Each year Yale Ventures recruits students to work as innovation fellows and associates to support Yale faculty entrepreneurs. These Yale graduate and professional students join Yale faculty researchers and Yale Ventures staff to form interdisciplinary teams. Working closely over the course of the academic year, these teams generate valuable strategic and technical insights that help accelerate the pace of Yale innovation and increase the potential for the commercialization of Yale research. 

This year Yale Ventures has recruited the largest cohort to date—32 professional and graduate students from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale School of Management, Yale School of Medicine, and Yale School of Public Health. With their own deep domain expertise spanning life sciences, medicine, law, and business, the students support the development of pitch decks, competitive and market analyses, go-to-market plans, and investor due diligence among other business activities to help faculty reach their next commercialization milestone. 

“The Yale innovation and entrepreneurship community is a critical part of the future of Yale. The Yale faculty are investigating cutting edge scientific and technological advances through their research that can be successfully commercialized and brought to market,” said Rory Bonner, Yale SOM Class of 2023. “I am involved via the Venture Lab Fellowship and a separate role supporting student mentoring programs in Tsai City. I view innovation as an important framework to be applied to any problem-solving endeavor and entrepreneurship helps to align the incentives for solving the many problems facing the world today.”

These five student teams offer vital contributions to the Yale Ventures mission of supporting faculty innovations that impact the world’s greatest challenges.

Meet this year’s student teams:   

Blavatnik Associates 

Blavatnik Associates are graduate and professional school students who provide both technical and business insights for faculty life science projects that are current awardees or being considered for support by the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation. These associates work closely with Blavatnik Fellows, experienced biotech professionals who work full-time as members of the Yale Ventures team. 

Ife Desamours Adeyeri 
Ph.D. candidate in the Microbial Pathogenesis department, 2025 
B.S. in Microbial Biology, College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley 

Siddhartha Dhakal 
Sixth-year Ph.D. candidate, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale, 2023 
Biology, University of Louisiana Monroe 

Vivian Gu, PhD 
Post-doctoral, Cardiovascular Research Center, Yale School of Medicine 
Fellowship, Yale Accelerator for Innovation Development (Y-AID) 
PhD, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, University of Iowa 

Toshinari Ishikawa 
MPH-MBA student at Yale, 2024 
Bachelor of Pharmacy in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration, University of Tokyo 

Shengyan Jin 
Fourth-year Ph.D. student, Department of Genetics at Yale 
B.S. Biology/Biological Sciences from Fudan University 

Kenneth Ng 
Second-year Ph.D. student, Department of Genetics at Yale, 2025 
Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences, National University of Singapore 

Patricia Pan 
Second-year MPH-MBA Silver Scholar, Yale Epidemiology department, 2024 
Dual bachelor's degrees in Biology and Neuroscience from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a minor in Chemistry 

Liza Vasilyeva 
Master’s student, Yale School of Public Health, 2023 
Bachelor's degree, Banking and International Finance, University of London 

Muthu Venkatachalapathy, PhD 
Associate research scientist at Yale 
Ph.D., Chemical Biology from Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund 
Master of Technology in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati 
Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology from the PSG College of Technology 

Zhongyu Yuan 
Fifth-year Ph.D. student, Immunobiology Department at Yale 
B.S. in Biological Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

Canaan-Yale Fellows 

Canaan-Yale fellows are graduate and professional school students in the biological sciences as well as medical school students with strong backgrounds in the life sciences. These students provide strategy and leadership, from performing due diligence to exploring investment opportunities for startups in Canaan Partner’s seed and early-stage $4B portfolio. Students who complete the program have the opportunity to explore projects focused on select Yale research. This fellowship is made possible through the generous support of the early-stage venture capital firm Canaan.

Ngozi Akingbesote 
Third-year PhD student, Yale School of Medicine 
B.S., Biology, University of Virginia 

Jiaying Chen 
Fifth-year Ph.D. student, Genetics Department at Yale, 2024 
B.S. Molecular Biology, University of California, San Diego 

Karthik Chetlapalli 
First-year M.D. candidate, Yale School of Medicine 
M.S. Stem Cell Biology, University of Southern California  
B.S. in Neuroscience, minor in Health Care Studies, University of Southern California 

Yaqing Huang 
Fifth-year Ph.D. student, Experimental Pathology at Yale, 2023 
B.S. Materials Chemistry,Sun Yat-sen University 

Damir Musaev 
Ph.D. student, Genetics department at Yale, 2023 
B.S. in Biomedical Sciences, Western Michigan University 

Shenqi Wang 
Fourth-year graduate student, plant synthetic biology, Yale 
Master’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship, National University of Singapore 
B.S. Biomedical Sciences, National University of Singapore 

Orr-El Weizman 
Ph.D. candidate, Immunobiology department at Yale 
B.B.S. in Immunobiology, Yeshiva University 

Sung Yeon 
Immunobiology Ph.D. student at Yale, 2025 
M.S. in Biology, University of California, San Diego  
B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of California, San Diego  
 

Roberts Innovation Fund Associates

The Roberts Innovation Fund at Yale is a new initiative launched in 2022 to accelerate Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) engine of innovation. The Fund’s student associates provide strategic and tactical support during the many phases of the award process.  

Olivia Chen 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2023 
Master's degree, Accounting from North China Electric Power University 
B.A. in Financial Management from Henan University of Economics and Law  
Additional studies in finance at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business 

Man Ip 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2024 
B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Northwestern University 

Angela Maalouf 
MBA student, Yale School of Management and Silver Scholar, 2025 
Master's degree, International Management, King’s Business School  
Undergraduate degrees corporate law, University Paris II Pantheon Assas 

Edison Siu 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2024 
B.B.A., HKUST in Global Business and Economics 
Visiting scholar, University of Oxford, St. Catherine’s College, Economics 

Celeste Watkins 
First-year MBA student at Yale School of Management 
B.S. in Biology/Biological Sciences and Chinese Area Studies from Franklin & Marshall College 

Johnny Wu 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2024 
B.S.B.A., Finance and Computer Science, Washington University in St. Louis 

Technology Marketing Associates

Technology Marketing Associates support Yale Ventures business development team to develop investor-facing marketing materials for healthcare technologies. Their work projects include market research on the competitive landscape; and developing materials that clearly and succinctly explain what the technology’s business case and commercial appeal is for investors and other public audiences. 

Bryan Bollinger 
M.D. student at Yale, expected to graduate in 2025 
B.S. in Neuroscience from Dartmouth College 

Aaron Goldstein 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2024 
Dual degree, Accounting and Finance, Florida State University 

Meera Swaminath 
MPH student, School of Public Health, 2023 
B.S., Public Health, University of California, with honors  

Venture Lab Fellows  

Yale Venture Lab is a new initiative launched by Yale Ventures in 2022 to accelerate Yale faculty ventures which have already established proof-of-concept. Working across six major themes (Therapeutics, Medtech, Digital Healthcare, Data Science, High Tech, and Climate Tech), graduate and professional students work with teams, including faculty innovators to develop project briefs and support a series of interactive coaching sessions. 

Rory Bonner 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2023 
B.S., Managing for Sustainability from Bucknell University 

Daniel Hope 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2023 
M.S., Aeronautical Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology  
B.S., Aeronautical Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy, minor in Japanese 

Kopal Jha 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2023 
BS, Human Development and Pre-medical studies from Cornell University 

Yesenia Ye 
MBA student, Yale School of Management, 2024 
Bachelor's degrees, Economics and Psychology, New York University