Dr. Yen researched the use of phages as an intervention for cholera during her thesis work in the Camilli Lab at Tufts University, resulting in publications in Nature Communications and eLife. As a biological engineering undergraduate at MIT, she trained with Professors David Schauer and Darrell Irvine and researched oral vaccine delivery. Passionate about developing innovative solutions for infectious diseases, Dr. Yen was awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute MERGE-ID fellowship, which focused on translating bench science to clinical applications, for her graduate education. During her thesis research, Dr. Yen traveled to Haiti to study the cholera epidemic, where she witnessed the need for innovative healthcare solutions. With her thesis advisor Professor Andrew Camilli and a postdoctoral researcher Dr. Lynne Cairns, she founded PhagePro with the mission to develop phage therapies to help the world’s most vulnerable communities. To understand the context in which PhagePro would operate, Dr. Yen pursued a Master’s in Public Health at Boston University, with a focus in global health and program management. For her cholera phage prophylaxis work, she has recently been recognized by MIT Technology Review in the 35 Innovators under 35 list for 2018 as a humanitarian. Dr. Yen continues to advocate for the use of phages as a global health intervention and plans to develop them as part of the toolkit to alleviate the burden of diarrheal diseases around the world.

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