Faculty & Staff
Be taught and mentored by business, biology, and technical experts and build relationships that will extend beyond the program.
Administration & Leadership

Ivica Labuda, PhD
Professor and Program Director
Email: ll226@georgetown.edu
Phone: 202-687-1070
Ivica Labuda, PhD, is Director of the Master’s in Biotechnology Program in the Biochemistry Department at Georgetown University.
Dr. Ivica Labuda’s graduate studies and post-doctoral research were conducted at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia, at the University of Graz, Austria and at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Labuda’s experience in industry began at Kraft Foods working in flavor biotechnology and food safety. She continued her research in flavor biotechnology at Givaudan (Hoffman La Roche), DuPont-Danisco-Cultor and Pepsi-Cola, where she established and managed biotechnology groups with research programs focused on flavor ingredients, taste, antioxidants, and antimicrobials. Dr. Labuda’s research was published in 26 scientific journals and 13 US and international patents. She has presented the results of her research at numerous conferences and meetings.
Dr. Labuda is the founder and president of Biokeys for Flavors, LLC. The company’s mission is to develop proprietary processes for natural flavor ingredients using biotechnology. Dr. Labuda is also a founder and a co-director of the skincare company NovaKera, LLC. Prior to accepting the assignment of Director of the Biotechnology Program, Dr. Labuda was an adjunct professor at the program for 18 years. She taught and co-directed several courses such as Food Biotechnology, International Biotechnology, and Fermentation and Bioprocessing. Several students successfully completed their internships under her tutelage.
Dr. Labuda enjoys interacting with students and is very passionate about the field of biotechnology. The well-being and personal and academic growth of students is central to her teaching philosophy. She considers all of the faculty and the students in the program to be her beloved Biotech family.

Kyle DiVito, PhD
Assistant 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
Post-Doc 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 program. She has particular expertise in biotechnology education and has earned several excellence awards for outstanding merits in teaching and mentoring.
At Georgetown Biotechnology program, Khuyen serves as director for the Capstone Internship Program where she’s responsible for facilitating student learning by assisting them to secure appropriate internships to enhance overall academic experience and learn skills essential to conduct a successful internship. She is also currently an Instructor in the Medical Educator Track where she teaches several BioScience core courses. She has led many educational outreach and written instructional documents for many educational programs, including Georgetown Experiences in Biotechnology Academy, Amgen Biotech Experience DC Metro, Adventure in Science.
Prior to joining the program, Khuyen worked at Edvotek Inc., a leading biotechnology education company, where she served as the focal point for new product development, instructional material design, and professional workshop training.
Khuyen enjoys interacting with students and sharing her love of biotechnology with them, helping them achieve success in college and in life. She holds an M.S. in Systems Medicine, an M.S. in Biochemistry, both from the 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.