Administration & Leadership

Ivica Labuda, PhD

Professor and Program Director
Email: ll226@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-1070

Ivica Labuda, PhD, is a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology, and Director of the Biotechnology Program.

Dr. Ivica Labuda’s graduate studies and post-doctoral work were conducted at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia, at the University of Graz, Austria, and at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Her biotechnology research continued at global companies including Kraft, Roche/Givaudan, DuPont/Danisco/Cultor, and Pepsi-Cola, where she established, expanded, and managed biotechnology groups with research programs focused on diagnostics, taste receptors, flavor ingredients, antioxidants, and antimicrobials. Dr. Labuda’s research results were published in numerous scientific journals and books and put into practice based on her international patents. Dr. Labuda founded two companies, Biokeys for Flavors, LLC and NovaKera, LLC.

For the past 21 years Dr. Labuda has enjoyed introducing students to the field of biotechnology, first as an Adjunct Professor and now as Director for the past three years. The well-being and personal and academic growth of students is central to her teaching philosophy. She considers all of the faculty, students, and staff of the program to be part of her beloved biotech family.

Kyle DiVito, PhD

Associate Professor and Associate Director
Email: kyle.divito@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-0393

Dr. DiVito joined the Department as faculty in November 2018. Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. DiVito was a Staff Scientist at the FDA. In 2014 Dr. DiVito was the recipient of a post-doctoral fellowship from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and completed his fellowship at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C.. While at NRL, Dr. DiVito characterized synthetic blood vessels fabricated using microfluidics and received the Jerome Karle Fellowship for Young Investigators. Dr. DiVito’s interests span tissue engineering and organ-on-chip technology, as well as traditional cancer research. Dr. DiVito completed his Ph.D. at Georgetown in 2013, and received a B.S. from the University of Connecticut in 2002.

Karen Brotherton-Julien, MS

Program Manager & Biotechnology Program Specialist
Email: kmb24@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-1501

Karen Brotherton-Julien, MS, is the Biotechnology Academic Program Specialist and Program Manager of the MS Biotechnology program at Georgetown University. Karen graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry and received her M.S. in Biotechnology from Georgetown University. During her 21 years of dedicated service to the university starting in 1999, Karen has served in many roles. Before her current position as an Academic Program Specialist, Karen served as an academic coordinator for the MS in Biotechnology, MS in Biochemistry and MS in Bioinformatics (a track under MS in Biochemistry) programs. As a coordinator, Karen’s responsibilities included student recruitment and overall management of the programs. Karen has been instrumental in the growth of these programs to the point that the MS in Biochemistry and MS Bioinformatics each branched out with their own coordinators in 2016. As Program Manager, she has been the go-to person for all students and faculty regarding programmatic and non-programmatic related inquiries. In 2020 during the COVID Pandemic, Karen created the Biotechnology Graduate Student Hour and the Georgetown Executive Biotechnology Alumni Board to keep faculty, alums, current students, and members of the Biotechnology Industry virtually engaged. Students often refer to her as the “mother” as she maintains constant interactions with them from day one with a warm smile. Karen is continually recognized by GUMC for her services and as a result, was awarded “Excellence in Graduate Education” in 2016. In addition to all of her management responsibilities, Karen also teaches courses.

Naroa Gimenez, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar
Email: ng703@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-6136

Naroa Gimenez, PhD, joined the Biotechnology Program as a post-doctoral researcher in September 2022. Naroa graduated from the University of Navarra in Spain with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and received her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid. For the past four years, she has been working on studying the alterations of epigenetic mechanisms related to hematological malignancies. Naroa has combined novel epigenetic therapeutic strategies with chemotherapy drugs for Leukemia treatment. She brings nearly five years of experience working in the molecular biology laboratory. Although much of this period was spent in the field of research, she has been also involved in undergraduate teaching.

Robert Donahue, MA

Director of Biotechnology Laboratories
Email: rd802@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-8549

Mr. Robert A. Donahue, Jr. (M.A. Biological Sciences, University of Texas, Austin) Mr. Donahue has 30 years’ experience in Biotechnology in both academic and industrial laboratories. Mr. Donahue is an inventor on several patents for Biotech products and processes in the area of bacterial gene transfer. He has experience in the conception, development, and commercialization of Biotechnology products generating several million dollars in revenue. Mr. Donahue has experience in protein purification, enzyme assay development, process development and scale-up in a commercial environment. Mr. Donahue has experience in the training and supervision of non-scientists in the preparation of reagents and the production of biomolecules. With his knowledge of how a Biotechnology company operates on a daily basis, Mr. Donahue is a valuable member of the Biotechnology Program Staff.

Khuyen Mai, MS

Director of Internship & Instructor
Email: kdn4@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-6787

Khuyen Mai brings over a decade of Biotechnology industry and education experience to the Georgetown Biotechnology program. She has particular expertise in biotechnology education and has earned several excellence awards for outstanding merits in teaching and mentoring.

At Georgetown, Khuyen serves as the Biotechnology Capstone Internship Director where she advises and assists students with securing appropriate capstone internships to help them widen their professional network and gain the much-needed industry insight and practical experience prior to graduation. She is also an Instructor in the Medical Educator Track where she teaches several BioScience core courses. Khuyen has led many educational outreach and written instructional documents for various educational programs, including Georgetown Experiences in Biotechnology Academy, Amgen Biotech Experience DC Metro and Adventure in Science.

Khuyen enjoys interacting with students and sharing her passion for biotechnology with them. She holds an M.S. in Systems Medicine, an M.S. in Biochemistry, both from Georgetown University, and a B.S in Biotechnology from George Mason University.

Ken Wasserman

Assistant Professor
Email: kw546@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-2214

Dr. Wasserman’s science career began in 1979, where he worked as an undergraduate intern in a cellular immunology laboratory in building 10 on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) main campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The powerful allure of using cells in our bodies to eradicate cancer cells led him along a very long journey spanning over 40 years. During that time, he spent many years in the private sector, including product development funding, and was employed at Trevigen, which was one of the companies founded by the late Dr. Jack Chirikjian–founder of the MS in Biotechnology program, before serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology since 2012. Dr. Wasserman’s thesis research in the biochemical purification of proteins of interest, cytokine activated anti-tumor cell responses, early attempts at development of an ovarian cancer vaccine, signal transduction in cells of the immune system, how the NIH functions in its critical roles in the support of scientific research, as well as how the science of biochemistry is conducted, are all together the basis of his current interest in teaching our program students. Biochemistry is essentially the science which underlies biotechnology, life, aging, diseases and the therapeutic modalities used to treat them. It is a fascinating subject. The modern understanding of biochemistry is essential for human health going forward, as well as the health of our planet.

BioScience

Faculty

Richard Ascione, PhD

Associate Professor, Adjunct
Molecular Medicine
CEO, President OnkoLogix USA LTD and ImmunoLogix LTD USA and CSO of OnkoRx in Beijing China
Director, Equity Research, Fairlook Investment Advisors LLC.
MD/PhD from New York University – Bellevue
OnkoLogix LTD and OnkoRx are innovative cancer therapeutic companies that are currently developing novel anti-cancer biologics for Gastric Cancer and other malignancies. ImmunoLogix LTD is a unique Biotech Company developing innovative approaches to developing vaccine and immunologicals for a variety of infectious diseases, including the Pandemic Influenzas and other viral diseases. Prior to this activity Dr. Ascione was active in the Biopharmaceutical Industry as: Consultant and CSO for ViRexx Medical Corp., Vice President, Research, of Aphton Biopharmaceutical Corporation, Prior to his Industry career, Dr. Ascione was a tenured professor in the Department of Experimental Oncology and served as the Associate Director of the Center for Molecular and Structural Biology at the Hollings Cancer Center and the Medical University of South Carolina, respectively, in Charleston, South Carolina. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Ascione was with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he served as Deputy Chief of NCI’s Laboratory of Molecular Oncology working on the pioneering investigations of the role of oncogenes in human malignancies.

Amrita Cheema, PhD

Professor, Metabolomics