News
2025
June
2025
Congratulations to Nova on receiving the 2025 Faculty Career Development Fellowship! Sponsored by Boston Children’s Hospital, this award supports early-career faculty in building research momentum.💥🧪
Nova gave a talk at the Holden Prostate Cancer Academy (CHPCA) Meeting.
Shoutout to Ella and Han for earning Harvard funding for their summer research! Ella will be participating in PRISE, a vibrant Harvard program that brings together undergraduates from across the sciences for a summer of discovery and collaboration.
Welcome to the lab, Julie! Joining us this summer from AgroParisTech, she’ll be working alongside Camille — and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome another French scientist to the lab!
A warm welcome to our summer students, Valentine from UC Berkeley and Joy from Bunker Hill Community College – both Indonesia represents ✨! Additionally, huge congratulations to Valentine for her scholarship from the HMS Immunology Undergraduate Summer Program.
May
2025
Dr. Hidde Ploegh Retirement Symposium
We hosted the Retirement Symposium of Dr. Hidde Ploegh, celebrating over 40 years of scientific research and mentorship.
Congratulations to Dr. Hidde Ploegh and thank you for all your guidance and support!🐟🐠🦙
Nova gave a talk at the Rheumatoid Research Foundation Investigator Meeting.
Nova is awarded the Breakthrough T1D Career Development Award! This award will support our ongoing research on engineered nanobodies to tackle type 1 diabetes.
We’re thrilled to share that Ayman, our fantastic 2024 summer student, will be starting his PhD at Tufts University this fall! Wishing him all the best on this exciting new chapter.
April
2025
The Pishesha Lab is honored to receive the Lupus Research Alliance Innovation Award. We’re so grateful for their support and excited to keep pushing the boundaries of lupus research! 🎉🪅
Congratulations, Niklas! He’s wrapped up his internship with us, and while we’re excited for all that’s ahead for him, we’ll definitely miss the German banter and good vibes. Wishing you all the best in your next adventure!
Lab Renovation and Move is Complete! Let’s see how long our lab looks tidy for!
The Pishesha Lab extends heartfelt thanks to Medicines for Malaria Venture for their generous support — we're excited to move our research forward together.
Welcome, Ely, our very first Research Assistant! Here’s to an amazing antibody inventory and much more!
March
2025
Congratulations to Nova on receiving the Paul T. Englund Emerging Scholars Award from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine! 🌟 This award honors rising scholars poised to drive future scientific breakthroughs and foster a vibrant, inclusive, and innovative landscape in biochemical research.
A warm welcome to Hector, a Master’s student from Freiburg University! He’s bringing his talents to the lab and will be working closely with Manpreet — we’re excited to have him on board.
Exciting news — Camille has been awarded the American Heart Association Career Development Award! 🎉 Huge congratulations on this well-deserved recognition of her innovative work and dedication.
February
2025
Nova Gives a Talk at Brown Pathobiology on the topic “Engineered Nanobodies to Visualize and Direct Antigen-Specific Tolerance”.
Nova Gives a Talk at Stanford Neuroimmunology.
Welcome back, Stephanie! PhD Student #3 is officially on board!
A big bienvenue to Mahina, who joins us from France as a Bachelor’s student in Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology, and Biochemistry! She’ll be diving into research alongside Leire and Camille — we’re so glad to have her energy and curiosity in the lab!
January
2025
Say hello to Leire! She’s joining us as a Master’s student — and already making waves with her Navarra Grant. We’re so excited to have her (and her brilliant ideas) in the lab!
Happy New Year — and a double welcome to our first two postdocs, Camille Le Gall and Floris Van Dalen! Both earned their PhDs at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and we’re so excited to have their expertise (and French and Dutch science power!) in the lab.
2024
December
2024
Pishesha Lab’s 1st and Ploegh Lab’s Joint Holiday Party! A warm holiday dinner was held at Casa Nova with members of the Pishesha and Ploegh Lab. Cheers to delicious Indonesian food, amazing poems, and the signature big gels! Here is to many more to come🎄🎁
November
2024
Nova received Best Talk at the Tykeson Fellows Meeting! Congratulations, Nova! Read more about the 2024 Tykeson Fellows Meeting here.
Nova serves as a panelist at the MIT SUBE (Society of Underrepresented Biologists and Biological Engineers) Retreat panel, which aims to empower underrepresented minority students in the biological and bioengineering departments at MIT.
October
2024
Nova spoke at the 1st Annual Conference of the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association – New England Chapter (CBA-NE).
September
2024
Say hi to Ella, our luckiest lab member! Ella returns to our lab as a Harvard undergraduate student after her previous internship in the Ploegh Lab — clearly, we passed the vibe check.
Nova gave a talk at the European Congress of Immunology in Dublin titled “Engineered nanobodies as tools to visualize and direct antigen specific tolerance”. 🍻
August
2024
Nova gave a talk at the Leading-Edge Fellows Retreat at CSHL, which brings together women and non-binary postdocs with mentorship and career development training and a platform for diverse exchange and connections.
Ayman Finishes His Summer Internship! Ayman will head to Kenyon College to complete his final year of undergraduate studies. We'll miss you Ayman!
Happy Birthday Tyr! Our PhDog student, Tyr, turned 2! We had another BBQ. You can never go hungry in this lab!
July
2024
Happy Summer and 4th of July! The first Pishesha Lab BBQ was hosted. Excited for more to come!
More exciting funding news! The Pishesha Lab Receives the Innovative Research Award from the Rheumatology Research Foundation, which will support our ongoing works on engineering nanobodies to tackle rheumatoid arthritis.
June
2024
The Pishesha Lab is honored to receive the Charles H. Hood Foundation Child Health Research Award!
We're deeply grateful for their support in advancing our work to improve child health.
Welcome to the lab, Niklas! As the lab’s newest Master’s student, Niklas will be teaming up with Manpreet— double the science, double the fun!
Warm welcomes to our newest member, Ayman! Ayman is joining us from Kenyon College – get ready for a protein production-packed summer and many fun Panera breaks!
Lauren defended her Master’s Thesis! We are so happy for you, Lauren! We wish you the best in your PhD journey at MIT - don’t forget to visit us every now and then!
Nova gives back-to-back talks at Taipei Medical University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
May
2024
Nova Gives a Talk at the MIT Master Class, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan titled “From Lab to Launch: Young Scientists Sparking Change Through Entrepreneurship”.
Nova Gives a Talk at the National Biotechnology Research Park Demo Day, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. The Demo day promotes international cooperation and the global biomedical market.
Nova Gives a Talk at the 2024 Global Rare Diseases Symposium, Shanghai, China. The symposium brings together over 100 speakers and around 3,000 attendees from academic institutions, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies.
April
2024
Nova gives a talk at the 4th Annual Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC) Future of Immunology in Houston, Texas, which brings together basic and translational researchers, clinicians, and students in quantitative biomedical sciences to a collaborative training and research platform.
March
2024
Stephanie defended her Master’s Thesis! Congratulations Stephanie - we can’t wait to see you again soon!
The Lab Website is Live! Our Lab Website is finally here! Thanks to Manpreet, who keeps bugging Nova to get it done =P
We’re thrilled to welcome Manpreet back to the lab — now as a PhD student! After his internship with Nova at Boston Children’s Hospital, it’s great to have him with us again!
Cheers to new beginnings! The Pishesha Lab is honored to receive a pilot grant from Boston Children’s Hospital. Huge appreciation to the Office of Sponsored Programs for their support!
Welcome Han, our 1st undergraduate researcher from Harvard College! Han is originally from Vietnam and is studying Molecular and Cellular Biology. She will work with Priscilla =D
February
2024
The Pishesha Lab Warming 🍲🍛🍰
We are so excited to host the Pishesha Lab Warming, featuring the best Indonesian food in Boston ;D
Alpacas, Nanobodies and the Future of Medicine
A big thank you to Boston Children’s Hospital and the Wall Street Journal for highlighting our work in nanobody research and development!
Welcome back, Priscilla! Priscilla joins the lab as the 1st PhD student after her previous master’s internship with Nova in the Ploegh Lab at the Boston Children’s Hospital.
January
2024
Nova gives back-to-back talks at the Exeins Health Initiative, Etana Biosciences, and Kalbe Farma, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Welcome Stephanie and Lauren! Stephanie and Lauren join the lab as our 1st cohort of Master's students. We are so excited to have you!
Day 1 - Official Opening of The Pishesha Lab
Hello, world. The Pishesha Lab has officially opened at the Division of Immunology, Boston Children's Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School. New Year, New Lab. Hip hip hurray! 🥳