Arena BioWorks

Always good for a laugh, Dan Gray—voted most likely to reference the Peloponnesian War while talking science—hails from a literary family. Though he broke from tradition to study science, he reads voraciously, and his interests—like his thinking—run both broad and deep.

Arena's first Summer Social was a smashing success! It was a warm welcome for many new faces and a bittersweet sendoff for three research associates who helped turn the Arena dream into a reality and are now taking their hard work and grit to graduate school.

Ken Lam is as humble as they come, but don't be mistaken. During presentations, his kindly asked but searingly insightful questions have been known to leave jaws on the floor. Penetrating minds like his are invaluable to shortening the path from insights to therapeutics.

Like some modern-day reverse Christopher Wren, Tasos might have been an architect but brought his design sense to the molecular scale. Fueled by espresso, this physician-scientist-dad-of-a-toddler never loses sight of the potential impact of his role. He could use a nap though.

Polyglot Giulia Oliva speaks English, Greek, French, and her native Italian. She would love to learn more but is busy with another manner of translation—turning her splendido mind to generating insights in the lab that she hopes to translate to new ways of treating disease.

When Martha walked into Arena's first holiday party and saw chalk drawings of holly in the shape of DNA, she didn't see a decoration. She saw an invitation. We celebrate our doodlers, designers, musicians, and artists of all kinds. Creativity out of lab begets creativity in lab.

Manvendra Singh dreamt of becoming a pediatrician before he fell in love with organic chemistry. He still loves children and his young ones inspire him to approach designing diverse and complex compounds in the same way they approach life: with fearlessness, creativity, and awe.

Cornell grad Cristina Dabaco feels at home near our fledgling library. Her growing Goodreads list has her currently logged at 565 books, and her firm grasp of the sweeping narrative makes her a terrific science communicator, voted most likely to ask for a paper from the 1930s.

On a sunny day, you might find Ligi taking a break from her gene editing work to spend a minute on our balcony, feeling as nourished as the plants in her lovingly curated garden. She is a microbiologist by training with good lab hands to house her green thumb.

Being a physician-scientist-pathologist is all-consuming but Diogo will happily talk to you about anything from Sid Mukherjee books to Salvador Dali paintings to the best local food spots. He has trained in Lisbon, Paris, Barcelona, and Cambridge, MA. A true Renaissance man.