Inside Our Program / Seminars & EventsBiotech Nexus
Thursday, May 14, 2026
4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Each year Northwestern’s Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP) hosts Biotech Nexus, an exciting evening event which benefits both the MBP students and the biotechnology industry alike. Whether your goal is to network, define a career trajectory, recruit, become a mentor or mentee, or simply enjoy an evening among friends from the biotechnology industry, this event will help you make the right connections.
The 2026 Biotech Nexus Agenda
Welcome address, MBP Director Danielle Tullman-Ercek
Explore your career potential as you become acquainted with the numerous and varied career options – both in and out of a laboratory setting – available to those with experience and education in biotechnology.
Panel discussion and Q&A
Engage with a panel of four of the industry’s leading professionals as they explore the future of their respective fields and what led them on their individual career paths. Moderated by MBP Director, Danielle Tullman-Ercek.
Networking and refreshments reception
End the evening with lively conversations and introductions during the networking reception with MBP students, alumni, faculty and industry guests.
Panel Participants at the 2026 Biotech Nexus Event
Moderator
Danielle Tullman-Ercek, PhD
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University
Program Director, Master of Biotechnology Program Northwestern University
After earning her B.S. degree in chemical engineering, Tullman-Ercek began her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin under advisor George Georgiou. Her dissertation focused on the pathway bacteria use to transport folded proteins across membranes, and how this pathway may be used in protein engineering applications. After earning her Ph.D. in 2006, Tullman-Ercek began her post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Chris Voigt. Her primary project in the Voigt lab was the study of spider silk production and secretion in Salmonella. She also immersed herself in the challenges and potential of the field of synthetic biology. She continued her postdoctoral studies at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, working to improve enzymes that break down biomass for more efficient and economic biofuel production processes. Tullman-Ercek joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley in 2009. Inspired by her previous work, her research group focuses on engineering multi-component systems in biology – such as protein and small molecule secretion machinery and bacterial microcompartments – using tools and techniques from protein engineering and synthetic biology.
Panelists
Ryan Abbott
Chief Technology Officer, Acorn Genetics
Kate Barkus
Project Management Consultant, COUR Pharma
Michael Born
Technical Development Senior Principal Scientist, Genentech
Jose Carlos (JC) Garcia-Garcia
R&D Senior Director and Research Fellow, Procter & Gamble
Julie Ming Liang
Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder, Opera Biosciences
