People

Rahul Pal, PhD

Instructor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery

Dr. Rahul Pal is a molecular biochemist with a passion for advancing biomedical imaging techniques to improve cancer diagnostics and therapy. He received his graduate training at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where his research focused on the applications of optical microscopy (multiphoton, second harmonic generation, etc.) and fluorescence imaging in cancer biology. He subsequently obtained his postdoctoral training in biomedical optics in Dr. Anand Kumar’s lab at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School, where he has been an instructor since 2022. His current research focus lies in the identification of innovative image-based molecular and microstructural biomarkers for early-stage and metastatic cancers using optical imaging techniques.

Rahul_Pal@meei.harvard.edu

Asemare M. Taddese, PhD

Research Fellow in Otolaryngology

Asemare received his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and a joint master’s degree from Aix-Marseille University in France and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. He earned his PhD from Université de Haute Alsace-Mulhouse in France where his doctoral research focused on developing a label free optical imaging device for biological specimens. He has postdoctoral experience in OCT development and fluorescence microscopy. Asemare joined the Kumar Lab where he works on fluorescence lifetime imaging for cancer margin identification with an emphasis on instrumentation, and algorithm development for data acquisition and analysis. His long-term goal is to develop novel multimodal imaging techniques for clinical and preclinical applications to improve patient care. He enjoys football (so called soccer), ping pong, volleyball and other indoor activities. “

Amtaddese@meei.harvard.edu

Shriya Shukla, BS

Clinical Research Coordinator – Toth Center

Shriya Shukla is the Clinical Research Coordinator and Research Assistant for the Mike Toth Cancer Research Center, where she supports research in the Faden, Kumar, and Shalhout labs. She earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research interests include noninvasive diagnostic studies such as blood-based liquid biopsies, fluorescence lifetime imaging for surgical margin assessment, and circulating tumor DNA monitoring in head and neck cancers. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, hiking, and photography.

sshukla6@meei.harvard.edu

Allison Sweeney, MS

Research Assistant

Aly is from San Diego, California and received their bachelor’s and master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Tufts University. Before joining MEE, they were a researcher at the Integrated Biofunctional Imaging and Therapeutics Lab at Tufts, specializing in pre-clinical ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging of solid tumors to monitor anti-angiogenic therapies and photodynamic therapy. Their research interests include optical imaging, cancer biology, fluorescence-guided surgery, medical radiomics, optical contrast agents, and nanomedicine. In their spare time, Aly enjoys hiking with their dogs, skateboarding, and playing videogames.

aasweeney@meei.harvard.edu