Novalia (Nova) Pishesha completed her PhD in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018. Her thesis focused on engineering red blood cells to treat autoimmune diseases, hyperlipidemia, and biodefense against lethal bioweapons. She was subsequently elected as a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, where she conducted research at Boston Children’s Hospital. There, she developed alpaca-derived single domain antibody fragment (nanobody)-based platform to create innovative therapeutics for immune modulation, including the treatment of various autoimmune diseases and applications in vaccines.