navya bansal

bioeng. @ umd · synbio · protein engineering · biocomputing

nice to meet you, thanks for stopping by :)

i'm a bioengineering student at the university of maryland building biocomputers and coffee-centric communities that scale. come find me at startup shell or making pourover in my apt at 2am.

interested in the design frameworks that allow us to not just mimic biology, but build novel and intelligent biological systems. (no, random assembly does not count as a design framework.)

incoming at nyu langone (boeke lab) working on [ ;D ]. also leading coffee@UMD - free coffee, 1K+ members, every friday.


building

laminae

delivering on biocomputing's true promise. (very) early stage.

coffee@UMD

free coffee + community every friday at UMD. 1,000+ members, $30K/yr, major collabs, 250–500 students/event. NPO coming soon :)


research

boeke lab, NYU langone

working on [ ;D ].

binder engineering for brain-targeted tx · nextcure, inc.

designed and screened 10⁹-candidate phage display libraries. built protein docking/scoring pipelines, characterized anti-idiotype antibodies, and initiated the company's first synbio protein engineering campaign.

cervicare: cervical cancer screening · umd iGEM

led development of a toehold riboswitch for miRNA-based cervical dysplasia detection. validated in vivo and cell-free. led human practices work. gold medal, Paris World Expo of Synthetic Biology 2024. best poster, UMD/JHU BMES 2024.

cell-free biosensor platform · umd FIRE / army DEVCOM

engineered a low-cost cell-free system expressing custom biosensors and cytotoxic proteins. mentored 20+ students; served on FIRE student leadership council.


other

first tech challenge mentor

mentoring team 23396 & team 7149.

student advisor, umd iGEM

various advising things.