Academic Career Seminar

Dr. Kamila Mustafina

I am a mammalian synthetic biologist working on designing and optimizing genetic circuits in mammalian cells for applications in gene and cell therapy. In my PhD I was working on universal design strategies for mammalian riboswitches (aptazymes) and high-throughput methods to optimize them. Currently in my postdoc, I am working on programmable genetic circuits that could sense cell state. 

I grew up and did my undergraduate degree in Kazakhstan in a very cold town of Astana, at Nazarbayev University. Later I moved to OIST, Okinawa to do my PhD in Nucleic Acid Engineering. After PhD I decided to pursue a postdoc and familiarize myself with the biotech world, so I went for postdoc to Boston, MIT, Biological Engineering department. 

In my free time I like to watch anime, listen to the Strokes, go running, ice-skating and snowboarding. Also in my time in Okinawa I got addicted to karaoke and biking, so these are now my favorite things to do with friends. 

Dr. Swathy Babu

Dr. Swathy Babu is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. With over 10 years of research experience in molecular cell biology and cancer biology, Dr. Babu’s current research focuses on investigating aberrant RNA mediated oncogenesis and developing novel RNA-based therapeutics for treating melanoma. Dr. Babu completed her BS-MS dual degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, India where she investigated the effects of arsenic on cancer cell communication and progression.  She then earned her Ph.D. from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, where she investigated the physiological functions of Banp in cell-cycle progression in zebrafish retinas under the supervision of Dr. Ichiro Masai. Dr. Babu is passionate cancer biologist who is always eager to take on new challenges and contribute to innovative advancements in her field.