was titled "Sample Preparation and Nucleic Acid Extraction for Molecular Diagnostics: Innovations for Resource Limited Settings."
Francis Cui
Ph.D., 2019
Franks research included microfluidic suspension plug transport, fluid transport modeling for proto-organ engineering and bead-based biomolecular isolation for microfluidic diagnostic applications. Frank's thesis was titled "Micro- and Meso-fluidics for Automated Biomedical Sample Preparation."
Gina Vimbela
M.Sc., 2019
Gina work electrophoretic recovery of DNA from dried blood spots and sensors.
Hannah Blakely
B.Sc., 2019
Hannah worked on isothermal amplification techniques.
Ileana Pirozzi
B.Sc., 2018
Ileana worked on single cell isolation and analysis technologies using microfluidic platforms. She is now working towards her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at Stanford University.
Lei Zhang
Ph.D., 2017
Lei worked on RNA ligase for laboratory use.
His PhD Thesis was: Molecular Diagnostics Using Biosynthetic Engineering and Microfluidic Design
Jeray Thelwell
M.Sc., 2017
Jeray worked on his Master's Thesis and
now works at Perkin Elmer.
Kurt Pianka
B.Sc. with Honors, 2017
Kurt worked on dengue fever and zika virus isolation and amplification. Kurt now works for Clear View (Bos) as a Consultant.
Kate Chamberlain
B.Sc., 2017
Kate worked on the automation of bead movement within a mircofluidic chip. Now she works at Goldman Sachs as a Real Estate Analyst.
Derek Troiano
M.Sc., 2015
Derek's masters thesis was on understanding the role of interfacial tension and how we could use this to worked on minimizing carryover volume. He pursued a full-time position at Perkin Elmer and is now in a Ph.D. Program at McGill University in Canada.
Derek Croote
B.Sc. with Honors, 2013
Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering at Quake Lab, Stanford University.