Dedicated to Advancing Better Science

Dr. Sezin Aday Aydin is a translational bioengineer focused on developing human-relevant laboratory models to improve how diseases and injuries are studied. She earned her PhD in Bioengineering through the MIT-Portugal Program and has conducted research at leading institutions, including the University of Bristol, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
At the University of Pennsylvania, her current research uses advanced lab-grown human tissue models that mimic real organs to better understand how injuries and harmful exposures affect the body. These systems help researchers evaluate treatments more effectively, identify disease markers earlier, and reduce reliance on animal models.
Dr. Aday Aydin has led multiple government- and foundation-funded research projects and is deeply committed to mentoring young scientists, fostering inclusive training environments, and advancing equity in biomedical engineering and the life sciences.

Addy Alt-Holland, Ph.D. is associate professor at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM) in Boston, Massachusetts. She was assistant professor and a research associate at TUSDM, a post-doc associate at SUNY at Stony Brook, and a post-doc fellow at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Prior to that, she earned her Ph.D., with highest distinction, in molecular and cell biology from Bar-Ilan University, where she also received her M.Sc and B.Sc degrees.

As a full-time faculty member and a head of a cancer research lab, Addy mentors students, research interns, and residents from TUSDM and other academic institutions in New England and overseas. She serves as a reviewer for a range of scientific journals and is a member of multiple scientific-focused committees in national and patient-centered organizations. Currently, Addy is the president of the Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) for 2022-2024. She is also a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the SIVB, for the 2020 to 2026 term.

Niko Dimitrakakis is a Staff Engineer at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, the most internationally recognized institute for breakthrough technologies that can help replace animal testing.

He brings a versatile background bridging hands-on experimental work in drug delivery systems with rigorous statistical and mathematical modeling, including biostatistics and pharmacometrics. Niko has conducted 70+ peer reviews across 20 journals and has also served as a grant reviewer; through IFER, he aims to contribute to the review and selection of proposals for the Graduate Student Fellowship Program.

Having worked on both the experimental and computational sides of biomedical research, Niko has come to appreciate how a strong quantitative foundation can improve study design, extract more information from existing datasets, and ultimately reduce reliance on animal studies. He has demonstrated this in his own work by publishing hematologic reference values for pigs using previously overlooked “leftover” datasets—turning unused data into actionable scientific knowledge.

Niko joined IFER with a clear mission: first, to help the scientific community recognize and apply quantitative approaches that support the 3Rs (replace, reduce, refine) through better-designed, higher-information studies; and second, influenced by his experience in mentorship and outreach programs, to build initiatives that introduce to high school students to the technological advances enabling animal-free research and inspire a new default mindset—beyond animal testing—in the next generations of scientists.

Outside of science, Niko is a dog lover at heart, and Bernedoodles are his favorite.

Nancy Douglas, Ph.D. earned her bachelor’s degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from the University of Colorado and then participated in studies of photoreceptor proteins in plants at the Plant Gene Expression Center of the University of California, Berkeley and of HIV and SIV protein structure/function in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the University of California, San Francisco. She went on to receive her Ph.D. in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology from Cornell University examining DNA replication in budding yeast. She then worked for 10 years in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell exploring how temperature and pH changes influence disease and microbial community dynamics in Caribbean corals. During that time, Dr. Douglas also acted as a scientific consultant to the Regulatory Testing Division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals reviewing and commenting on proposed US and European chemical testing protocols and plans involving animals. She currently works in the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, developing optimized fluorescent proteins for biological imaging and detection.

Lisa Hagena-Secrest, Ph.D., is a biomedical scientist with a background in pharmacology and physiology and a strong interest in advancing humane, rigorous science. She earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biomedicine from the University of Bonn in Germany before pursuing her Ph.D. in pharmacology and physiology at Saint Louis University. Her research focused on the metabolic and central regulation of food intake, specifically in the context of diabetes and hypoglycemia. She is particularly motivated to support the development and adoption of innovative alternatives that reduce, refine, and replace animal use without compromising scientific quality. Through years of hands-on experience, Lisa developed a deep respect for laboratory animals and a strong appreciation for the intelligence and behavioral complexity of rats in particular—an often underestimated species whose welfare and thoughtful use she believes are essential to responsible science. Lisa brings a collaborative, internationally informed perspective and is fluent in English, German, and French. She is motivated by reexamining traditional scientific approaches and believes that meaningful progress often comes from being willing to rethink how things have “always been done.”

Borko Jovanovic, Ph.D., retired in 2021 from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University as an associate professor in Preventive Medicine, Division of Biostatistics. He had worked there since September 1999. From 1989-1999, he was a faculty member at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

While at Northwestern University, Dr. Jovanovic served as director of biostatistics and bioinformatics for the SPORE in prostate cancer at the RH Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute. He was the director of biostatistics for several submissions of SPORE in lymphoma, and a member of the biostatistics group for the SPORE submission in breast cancer. For 10 years, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the General Clinical Research Center funded by the National Institutes of Health.

His teaching responsibilities included developing a course in statistical consulting at UIC, a course in phase I, II and III clinical trials, and teaching a course in probability.

Dr. Jovanovic is a lifetime member of the American Statistical Association, past president of the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association, a representative to the national Council of Chapters, and has been a member of the CCASA Board since 2005.

Lindsay Marshall, PhD, completed a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences at Stirling University, followed by an MSc in Cellular and Molecular Pathology at Dundee University. She stayed in Dundee for her PhD and focussed on the physiology, cell biology and immunology of human respiratory epithelium, specifically in relation to the pathophysiological changes observed in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. Her post-doctoral studies, at the Department of Medical Specialties, Southampton University and then the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at Portsmouth University, investigated inflammatory responses, repair processes and innate immunity of the human airways. Her research throughout her academic career at Aston University, where she was a Senior Lecturer in Immunology, continued the theme of human respiratory defences, with the development of multi-cellular, in vitro models of human airways. She joined Humane World for Animals in August 2016 and is now Principal, Science in Animal Research Issues. Her overarching goal in this post is to accelerate animal replacement for research and testing and she works closely with non-animal method developers and policy makers. She retains a specific interest in identifying alternatives to animal models for investigating human disease mechanisms and treatments.

Adam Melvin is an associate professor at Clemson University in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Prior to that he was an assistant and associate professor in the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University and an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill in the Departments of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in addition to a BS in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Arizona.

As a full time faculty member and head of a cancer research lab, Adam has mentored >150 graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. His research group aims to develop new tools and technologies to quantify and characterize complex biological systems. He utilizes an interdisciplinary approach combining elements of chemical and biomedical engineering with chemical biology, biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology, and cancer biology. His lab has several ongoing projects related to the development of novel pre-clinical technologies to bridge the gap between established 2D cell culture and in vivo studies. His group has several ongoing projects related to breast cancer that focus on the development of microfluidic devices to (1) elucidate the tumor secretome, (2) study how biophysical forces alter the phenotype of metastatic breast cancer, (3) evaluate cell-to-cell communication in 3D spheroids, and (4) investigate the breast tumor microbiome. His group also develops peptide-based biosensors and therapeutics to target the ubiquitin proteasome system and identify underlying mechanisms of drug resistance.

Richard J. Miller obtained his Ph.D. from Cambridge University. In 1975 he was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology of the University of Chicago, where he conducted research for 25 years. In 2001 he moved to the Department of Pharmacology at Northwestern University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Dr. Miller's research has involved understanding the way that psychotropic drugs interact with the nervous system. He has published more than 500 scientific papers and four books. His latest book critiques the use of animals in biomedical research and discusses the many alternatives now available for conducting state of the art research that involves humans rather than animals.

Pamela Osenkowski, Ph.D. is a science advisor for the National Anti-Vivisection Society and joined the IFER SAB in 2012. Dr. Osenkowski earned her bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in cancer biology at Wayne State University. She conducted her postdoctoral studies in Alzheimer’s disease at Harvard Medical School and later obtained a faculty position at Michigan State University-College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is currently a senior lecturer in the Biology Department at Loyola University Chicago, where her teaching efforts are focused in the areas of genetics and cellular biology.

Sarah Pagni, Ph.D. is an associate professor and biostatistician at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Mount Holyoke College, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in microbiology from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and an MPH with a concentration in quantitative methods from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

At Tufts, Dr. Pagni collaborates with pre- and post-doctoral students, faculty, and staff on study design and statistical analysis on research projects from a variety of fields including public health, dental education, periodontology, and cancer biology.  She is the course director for 3 post-graduate biostatistics courses and guest lectures on topics in microbiology, biostatistics, and study design.  She serves as a peer reviewer and statistical reviewer for several dental journals.

Woojung Shin, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, co-affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Shin was a previous IFER graduate fellowship awardee. Her research aims to better understand host-microbiome crosstalk in human disease milieus and develop microbiome-based therapeutics by applying engineering principles. She joined the Scientific Advisory Board in 2023.

Dr. Nicole Sparks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of California, Irvine. Her research explores how environmental toxicants, such as tobacco-derived compounds and air pollutants, impact embryonic skeletal development through molecular and epigenetic pathways. Dr. Sparks’ lab integrates stem cell and animal models to uncover how environmental exposures disrupt bone formation at the cellular and developmental levels.Dr. Sparks is a recipient of the University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship ( part of UC PPFP) and a MOSAIC K99/R00 award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). She earned her PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California, Riverside, and her MS in Biological Sciences from California State University, San Bernardino. In addition to her research, she is committed to mentoring and advancing diversity in the biomedical sciences.

Lauren Stein, Ph.D., earned her B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Missouri and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Physiology from Saint Louis University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, where she investigated the neural mechanisms that control energy balance. Dr. Stein previously worked as a bioinformatics scientist at Spatial Genomics and served as an advocacy fellow with the American Physiological Society. Her career spans more than 10 years in basic biomedical research and focuses on utilizing innovative and ethical methodologies to advance the field toward alternatives to animal models. She now serves as the Director of Science and Research Programs for the National Anti-Vivisection Society.