Course Teaching Team

2024 Instructors and TAs

Stan Finkelstein, MD (course co-director) is a Senior Research Scientist in MIT's Institute for Data, Systems and Society in the Schwarzman College of Computing and Associate Professor of Medicine at HMS and founding director of the MD/MBA joint degree program with Harvard Business School. His research focuses on the business-government interface, medical technology, cost-effectiveness and third-party reimbursement.

Peter Sorger, PhD (course co-director) is a Professor in the Dept. of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and founding Head of the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science. He was previously on the MIT faculty as professor of Biology and Biological Engineering. Sorger's research focuses on mammalian signal transduction, cancer and its treatment.

Han Xu, PhD (Instructor) is the Communication Lecturer and Communication Lab Manager in the Biological Engineering Department at MIT. Han has a background in biomedical engineering. In her current role, Han teaches science communication for BE students and postdocs and works with a team of trained communication fellows to support the community's communication needs.

Raluca Cobzaru, BA (TA) is a PhD student in the Operations Research program at MIT. Her research is focused on developing robust models for causal inference with applications in drug repurposing.

Kayla Cruz, BS (TF) is a PhD candidate in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) Program at Harvard. Her research is focused on examining the role of cytokines secreted by cancer-associated fibroblasts on tumor growth and drug resistance in pancreatic cancer.

Punya Gupta (TA) is an undergraduate at Harvard University concentrating in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Her research aims to better understand the role of a macrophage subset in pancreatic tumor development.

Guest Instructors

Joshua Apgar, PhD, a former MIT graduate student, is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Applied Biomath, a startup company in Concord MA.

Birgit Schoeberl, PhD, a former MIT postdoc, is Global Head of Modeling and Simulation and PK Sciences at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge MA.

Ariel Stern, PhD is an Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School.

Elliott Antman, MD is a Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA and a a Senior Investigator in the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) Study Group.

Sumit Khedekar is a Managing Director at Credit Suisse Securities and expert in biotech financing.

Charles Cooney, PhD is a Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at MIT and a founder of PPDD.

GK Raju, PhD is Executive Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Initiatives at the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation.

Nicole LeBoeuf, MD, MPH is Clinical Director of the Center for Cutaneous Oncology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.

George Demetri, MD is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Past Instructors

Mike Rosenblatt, MD is Cheif Medical Officer (CMO) of Flagship Pioneering in Cambridge MA; he was previously CMO of Merck, Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, and a Professor at Harvard Medical School.

Brian Alexander, MD, MPH is Chief Medical Officer of Foundation Medicine in Cambridge MA; he is an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

John Young, PhD, is the Global Head Infectious Diseases and Vice President at Roche.

Dan H. Barouch, MD, PhD is the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC

Course Founders

PPDD was established three decades ago by course founding directors: Thomas J. Allen, Charles L. Cooney, G. K. Raju, Anthony Sinskey all of whom are still active as MIT Faculty. It has been taught continuously