Meet the Team at CZ Biohub New York

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York is spearheading collaboration among scientists in the New York area from Columbia University, The Rockefeller University, and Yale University. Researchers are building new tools that can characterize and bioengineer immune cells—the only cells in our bodies that interact with virtually all organs—with the ultimate goal of enabling the early detection and treatment of diseases.

Over the past year, CZ Biohub NY has welcomed a growing team of talented staff to help achieve its mission.

Get to know our team:

Susan Rosenthal – Vice President, Organizational Growth and Strategy

Susan Rosenthal joins CZ Biohub NY as Vice President, Organizational Growth and Strategy. In her role, Rosenthal will drive collaboration and foster innovation within the organization by partnering with academic institutions, local government, industry, and philanthropic organizations.

Before joining CZ Biohub NY in September 2024, Rosenthal was the Senior Vice President, Life Sciences and Healthcare at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where she led the >$1B LifeSci NYC initiative to grow New York’s presence as a global leader in life sciences, an objective that she will continue to develop at the CZ Biohub NY. She also has over fifteen years of experience in drug development, business development, and corporate strategy from her time at Pfizer and Deloitte.

Evan Paull – Platform Leader, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

Evan Paull joins CZ Biohub NY as the Platform Leader of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML). In this role, Paull will build tools to help researchers better understand the dynamics of cell state change by optimizing the design of models and data/model feedback cycles for maximal biological impact.

Paull received his PhD in computational biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and brings experience as a principal scientist at Schrödinger, a physics-based software platform, and as a Senior Bioinformatics Data Scientist at BenevolentAI. He completed his postdoc at Columbia University under Andrea Califano, president of CZ Biohub NY, before working as the lead computational biologist at Columbia University.

Roham Parsa – Group Leader, Immune Cell Dynamics and Function

Roham Parsa joins CZ Biohub NY as the Group Leader for Immune Cell Dynamics and Function. His group will focus on understanding the many functional properties of T cells during various immune responses in order to enhance our understanding of T cells and advance therapies for various diseases, such as cancer and autoimmunity. Parsa will collaborate with CZ Biohub NY Investigators and researchers to use innovative bioengineering approaches to track and analyze the behavior of antigen-specific T cells over time and space.

Parsa received his PhD in Immunology from the Karolinska Institute, where he investigated the communication between lymphocytes and myeloid cells during inflammation and autoimmunity. He then joined Daniel Mucida’s laboratory at The Rockefeller University as a postdoctoral fellow, focusing on the function and adaptation of T cells in mucosal tissues. After completing his postdoctoral training in 2024, he was appointed as an adjunct assistant professor at The Rockefeller University.

Sjoukje van der Stegen – Platform Leader, Immune Cell Engineering and Development

Sjoukje van der Stegen joins as the Platform Leader for Immune Cell Engineering and Development. Her lab works on immune cell derivation from induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC), with a focus on T cell selection in the thymus and modeling immune cell interactions in healthy and disease environments. Van der Stegen will work closely together with other Biohub investigators to design and implement engineering strategies that will enhance the immune response against disease.

Previously, van der Stegen was a Senior Research Scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the laboratory of Michel Sadelain, where she worked on iPSC-derived Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, studying how genetic engineering strategies at the stem cell level affect T cell differentiation and function. She received her PhD from King’s College London, where she established that T- and myeloid cell interactions underlie severe toxicities associated with CAR T cell therapy.

CZ Biohub New York is the fourth research institute in the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network, a groundbreaking collaborative model for scientific research created and supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Undertaking grand scientific challenges demands a new approach, new energy, and new voices. It requires a research community where nothing is considered impossible, where bold and creative thinking are the norm, and where a collaborative culture allows teams to accomplish more together than any person can achieve alone.

Please visit our website to learn more about our open roles.

# # #

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges — from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our local communities. Our mission is to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.

About the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network is a group of nonprofit research institutes that bring together scientists, engineers, and physicians with the goal of pursuing grand scientific challenges on 10- to 15-year time horizons. The CZ Biohub Network focuses on understanding underlying mechanisms of disease and developing new technologies that will lead to actionable diagnostics and effective therapies. To learn more, visit www.czbiohub.org.

Press Contact
Lindsey Narkchareon
Communications Manager
lnarkchareon@chanzuckerberg.com