Education | |
| 2003 - 2008 | Ph.D., Biological Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA). |
| 2000 - 2001 | M.S., Chemical Engineering, Institut Químic de Sarrià, Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain). |
| 1995 - 1999 | B.S., Dual degree Chemical and Industrial Engineering, Institut Químic de Sarrià, Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain). |
Research Experience | |
| 2008 - present | Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Laboratory of Mehmet Toner (Charlestown, MA, USA). Working towards the development of a rapid, point-of-care diagnostic for tuberculosis. The device will integrate a microfluidics chip for sputum sample processing and a miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance reader for sensitive mycobacterial detection. Expertise acquired in the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices using standard clean room techniques. Responsibilities include design of experimental plan, microfabrication and testing, grant writing, serving as liaison and coordinating meetings between the three research teams involved in the project, and mentoring two graduate students. |
| 2008 - present | Visiting Scientist, Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Laboratory of Sarah M. Fortune (Boston, MA, USA). Working towards the development of a rapid, point-of-care diagnostic for tuberculosis. Currently studying the composition and variability of the surface determinants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) with the goal of finding a high-affinity, universal binding reagent to be used in whole-cell detection of Mtb in sputum. Expertise acquired in assay development and manipulation of mycobacteria in a biosafety level 3 laboratory. Responsibilities include design and execution of experimental plan, grant writing, processing IRBs to work with patient sputum samples, and mentoring a medical student. |
| July 2010 | Global Health Effectiveness Program, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA). Intensive summer program designed for health care professionals focusing on design, management, and evaluation of health care programs and services in resource-limited settings. The program includes two courses on Epidemiologic Methods for Global Health and Global Health Care Delivery and a seminar on Principles of Management in Global Health. |
| 2004 - 2010 | Project Mentor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, D-Lab Program (Cambridge, MA, USA). Design and implementation of appropriate technologies in the water and sanitation sectors in rural areas of developing countries. Technologies include low-cost microbiological water testing, community-based chlorination systems, water storage, and dehydrating latrines. Mentored and led teams of MIT undergraduate students working on International Development projects in Latin America and East Africa. |
| 2007 - 2008 | Founder, FertilGas (Cambridge, MA, USA and Tocoa, Honduras). Led the scientific and product development efforts to start a company to manufacture and distribute family-sized biogas generators as a technology to reduce contamination from animal waste and indoor smoke pollution, while generating business opportunities for the end-users. |
| 2003 - 2008 | Graduate Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry. Supervisor: Alice Y. Ting. Developed reporters for site-specific protein labeling and for detecting protein-protein interactions in live cells. Expertise acquired in organic chemistry, assay development, mammalian cell culture, fluorescence imaging, protein and enzyme biochemistry, molecular cloning, and RNA biochemistry. Supervised and mentored two undergraduate and two graduate students. |
| 2003 | Teaching assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry. 5.12 Organic Chemistry I. Instructor: Prof. Barbara Imperiali. Prepared and delivered recitations to a group of twelve undergraduate students. Graded homework and exams. Class webmaster. |
| 2001 - 2002 | International Development Worker, Fundación Hombres Nuevos (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia). Managed a center for severely malnourished children associated to the primary health care facility Virgen Milagrosa Hospital. |
| 2000 - 2001 | Research Assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Health Sciences & Technology Division, Biomedical Engineering Center. Supervisor: Elazer R. Edelman. Designed a bioreactor for subjecting cells to pulsatile flow in vitro and studied the frequency response of various cell types. Expertise acquired in surface chemistry, mammalian cell culture, simple electronic circuits, and construction of devices to exert fluid-mechanical forces on cultured cells. |
| 2000 - 2001 | Teaching assistant, Maria L. Baldwin Public School (Cambridge, MA) through the MIT LINKS program. Science lab for K-8. Assisted the teacher and prepared and delivered lab practice experiments. Focus was on supporting non-native English speakers of Hispanic origin. |
| 1999 | Research Intern at BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) in the Caprolactam production plant. Designed new distillation columns to optimize production efficiency. Columns were implemented one year later. |
| 1997 | Research Intern at Asturiana de Zinc (Asturias, Spain) in the R&D department. Researched electrolysis as method for purifying Zinc metal. Examined the role of pH, and found the optimum pH for the process. Optimum pH was implemented by the end of the internship. |
Fellowships and Awards (selected) | |
| 2008 - 2010 | Massachusetts General Hospital - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Career Development Postdoctoral Fellowship in Translational Research to support two years of post-doctoral research. |
| 2008 | World Bank Development Marketplace finalist for a start-up to promote distributed biogas energy for the rural population of Honduras. |
| 2008 | People Helping People Award from the MIT Federal Credit Union. |
| 2008 | Semi-finalist of the MIT 100K Business Plan Contest for a start-up to maximize dissemination of distributed biogas energy for the rural population at the base of the pyramid. |
| 2007 | Lewis Paul Chapin Graduate Fellowship. |
| 2007 | Winner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology IDEAS Competition for a low-cost wind-powered water pump for rural areas in developing countries. |
| 2003 - 2005 | Graduate fellowship from the La Caixa Foundation (Spain). |
| 2004 | Winner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology IDEAS Competition for the development of a novel solution to water treatment in developing countries. |
| 1994 | National prize Premio Extraordinario de Bachillerato awarded by the Spanish Government for excellence in high school. |
Patents | |
| , Baruah, H., Choi, Y., Ting, A.Y. “Methods and compositions for polypeptide and protein labeling using lipoic acid ligases” U.S. patent application no. 11/983605 (filed November 9, 2007). | |
Invited Talks (selected) | |
| May 2011 | Boston University Global Health and Engineering Seminar Series (Boston, MA, USA). |
| Apr. 2011 | Harvard Global Health Initiative Symposium on “New Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases: from Bench to Bedside” (Boston, MA, USA). |
| Aug. 2010 | TAAI workshop on tuberculosis diagnosis, University of Kwazulu-Natal (Durban, South Africa). |
| Aug. 2010 | Glaxo Smith Kline, Diseases of the Developing World Research Campus (Tres Cantos, Spain). |
| Apr. 2010 | Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard (Boston, MA, USA). |
| Oct. 2009 | Harvard Kennedy School, Panel on Global Health (Cambridge, MA, USA). |
| Jan. 2009 | Harvard School of Public Health, Immunology and Infectious Diseases Department Retreat (Cambridge, MA, USA). |
| Aug. 2007 | National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (Boston, MA). |
| Nov. 2006 | Harvard University Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Single Molecule Discussion Club seminar series (Cambridge, MA). |
| Oct. 2006 | MIT Biological Engineering division seminar series (Cambridge, MA). |
| Jul. 2006 | International Symposium on Optical Analysis of Biomolecular Machines (Berlin, Germany). |
| Dec. 2004 | Broad Institute chemical biology meeting (Cambridge, MA). |
Poster Presentations (selected) | |
| Jan. 2011 | Keystone Symposium on Tuberculosis Immunology, Cell Biology and Novel Vaccination Strategies (Vancouver, Canada). Title: Transforming High-Tech into a Low-Cost, Easy-to-Use Diagnostic Test: Towards Point-Of-Care Diagnosis of Tuberculosis using Microfluidics and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. |
| Jul. 2010 | New England Tuberculosis Symposium (Cambridge, MA, USA). Title: Variation in surface determinants among different strains of M. tuberculosis and its implication on TB diagnosis. |
| Oct. 2009 | Keystone Symposium on Overcoming the Crisis of Tuberculosis and AIDS (Arusha, Tanzania). Title: microNMR for point-of-care diagnosis of tuberculosis. |
| Jul. 2007 | 21st Symposium of the Protein Society (Boston, MA). Title: Re-directing lipoic acid ligase for site-specific labeling of receptors in living cells. |
| Apr. 2006 | Frontiers in Live Cell Imaging conference at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Title: Site-specific protein labeling in living cells using lipoic acid ligase. |
Languages | |
| Spanish (mother tongue), English (proficient), Catalan (proficient), German (intermediate), French (beginner). | |
Activities | |
| Mentor of MIT graduate women students, through the GWAMIT program (2012). Member of the American Chemical Society and the Protein Society. Executive member of the Sustainable Future for Honduras Project at MIT (leader of the water and sanitation group). President of the MIT chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (2003-2004). International development worker in Bolivia with an Spanish not-for-profit organization: administration of a Center for malnourished children, collaboration with the Virgen Milagrosa Hospital, and capacity building of local high-school Chemistry students (2000-2001). | |
Marta
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Visiting Scientist Harvard School of Public Health Dept. of Immunology & Infectious Diseases |
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Research Associate Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine |
 
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