The Texas native says his goal is to wake up every day, excited by the possilities, and working to improve human health.
Mindy Blodgett | HST
Favour Obuseh, HST MEMP PhD ’26, raised in Houston, Texas, first visited MIT as part of the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP). This is when Obuseh, who was studying biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio, first learned about the Harvard-MIT program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST).
Discovering HST set him on a journey that he is still on today, one that he describes as being “in a place where I am doing work, that, when I wake up every day, I am excited to do, and where I feel like I am doing something to help human lives improve. Overall, that is my goal in life.” To that end, Obuseh will be attending Yale University School of Medicine in the fall, with the long-term goal of becoming a medical oncologist.
The MSRP program, which aims to promote graduate education as a “meaningful and attainable goal,” introduced Obuseh to the possibilities of continuing his studies and research. Obtaining a graduate degree is a first in his family, Obuseh says. One opportunity that he says galvanized his interest in continuing his education was being able to do some work in the Niles Lab, which is run by Jacquin C. Niles, MD, PhD, the Whitaker Professor in Biomedical Engineering, MIT. The Niles Lab is focused on infectious disease research, specifically on malaria and the causative pathogen Plasmodium Falciparum.
“Dr. Niles is an exceptional scientist, working to design better drugs to eradicate malaria,” Obuseh says. He describes his time in the lab as an “impactful experience that crystallized for me the power of biomedical research to change the trajectory of entire populations.”
While at MSRP and learning more about HST, he says the combination of research and medicine surprised him: “I had no idea it was possible to do an MD/PhD…that you could get more clinical exposure while engaging in medical research, getting the translational research interface with patients. That really opened up my mind to the possibilities.”
Obuseh said that growing up, “I loved biology, physics, and engineering, so I studied biomedical engineering since it combined all these things that I loved.” When he was graduating, the worldwide Covid pandemic was underway. Recalling his experiences at MIT and the introduction to HST, and the friendships he made among some of his fellow MSRP colleagues—some of which he says he still has today—he decided to come to HST. It was a decision that he says has brought him where he is today, excited about a career in medicine, and in scientific research. “The experiences I have had at HST have been invaluable,” Obuseh says.
Coming to Boston from Texas was not as much of a culture shock as he had feared: “I slid right into Boston culture, and I love it here. The only thing that caught me off guard, was how insanely expensive it is to live here.”
In 2021, when classes at HST started to meet in person, Obuseh recalls that “everyone was so excited to be able to be together, finally. There were lots of hangouts, I lived with other students in the program. We would grab food and have marathon study sessions at the student lounge on the MIT campus. I remember many times, being there studying until 2 am, then getting up a couple of hours later and starting it all again.” He said that the cohort’s diverse academic background was one of its greatest strengths, as students were able to draw from their varied expertise to help one another, creating a collaborative environment where individual knowledge gaps were filled through collective learning.
One prized memory he has of his time at HST, and of his supportive HST cohort, is of running the Bionics5K, a road race that welcomes all runners, but which at its core is a race for runners with prosthetics, or an artificial hip or medically upgraded knee. All proceeds from the event benefit the Bionic Project, a nonprofit that tackles disability bias and promotes inclusivity through education and adaptive sports. Obuseh and other HST students joined Christopher Shallal, an HST MEMP PhD students who is in the Biomechatronics lab at the MIT Media Lab, in running the race. Shallal has been working on projects ranging from biomechanical modeling to myoelectric control of prostheses.
He also recalls that taking “the pig lab” (HST.090 Cardiovascular Pathophysiology) with Elazer Edelman, HST MD ’83, HST MEMP, ’84) Edward J. Poitras Professor in Medical Engineering and Science, and a cardiologist, was “an eye-opening experience.”
“We were able to really gain some insight into cardiology,” Obuseh says, recalling that in his first semester, it was also very impactful to participate in an autopsy, as part of the pathology course taught by Rick Mitchell, professor, pathology, Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Robert Padera, HST MD ’00, HST MEMP ’98, associate professor MGB, HMS. “I really got a lesson on appreciating human life, and the human body. The message was that human life is very fragile…I spent the following months feeling grateful for the life I had and taking in how incredible the human body is.”
During his time at HST, Obuseh studied how biological tissue properties, such as stiffness and viscoelasticity, affect the phenotype and function of immune cells. His work has been focused on the design of tissue mimetic biomaterials, with controlled stiffness and viscoelasticity, in order to study the impact on gamma delta T-cells, in the context of improved expansion and cytotoxicity of these cell products for solid tumor therapy. His thesis topic: Enhancing gamma delta (γδ) T-Cell therapies through engineered biochemical and mechanical microenvironments. His research was at the Mooney Lab—Laboratory for Cell and Tissue Engineering at Harvard University, led by David Mooney, Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering, Harvard, and core faculty member, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
Working at the Mooney Lab was deeply rewarding, Obuseh says, as it introduced him to the intersection of immunology and biomaterials, where he learned how to design biomaterials that can modulate the immune system and its responses.
Now that he is moving on to his medical training, Obuseh says that he has learned that while he loved doing research, he is also excited by the possibilities of being a clinician. He shadowed doctors across Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB), Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), where he spent the last year volunteering at the Yawkey Cancer Center “just to make sure this is really what I want to do.”
“Personalized medicine is the future,” he says. “And I really want to be a part of that from an oncological standpoint."