Three alumni from Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB) have been featured on the Forbes “30 under 30” list, which acknowledges entrepreneurs and trailblazers who are under the age of 30 in the United States and Canada.
Two of the three were alumni of the Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology (HDRB) concentration at Harvard College.
Ava Carter (HDRB Class of 2013), now a Ph.D. student at Stanford University, studies the dynamic changes to the epigenome during development and regeneration in stem cell populations. Recently, her work described how in an injury context, some cells can revert back to an early developmental state as part of the regenerative process. While earning her undergraduate degree, Ava worked in the Eggan laboratory in HSCRB.
Theodore Ho (HDRB Class of 2012), now a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, studies the biology of aging — in particular, how defects in autophagy affect aging in stem cells. During his time as an undergraduate in Debra Auguste’s laboratory, Ted developed a nanoparticle siRNA delivery system for human cells. He went on to receive his doctorate from the University of California San Francisco.
Kyle Loh, who worked in the Melton and Eggan laboratories in HSCRB, became a Stanford professor at the age of 24. He studies the directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. These cells could be used in regenerative medicine as therapeutic vehicles themselves, or could be used as templates for drug discovery and understanding of disease pathology. Kyle received his Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. from Stanford University.
The Forbes “30 under 30” competition results in 20 lists, each of which honors 30 entrepreneurs and innovators. Ava, Ted, and Kyle were selected from among thousands of nominees in the “Science” and “Healthcare” categories. Nominations are made primarily by Forbes reporters but also by past “30 under 30” honorees, the seed-grant funder Y Combinator, and individuals via the Forbes website. The finalists were decided by high-profile leaders in the field.