Team
Factor Bioscience was founded in 2011 by Dr. Matt Angel and Dr. Christopher Rohde to develop new technologies in a little-explored area that they believed had enormous potential: messenger RNA (“mRNA”). The two co-founders started out in a small biotech incubator space, which they filled with used lab equipment purchased with their limited personal savings.
Today, Factor’s innovations are protected by more than 100 patents, we engage in and fund research projects with our university collaborators and industry partners, and we create and invest in new companies that use our technology to develop the next generation of engineered cell therapies.
While we have come a long way from our small incubator space filled with used lab equipment, we are proud to have maintained the entrepreneurial spirit of those early days, and we look forward to being a part of this exciting field for years to come.
Featured Profiles
Abigail Blatchford
Associate Scientist
Abigail began pursuing her career in science at Northeastern University, majoring in bioengineering and minoring in women, gender, and sexuality studies. As an undergraduate, she took advantage of her school’s cooperative education (“co-op”) program to explore potential career paths. In her first co-op, she worked at a formulation-focused biotech company and quickly discovered that small-molecule drug formulation and polymer engineering were not her passions.
Mackenzie Parmenter
Associate Scientist
Mackenzie joined one of Factor Bioscience’s spinoffs, Novellus Therapeutics, as a Research Associate after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Tufts University. She quickly realized that her passion for research was focused on translating scientific discoveries into technologies that can be used to improve peoples’ lives.
I. Caglar Tanrikulu, Ph.D.
Principal Scientist
Caglar Tanrikulu developed an early interest in chemistry and biology at the Robert College of Istanbul. He received a full scholarship to Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated with a degree in Biochemistry before going on to complete a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the California Institute of Technology in computational enzyme design. As a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Caglar studied collagen-like peptides that could self-assemble into biomaterials. He continued this work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a full-time Research Scientist, developing synthetic-collagen hydrogels.
Jasmine Harris
Associate Scientist
When Jasmine Harris graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT and began her job search, she hadn't taken a biology course since her freshman year. She was seeking a research position that would give her independence, responsibility, and allow her to learn a new scientific discipline. And, while Jasmine had worked for two years in a biological conservation lab in high school, she was determined not to pursue a career in biology. "I'm also very stubborn," she said. “I never wanted to fit into expectations based on my gender identity. I felt the need to defy expectations and show I could do anything my male peers could do. So, biology was out because that’s the science I was told to go into,” she stated.
Franklin Kostas
Associate Scientist
Franklin Kostas joined one of Factor Bioscience’s spinoffs, Novellus Therapeutics, as an Associate Scientist after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Haverford College in 2018. Many from his graduating class went straight into graduate school or took technician positions in university labs, but Franklin decided to work in industry before pursuing his Ph.D.
Open Positions
The positions on this website are the only positions being hired for by Factor Bioscience. Factor is not currently hiring for any positions other than those displayed here.