Tiama Hamkins-Indik

Tiama Hamkins-Indik's work experience includes a current position as a Senior Scientist at Conception since November 2021. Prior to this, they were a PhD Candidate in Bioengineering at the UC Berkeley - UCSF Graduate Program from August 2015 to May 2021. During this time, they conducted research on tight junctions, barrier function, the actin cytoskeleton, and viruses, and made significant findings regarding the relationship between actin and barrier function. Tiama also engineered a protein to study actin binding in live cells.

In 2018, Tiama worked as a Graduate Student Intern at Caribou Biosciences for two months. From August 2012 to August 2015, they worked as a Research Assistant in the Ingber Lab at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. In this role, they focused on designing and manufacturing microfluidic organ chips to study cell mechanisms, diseases, and drug effects. Tiama also coordinated an automated 4-organ linking experiment between organ chips and engineering teams.

From October 2011 to May 2012, Tiama was a Research Support Associate at MIT, where they designed and executed experiments related to RNA transfections and reprogramming adult human fibroblasts into pluripotent stem cells under the supervision of Fatih Yanik.

Additionally, they have held summer intern positions at UC Berkeley in 2010 and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2009. In 2008, they worked as an Instructor and Day Advisor at Exploration Summer Camp.

Tiama Hamkins-Indik pursued their education at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering from 2007 to 2011. There, they obtained a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. Following their undergraduate studies, Tiama enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. Tiama completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering in 2021.