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Nhu Nguyen Nhu Nguyen grew up in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. She moved to the United States on her own to study abroad after her sophomore year in high school. In 2014, she graduated with high honors in biochemistry from Smith College. Following graduation, she spent two years as a research associate at Massachusetts General Hospital. As a PhD candidate at Harvard, Nhu is interested in immuno-oncology: a field that focuses on developing drugs to help a patient’s own immune system attack cancers. The goal of Nhu’s project is to understand why some tumors can evade the immune system. She will then use this insight to develop strategies to sensitize these “resistant” cancers to newly developed immunotherapies.
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Michelle Prew Michelle Prew grew up in Lynnfield, MA and graduated from Boston College, summa cum laude, in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Honors Biology. After working as a research associate in a genetics laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital for two years, she entered the Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD program at Harvard. Michelle is now focusing on understanding the mechanisms that keep tumor cells alive and aims to use what she discovers to develop new cancer therapies. Outside of lab, Michelle enjoys serving as a mentor for HPREP, a high school science enrichment program for students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds.
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Lara Roach Lara was born and raised in Anaheim, California. She graduated from UCLA in 2016 with Highest Departmental Honors in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and was awarded the Dean’s Prize Medal of Excellence. As a graduate student Lara is interested in understanding how specific metabolic defects in cancer cells support tumor development and cause them to be resistant to certain therapies. In addition to her research, Lara is passionate about increasing diversity in the STEM fields through scientific outreach, mentoring, and community building.
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Bing Shui Bing Shui was born and raised in Nanjing, China and he graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College. As an undergraduate he was selected to participate in two competitive internships: one at the Mayo Clinic and the other at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. These experiences led to his current interest in understanding how the KRAS gene, one of the most commonly mutated genes in colon and lung cancer, causes resistance to specific therapies.
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Kaylyn Williamson Kaylyn Williamson grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and graduated in 2011 from Wellesley College with a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Chemistry with honors. Following college, she sought out extensive additional research experience in both academic and pharmaceutical company settings. Collectively, these experiences led her to her current interest in studying “epigenetics” in cancer development and treatment. As a graduate student, Kaylyn will be focusing on understanding how a specific epigenetic regulator uniquely functions in small cell lung cancer and aims to use this insight to identify new therapeutic strategies and/or improve existing therapies.
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