Madhumita is the Principal Scientist, Target Discovery at MelliCell. In the core, Madhumita is highly motivated basic research scientist who strongly believes in hypothesis-driven science that lead to novel discovery. Madhumita has 16+ years of academic experience and training, which spans over an area of Population and Human Molecular Genetics to Developmental Biology. Madhumita's career sums up as a Scientist who's passionate about both basic and discovery research.
“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”- Albert Einstein
Dr. Bickel is an Associate Professor and the Division Chief at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He is the Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine. He graduated from UT Southwestern Medical school and did his residency and a fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Bikman is an Associate Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology at Brigham Young University. He is an expert on insulin resistance and obesity with a focus on the molecular mechanisms of disease within adipocytes. He advises MelliCell in the selection of therapeutic targets and strategies for safe and sustained weight loss.
Riya is a Data Scientist at MelliCell, contributing to the advancement of the company's bioinformatics platform supporting microscopy-based cell research. She works across image analysis and computational biology, focusing on architecting robust, scalable software systems that integrate seamlessly into complex research infrastructure. Expert in AI/machine learning, computer vision, mathematical modeling, and quantitative analysis. Proven record of delivering impactful solutions with precision and rigor, bringing a collaborative, solutions-oriented mindset to MelliCell's mission of advancing metabolic disease research.
He is a biomedical engineer with wide-ranging experience in device development, tissue engineering, and synthetic biology, with a recent focus on design and fabrication of organ-on-a-chip microfluidics with integrated sensing capabilities.
Aaron is committed to tackling intractable problems in healthcare, working to identify quantifiable metrics to map the spectrum between health and disease.
Dr. Prakash is a drug discovery professional with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He has brought countless new chemical entities to the clinical testing stage including an A1 receptor agonist for glaucoma and the first poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor to enter clinical trials.
He currently holds over 40 US and international patents in the fields of new chemical entities, investigational drug processes, pharmacology, disease treatments, and inventor of clinical candidates.
Prakash currently serves as MelliCell's own Director of Medicinal Chemistry and plays a vital role in identifying, designing, and synthesizing potential drug candidates for our mission to cure type two diabetes.
Timothy Jones is a seasoned finance executive with extensive experience in financial leadership, strategic planning, and operational finance across industries like semiconductors, life sciences, and technology. He is currently the Head of Finance at MKS Instruments, managing a $2 billion semiconductor division. Previously, he held senior finance roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific and Motorola Solutions, specializing in financial modeling, budgeting, risk management, and supply chain operations. He holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, a BS in Finance from Truman State University, and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA, Inactive). Timothy also has a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and served as an Executive Board Member at Spark Program, mentoring young professionals.
Sunny Oworah is a dedicated Brandeis University alumnus with an M.Sc. in Business Analytics, complemented by an MBA and a B.Sc. in Microbiology. His blend of analytical and scientific expertise allows him to tackle complex business challenges with precision. Proficient in tools like SQL, Python, and Tableau, Sunny excels at transforming complex datasets into actionable insights. His detail-oriented mindset and problem-solving skills have been key in uncovering trends and optimizing business strategies. Sunny is eager to apply his data-driven approach to drive impactful results in any organization.
Dr. Peterson is an Assistant Professor of Physiology at the Mayo Clinic. His research focus is diabetes drug discovery through chemical screening. His track record includes development of a novel class of drugs now in Phase I clinical trials. He advises MelliCell in high-throughput screening and lead development.
Cross-trained in biology and engineering, Ben brings interdisciplinary expertise and management experience to lead our scientific and technology development efforts. Ben has been pursuing a cure for diabetes since his parents' diagnosis over 20 years ago and is an inventor of MelliCell's core technology.
Dr. Ruggero is the Goldberg-Benioff and Hellen Diller Family Endowed Chair, American Cancer Society Research Professor, and Professor of Urology and Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking research on how impairments in the control of mRNA translation and protein synthesis contribute to human disease. His laboratory’s pioneering work in translational control has opened new biological pathways and has laid the foundation for developing next-generation therapeutics that modulate the cellular proteome at the post-genomic level.
Todd Spalding is a seasoned legal executive with over two decades of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Currently, he serves as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at AstraZeneca, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Previously, he held key roles at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, where he led intellectual property strategy, and at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Todd began his career as an associate at Foley & Lardner LLP. He holds a J.D. from William & Mary and an M.S. in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Stanford is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics who practices and teaches at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School (HMS) as one of the first fellowship-trained obesity medicine physicians worldwide. She is among the most highly cited obesity medicine physician-scientists, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as an MLK Scholar, her MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, her MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Zuckerman Fellow in the Harvard Center for Public Leadership and her executive MBA as a merit-based scholarship recipient from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. She completed her Obesity Medicine & Nutrition Fellowship at MGH/HMS after completing her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina. She has served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completing her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor Congress bestows upon America's youth.
Dr. Williams is an Associate Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research is focused on understanding the interplay of environmental factors and genetics and their contribution to cardiometabolic diseases.
Andreas is an effective leader and experienced professional with the proven ability to turn innovative ideas and technology into mission-critical corporate core competencies. 20 years of experience developing scientific computational and information management solutions in pre- and post-IPO corporate environments. Proven track record of inventions, scientific publications, and successful grant applications. Expert in AI/machine learning, data science, deep learning, mathematical modeling, quantitative analysis, computational chemistry, bioinformatics, genomics, statistics and software development. Tenacious problem solver with a strong conviction that ideas are worthless unless reduced to practice.
Todd C. Zion, Ph.D. is the Co-founder, President, and CEO of Akston Biosciences Corporation, which specializes in insulin engineering and has raised over $15 million to develop therapeutics for diabetes and oncology. Previously, he founded SmartCells, Inc., where he developed SmartInsulin, acquired by Merck and Co. for clinical trials. Dr. Zion holds a Ph.D. from MIT and a B.S. from Cornell, and he actively mentors at MIT and serves on several advisory boards.
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Watertown, MA — July 2026 — MelliCell, Inc. has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant of $1,250,000 by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to scale its proprietary cell engineering technology for next-generation drug development.
The award, which runs from August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2028, will fund the industrial-scale development of MelliCell's M3 technology platform — a novel system that engineers mature human fat cells with a level of physiological accuracy previously unattainable in laboratory settings.
Addressing a 50-Year Gap in Drug Development
For decades, the first stage of drug development has been limited by a fundamental problem: the cell models used to test new therapies do not faithfully reproduce the clinical features of mature human cells. This gap has contributed to high rates of failure in preclinical and clinical trials, costing the pharmaceutical industry significant time and resources.
MelliCell's M3 technology directly addresses this challenge. By producing mature human adipocytes — fat cells — that accurately replicate the shape, gene expression, and function of cells found in adult human tissue, the platform gives drug developers a more predictive model at an earlier, more cost-effective stage of the development process.
Scope of the Award
The NSF SBIR Phase II grant will support the scaling and testing of MelliCell's technology to meet the expressed needs of industry partners working to eliminate metabolic and chronic diseases. The project will include the development of novel automation devices and customized protocols, with success measured by manufacturing quality control standards and specific cellular properties.
MelliCell's work has applications across a growing range of conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, dementia, and Fragile X Syndrome — conditions that share underlying metabolic disruptions.
About the NSF SBIR Program
The NSF Small Business Innovation Research program supports American small businesses in transforming scientific discoveries into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Phase II awards are granted to companies that have demonstrated technical feasibility in Phase I and are ready to scale their innovations toward commercial application.
About MelliCell
MelliCell, Inc. is a biotechnology company headquartered in Greater Boston and is developing an oral pill for obesity, autism, and dementia that targets a shared genetic switch at the root of all three diseases. Using an exclusive discovery engine, MelliCell discovered that this switch reverses obesity without muscle and bone loss similar to a keto diet. It also rescues intellectual disability and controls genes like amyloid precursor that leads to early-onset Alzheimer's when elevated. MelliCell has designed a novel, oral once-daily pill for this target and has already shown that it works safely in animals. The company is preparing for clinical trials to generate initial proof of concept and will pursue additional drug development opportunities enabled by its proprietary discovery technology. .
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Award No. 2538072. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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