Advisory Board for MS in Biology

Will McLean is a co-founder and the vice president of biology and regenerative medicine at Frequency Therapeutics. As an undergraduate, McLean studied biology at Tufts University before going on to attain a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology within the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. While at MIT, his doctoral research elucidated the distinct progenitor cell types that exist within the inner ear and their capacity to form sensory cells and neural cell types. As a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, Will investigated the use of small-molecule drugs to manipulate molecular signaling pathways to promote regeneration of inner ear sensory cells. Frequency Therapeutics is now using insights from Will's work to develop drugs to drive regeneration throughout the body, with a lead program in treating hearing loss by regenerating lost sensory cells. Beyond an application in hearing loss, Frequency is developing a pipeline of regenerative products for applications in multiple sclerosis, diabetes, skin, and gastrointestinal diseases. Will's work has led to 30 patent filings, and he has been recognized as an IDEA2 awardee by Harvard-MIT, a leader in Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy by Sartorius and Science, a 40 Under Forty Business Leader by the Hartford Business Journal, and one of the top 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review.

Robert Martone is a research scientist with deep expertise in neurodegeneration, neuro-oncology, biomarkers and drug discovery. He investigated hereditary neuropathies and the molecular biology of the blood brain barrier at Columbia University, and subsequently managed a portfolio of drug discovery programs at Wyeth Neuroscience targeting Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. He was the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Lead for the Covance Biomarker Center of Excellence, and later established a protein biomarker laboratory at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. More recently, he was Director of Pre-Clinical Research at Cognition Therapeutics. He is now supporting late stage biomarker and diagnostics efforts at Biogen. He has collaborated with and advised government and non-profit organizations in the field including the NINDS, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Alzheimer's Association and ILSI-HESI. His interests include renaissance Italian literature, and his translations have been published by Italica Press (Renaissance Comic Tales of Love Treachery & Revenge, and Antonio Manetti's The Fat Woodworker.)

Greta Loring is Senior Director of Research & New Product Planning at Alcresta Therapeutics. Prior to Alcresta, she was Director of Product Development at Enzymatics, where she led the development of enzymes and kits for next generation DNA sequencing and diagnostics. She previously worked on the development of oral enzyme therapeutics at Alnara Pharmaceuticals and Altus Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Loring earned her PhD in biochemistry at the University of Iowa and BS in biochemistry and molecular biology at Juniata College. She was a postdoctoral research associate at Dartmouth Medical School.

Dr. Erik Hett received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in the lab of Dr. Eric Rubin, studying protein-protein interactions important for regulating cell division in mycobacteria. His postdoctoral research was conducted in the lab of Dr. Deborah Hung at Harvard, Broad Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he conducted phenotypic high-throughput screens and utilized chemoproteomics for target ID. He previously was a chemical biologist in the MedChem Department at Pfizer and led a chemical biology team in the mechanisms and pathways group at Biogen. He is currently the Head of Experimental and Chemical Biology at the Merck Exploratory Science Center in Cambridge, MA.