Welcome to our team page! HAMR is run by graduate students and postdoctoral affiliates and advised by a Harvard faculty committee. We are always looking to work with new trainees and professors. Please reach out via email or Twitter to learn about more ways to get involved.
Francesca Tomasi (Biological Sciences in Public Health: Rubin Lab, 2017)
Why can't we use common antibiotics to treat tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease in human history? Francesca is deeply fascinated by this question, and her work in Eric Rubin's lab at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying Mycobacterium tuberculosis's intrinsic resistance to antibiotics. She hopes to apply this work towards developing creative new ways to treat TB, and other infectious diseases that are recalcitrant to antibiotic therapy. When not running gels, Francesca can be found running through the streets of Boston, or playing with her beloved cat Charlotte.
Megan McCurry (Chemical Biology: Devlin Lab, 2017)
Originally from Atlanta, GA, Megan earned her BS in Biochemistry & Cell Biology from Rice University in 2017. As an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Yousif Shamoo’s lab at Rice, she studied experimental evolution to antibiotic resistance as a method to understand antibiotic mechanisms of action. During this time, Megan became passionate about the global health problem of antibiotic resistance and about finding ways to combat it, both inside and outside the lab. During her senior year at Rice, Megan joined other students in entering a Healthy Policy Competition, and their proposal titled, "Policy Proposal to Incentivize the Development and Adoption of Diagnostic Tools to Combat Antibiotic Resistance" was selected as a finalist for presentation to Baker Institute policy experts. As a PhD student in Sloan Devlin's lab at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Megan is working to discover novel steroid metabolism by gut bacteria and to understand the impact of these metabolites on human health and disease.
Kevin C. Ma (Biological Sciences in Public Health: Grad Lab, 2017)
Kevin is passionate about finding solutions to the challenge posed by antibiotic resistance using a combination of basic science, public health, and political advocacy. His work in Yonatan Grad's lab involves the application of genome-wide association methods to large clinical datasets of pathogenic bacteria to uncover novel resistance genes. He graduated with a BA in Molecular Biology and Statistics from Harvard College in 2017, where he was also involved with global health advocacy through the group Partners In Health Engage. In his free time, he enjoys rock climbing and playing soccer.