Projects

Research, biotech, and public engagement.

Science & Tech

Lab work

Current

Tsai Lab — MIT

Researching the gene expression shifts behind cognitive resilience to Alzheimer's disease; published a paper on this work in Frontiers in Molecular Neruoscience (2025).

Current

Boyden Lab — MIT

Collaborating on the EngineeringX Substack, and wrote a paper on structure-to-function in the context of the brain (2026).

Past

Gladyshev Lab — Harvard

Studied COVID-19 mortality rates in children, a paper cited by the WHO and the Public Health Agency of Sweden in policy reports.

Publications

2026 Kording, K. P., Arkhipov, A., … Khera, N., … Boyden, E. S. Compiling molecular ultrastructure into neural dynamics. arXiv. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2603.25713
2025 Fedorovskyy, M., Dasariraju, S., … Khera, N., … Orkaby, A. Aging initiative: A student-led model for advancing aging research with a translational focus. Innovation in Aging, 9, igaf122.3536. doi:10.1093/geroni/igaf122.3536
2025 Khera, N., Raju, R., & Lipton, S. A. The transcriptional and cellular landscape of cognitive resilience to Alzheimer's disease. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 18, 1665802. doi:10.3389/fnmol.2025.1665802
2024 Fossel, M., et al. Aging: How aging works, how we reverse aging, and prospects for curing aging. Academic Press / Elsevier. (co-authored chapter)
2022 Fossel, M., Bean, J., Khera, N., & Kolonin, M. G. A Unified Model of Age-Related Cardiovascular Disease. Biology, 11(12), 1768. doi:10.3390/biology11121768 (22 citations)
2021 Khera, N., Santesmasses, D., Kerepesi, C., & Gladyshev, V. N. COVID-19 mortality rate in children is U-shaped. Aging, 13(16), 19954–19962. doi:10.18632/aging.203442 (45 citations; cited by WHO & Public Health Agency of Sweden)

Writing

Substack

EngineeringX

A Substack written with Dr. Ed Boyden and Claire Wang, exploring ideas at the intersection of engineering and biology. engineeringx.substack.com


Biotech

Current

Industry

Cognito Therapeutics

Performing quantitative analysis and review of product and experimental data from a 40 Hz stimulation platform aimed at neuroprotection in Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on identifying biomarkers of cognitive resilience to dementia.

Past internships

Past

Lygenesis

Wrote literature reviews focused on potential areas of product expansion.

Past

Rubedo Life Sciences

Generated an algorithm to visualize insights from epigenetic data.

Past

Alio

Created an algorithm to derive insight from PPG data, and built a website to store patient data.

Founded

Startup · 2019

Biotein

I co-founded this organization focused on human aging and neurodegeneration in April 2019. Two active tracks:

Biological age test: a protein-based test tracking the concentration changes that often accompany aging, to give customers a full picture of their health and risk for disease.

Brain aging: designing research projects aimed at curing age-related neurodegeneration.


Orgs & Community

Current

Contrary: Venture Partner

Scouting and interviewing founders, organizing events for builders, and supporting the broader Contrary community.

Current

Aging Initiative: Director of Science

I was the director of science for an organization aiming to catalyze innovation and collaboration in aging research & biotech on campus. As part of this work, I organized a 600-person conference on brain aging (NOVA), with over 50 leaders in the world presenting.

Current

Harvard Chapter of Alzheimer's Buddies: Co-director

To support those afflicted with Alzheimer's, I help organize a program that facilitates one-on-one buddy pairing and community connection.

Past

Other Volunteering

Wrote articles on the latest science and aging for Youth STEM Matters and Lifespan.io. Also taught martial arts to those with special needs at Easterseals.

Conferences

Interviewed Dr. Nir Barzilai at the World Longevity Forum in Madrid (2026) · Organized the Neuroscience of Vitality and Aging Conference (2026, 600 attendees) · Participant in the SciFoo Camp (Aug 2026) · Speaking at the Animal Longevity Summit (Oct 2026) · Presented a poster at the 2024 Biomarkers of Aging Conference (Oct 2024) · Past talks at Fifteen Seconds, RAADFest, and Collision.


Awards

Awards & Fellowships

2023–2027

Masason Foundation Member

Full tuition and board scholarship, awarded to youth seeking to make a change in the world.

2024

PRISE Fellow

Harvard-funded summer research fellowship, awarded to support research at the Tsai Lab.

2023

Time Fellow

Fellowship aimed at young leaders in the field of aging biology.

2023

National Merit Finalist

Recognized as a National Merit Finalist and inducted into the Cum Laude Society.

2022

Atlas Fellow

Scholarship awarded to exceptional young scientists and builders.

2021

Emergent Ventures Fellow

Part of a community of grantees passionate about making an impact in the world around them.


Other

Sport

Running

Completed a half marathon, currently training toward another.

Recreational coding

Project Euler

Top 1% globally, 120+ problems solved. Each challenge involves research, mathematical insight, and a fair amount of trial and error.


CV / Résumé