Alim Ladha

Principal

2024 - Current

Senior Associate

2023 - 2024

Associate

2021 - 2023

Graduate Student

2018 - 2021

Graduate student in the lab of Feng Zhang advancing genome editing and molecular diagnostics using CRISPR. Selected inventions and publications: STOPCovid - A streamlined CRISPR-based COVID-19 diagnostic protocol, clinically validated and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. With 93.1% sensitivity and 98.5% specificity, no requirement for advanced instrumentation, and 30 minute time-to-result, STOPCovid provides the performance of complex PCR-based tests with the ease and flexibility of antigen-based tests. Pine Trees Health, a Cambridge-based startup, has raised $50M to commercialize STOPCovid. Covered by the New York Times, MIT News, and USA Today. CAST - a new class of genome editing tools for targeted insertion of large DNA sequences. Originally published in Science, we were the first group to demonstrate the functionality of these systems and their potential for genome editing. In Cell, we described exciting developments about the mechanism of CAST systems relevant for future biotechnological application. Covered by STAT News and MIT News.

Graduate Teaching Assistant

2020 - 2020

Graduate TA for 20.465: Engineering the Immune System in Cancer and Beyond

Researcher

2018 - 2018

Developed assays for the pre-clinical program FIN-524, a collaboration with Takeda to create a microbiome-based therapeutic for Ulcerative Colitis

Teaching Assistant

2017 - 2018

Undergraduate TA for ECE280 - Signals and Systems

Undergraduate Researcher

2017 - 2018

Pratt Engineering Undergraduate Fellow. Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model Progeria vascular endothelium in tissue-engineered blood vessels

Clinical Researcher

2016 - 2016

Clinical Researcher

2015 - 2015