The HST 2025 graduation

There were 49 clinician-scientists in this year’s graduating class, 41 attended the ceremony

Mindy Blodgett | IMES/HST

It is “joy and curiosity” that drives HST students: that was the message from the Layla Siraj, HST MD ’25, who was the student speaker at the 2025 Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) graduation.

A total of 49 graduates obtained degrees, in a celebration attended by family and friends, as well as HST faculty and staff. The ceremony, which took place on May 27 at the MIT Media Lab, included recipients of 28 HST Medical Degrees (MD), and 19 Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP) PhDs, and two Graduate Education in Medical Sciences, or GEMS certificates.

There were 41 graduates in attendance. HST MD graduates also participated in Harvard graduation events on May 29, and graduates of the MEMP PhD program participated in the MIT School of Engineering Advanced Degree ceremony, and hooding event, on May 28.

HST Associate Director Richard N. Mitchell, MD, PhD, gave the traditional opening remarks, and congratulatory presentations were delivered by Harvard Medical School (HMS) Dean George Q. Daley, MD (HST ’91), PhD; and Alex K. Shalek, PhD, director of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), MIT.  MD degrees were presented by Wolfram Goessling, MD, PhD, director of HST at Harvard, Matthew Frosch, MD (HST ’87), PhD, HST associate director, admissions and Daniel A. Solomon, MD, HST associate director, Clinical Learning. PhD degrees were presented by the director of HST at MIT, Collin M. Stultz, MD, (HST ’97), PhD, director of HST at MIT, and associate director of IMES (IMES is HST’s home at MIT) and Henrike Besche, PhD, director of education in HST. Also participating in the ceremony were Thomas Heldt, PhD (HST MEMP ’04), associate director of IMES, as well as Junne Kamihara, MD (HST ’08), PhD, HST associate director, MD advising. Bernard Chang, MD, dean for medical education, Harvard Medical School, and David Golan, MD, PhD, dean for research initiatives and global programs, Harvard Medical School, were in attendance.

Dean Daley, an HST alumnus, started his comments by acknowledging that Goessling has announced that he is leaving HST in the fall to become chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, and the Physician-in-Chief in Medicine for the Yale New Haven Hospital system, stating that the HST program will miss him, and pointing out that the current Yale School of Medicine Dean Nancy J. Brown, is also an HST alum (HST MD ’86). He said, “I want to acknowledge the extremely turbulent time you are graduating into…it’s an immensely difficult time for science” including the abrupt cancellation of research contracts and cuts to the National Institute for Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding. But he urged graduates to “lean into your values, the search for objective truth…we conduct research because we prize knowledge, and we believe that everyone deserves human health.”

Shalek spoke of feeling optimistic about the possibilities for all that the graduates will accomplish, and he told them that “Science, at its core, is collaborative…you’re not just scientists, and physicians, you are trailblazers.”

“Keep going, even when it’s hard,” Shalek said. “You’re not alone…you have each other…I can’t wait to see what you can do.”

Siraj began her talk by detailing all the many extraordinary accomplishments of the graduating class, including a graduate who plans to go to law school next, and those who are working on the cutting edge of research. She said she looked forward to the “camaraderie of meeting another HST-er in the wild” and she called the experience of being in HST “a meeting of the minds that will last a lifetime.”

The HST 2025 Graduates:

Doctor of Medicine 

Medical Sciences

Minhal Ahmed, BS, MPH

Thesis Topic: Effect of Early-Life Bacterial Colonization on Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Elliot Akama-Garren, SB, PhD

magna cum laude

Henry Asbury Christian Award

Thesis Topic: T Cell Help Shapes B Cell Tolerance

Douglas Brown, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: MFSD7C is an ATP Transporter that Supports Bacterial Killing by Alveolar Macrophages in a Lipid-Rich Microenvironment 

Lucas Cahill, BNG, PhD

Thesis Topic: Non-Invasive Treatment of Cutaneous Neurofibromas: An Ex Vivo Investigation with High Intensity Focused Ultrasound

Kaitavjeet Chowdhary, BA, PhD

Thesis Topic: Decoding Regulatory T Cell Transcription Factor Networks: From Identity to Diversity

Juliana Coraor Fried, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: FALCON Systematically Interrogates Free Fatty Acid Biology and Identifies a Novel Mediator of Lipotoxicity

Jett Crowdis, BS

magna cum laude

The Seidman Prize for Outstanding HST Senior Medical Student Thesis

Thesis Topic: Synergy Between PD-1 and CTLA-4 Inhibition Yields Immune-Related Adverse Events

Alexandra Forman, BS

Thesis Topic: Leveraging Genome-Wide CRISPR Screens to Identify a Novel Regulator of HLA-E in Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma

Kaustav Aras Gopinathan, SB, PhD

Thesis Topic: Microfluidic Transistors for the Control of Liquids and Particles

Rahul Gupta, BSE, PhD

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: Nuclear Genetic Control of Mitochondrial Function and its Contribution to Human Disease: Insights at Biobank Scale

Zeshan Hussain, BS, MS, PhD

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Towards Precision Oncology: A Predictive and Causal 

Joyce Kang, BS, PhD

magna cum laude

Leon Reznick Memorial Prize

Thesis Topic: Integrative Analysis of Large-scale Single-cell Genomics Data in Immune-mediated Diseases

Sharon Heejin Kim, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: The Gordian Knot of Oxygen and Iron

Jesse Kirkpatrick, SB, PhD

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: Detection of Cholangiocarcinoma with Protease Activity Probes

Charlie Changwon Lee, BA

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: Overcoming Barriers to Biosimilars: Economic and Policy Implications of Delayed Biosimilar Adoption in the United States 

Kathryn Wenjun Li, BA

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Using Large Language Models for Data Extraction In Radiology Reports with Recommendations for Additional 

Daniel Michelson, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Thymic Mechanisms of T Cell Tolerance 

Dylan Neel, BA, MPhil, PhD

Thesis Topic: Gasdermin-E Mediates Mitochondrial Damage in Axons and Neurodegeneration

Suchita Nety, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: The Transposon-Encoded Protein TnpB is an RNA-Guided Nuclease

Catherine Newman, BS, MPhil, PhD

Thesis Topic: Regulation of Apoptosis “Beyond the Point of No Return”: Inhibition of Oligomeric BAX by an Antiapoptotic Dimer

Michael Pang, BS

Thesis Topic: Massively Parallel Base Editing to Map Variant Effects of GATA1 in Human Hematopoiesis

Jin K. Park, BA

magna cum laude

Richard C. Cabot Prize

Thesis Topic: Dying in a Democracy

Emily Rencsok, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Racial Disparities in the Care of Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer: An Analysis of Patient-reported Outcome and Experience Measures

Daniel Rubin, BA, PhD

magna cum laude

James Tolbert Shipley Prize

Thesis Topic: Mechanisms and Acquisition of Antibiotic Resistance in N. gonorrhoeae

Layla Siraj, BA, PhD

cum laude

HMS Multiculturalism Award

Thesis Topic: Characterizing Regulatory Elements and Non-Coding Variants in the Human Genome

Carla Carol Winter, BSE, MS, PhD

Thesis Topic: The Road from Thought to Action: A Brainwide Atlas of Spinal Projecting Neurons

Qiyu Zhang, BS

Thesis Topic: Atlas of Batten Disease Pathology and Therapeutic Response after Individualized Antisense Oligonucleotide Treatment

Maryann Zhao, BA

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Advancing Immunotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer: Optimizing Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte Therapy using Personalized Tumor Models

Doctor of Philosophy

Medical Engineering/Medical Physics

Michelle Zarrella Dion, SB

Thesis Topic: Engineered Biomaterials for Brain Cancer Immunotherapy 

Tyler John Dougan, BS

Thesis Topic: Single-molecule Diagnostics to Support Curative Interventions for Tuberculosis and HIV

Feyisayo Eweje, BS

Thesis Topic: Self-assembling Protein Nanoparticles for Cytosolic Delivery of Therapeutic Macromolecules

Natalie Griffin Ferris, BS

Thesis Topic: Modulation of Non-invasive Peripheral Nerve Stimulation with Magnetic Field Waveforms

Fatima Gunter-Rahman, SB

Thesis Topic: Examining the Placenta’s Role in Neurodevelopment in the Context of Maternal Obesity

Elizabeth Healey, BS

Thesis Topic: Precision Medicine in Diabetes Using Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Hannah Dale Jackson, BS, MNG

Thesis Topic: Monitoring and Treating Neurological Conditions through Focal Interfacing with the Brain

Irena Victoria King, BS

Thesis Topic: Origin and Correlates of Viral Rebound in SIV-Infected Rhesus Macaques Following Discontinuation of ART

Kimberly Lamberti, BS

Thesis Topic: Leveraging Right and Left Ventricular Coupling for Optimization of Mechanical Circulatory Support

Aditya Misra, BS

Thesis Topic: Tissue-encoded Design Principles of Host Defense

Jonathan Mitchel, BS

Thesis Topic: Computational Methods for Dissecting Multicellular Mechanisms of Complex Diseases

Anil Palepu, BS

Thesis Topic: Natural Language Foundation Models in Medical Artificial Intelligence

Antonio Gabino Salazar Martin, BS, MS

Thesis Topic: Endothelial Cell Plasticity as a Marker of Vascular Disease and Predictor of Adverse Outcomes to Stress

Amy E. Stoddard, BNG

Thesis Topic: Synthetic Regeneration of Engineered Liver Tissue Implants

Ami Utpal Thakrar, BS

Thesis Topic: Time-resolved High-pressure Freezing with Ligand Stimulation to Capture Nanoscale Cellular Dynamics

Constantine Tzouanas, BS

Thesis Topic: More Than the Sum of Parts: Deconstructing Tissues in their Spatial, Temporal, and Environmental Contexts

Eric Wang, BS

Thesis Topic: Computational Design of Vaccines Against Mutable Pathogens

Yong-Chul Yoon, BS

Thesis Topic: Towards Depth-resolved, Multicubic-centimeter Field of View Endoscopic Camera for Intraoperative Nerve Identification Future Plans: Co-Founder and CTO of Stealth Startup

Yifan Zhao, SBH

Thesis Topic: Decoding Brain Somatic Mosaicism with New Single-Cell Copy Number Analysis Methods

Graduate Education in Medical Sciences Certificate

April Anlage, BS

Thesis Topic: Clinical Applications of Volume Ultrasound and Methods for Robustness

Isabella Borgula, BA

Thesis Topic: Collagen-mimetic Peptides for Diagnosis and Analysis