TADESSE LAB

Welcome to the
Tadesse Lab

Our Research

Diagnostics Anywhere

Rapid, accurate disease diagnosis, and real-time monitoring is essential for effective treatments, halting the rise of drug resistance, and achieving personalized health and precision medicine goals. The Tadesse Lab develops next generation point-of-care diagnostic devices using optical, spectroscopy and nanoscience-based tools with machine learning based data analysis for application in resource limited clinical settings including developing nations, extraterrestrial exploration, and military sites. We aim to establish a leading research program for translational medicine integrating sensing technologies, artificial intelligence tools and needs-based design thinking for translation to targeted clinical and research settings.

Our Publications

We present surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) combined with machine learning (ML) as a powerful tool for providing interpretable insights into the transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome at the single-cell level. Recent advances in nanophotonics enhance Raman scattering for rapid, strong label-free spectroscopy, while ML approaches enable precise spectral analysis.
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From Genotype to Phenotype: Raman Spectroscopy and Machine Learning for Label-Free Single-Cell Analysis

Yirui Zhang, Kai Chang, Babatunde Ogunlade, Liam Herndon, Loza F Tadesse, Amanda R Kirane, Jennifer A Dionne

ACS Nano, 2024

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We present a rapid, culture-free, and antibiotic incubation-free drug susceptibility test for tuberculosis (TB) using Raman spectroscopy and machine learning. Recent developments in these techniques allow us to achieve over 98% accuracy in classifying resistant versus susceptible Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains on dried samples, and approximately 79% accuracy on patient sputum samples.
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Rapid, antibiotic incubation-free determination of tuberculosis drug resistance using machine learning and Raman spectroscopy

Babatunde Ogunlade, Loza F Tadesse, Hongquan Li, Nhat Vu, Niaz Banaei, Amy K Barczak, Amr AE Saleh, Manu Prakash, Jennifer A Dionne

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121, 2024

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We present the establishment of an open-access web-based repository for microbiological Raman spectroscopy data called 'MicrobioRaman'. Inspired by successful research databases like GenBank, this repository minimizes the risk of data loss and offers a long-term reference for analysis with enhanced accessibility and transparency.
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MicrobioRaman: an open-access web repository for microbiological Raman spectroscopy data

Kang Soo Lee, Zachary Landry, Awais Athar, Uria Alcolombri, Pratchaya Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, David Berry, Philippe de Bettignies, Ji-Xin Cheng, Gabor Csucs, Li Cui, Volker Deckert, Thomas Dieing, Jennifer Dionne, Ondrej Doskocil, Glen D’Souza, Cristina García-Timermans, Notburga Gierlinger, Keisuke Goda, Roland Hatzenpichler, Richard J Henshaw, Wei E Huang, Ievgeniia Iermak, Natalia P Ivleva, Janina Kneipp, Patrick Kubryk, Kirsten Küsel, Tae Kwon Lee, Sung Sik Lee, Bo Ma, Clara Martínez-Pérez, Pavel Matousek, Rainer U Meckenstock, Wei Min, Peter Mojzeš, Oliver Müller, Naresh Kumar, Per Halkjær Nielsen, Ioan Notingher, Márton Palatinszky, Fátima C Pereira, Giuseppe Pezzotti, Zdenek Pilat, Filip Plesinger, Jürgen Popp, Alexander J Probst, Alessandra Riva, Amr AE Saleh, Ota Samek, Haley M Sapers, Olga T Schubert, Astrid KM Stubbusch, Loza F Tadesse, Gordon T Taylor, Michael Wagner, Jing Wang, Huabing Yin, Yang Yue, Renato Zenobi, Jacopo Zini, Ugis Sarkans, Roman Stocker

Nature Microbiology, 2024

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We present a novel approach using Sharpness-Aware Minimization (SAM) to address current limitations in Raman spectroscopy for antibiotic resistance testing. By enhancing model generalization and optimizing hyperparameters across diverse datasets, SAM achieves significant accuracy improvements—up to 10.7% on individual splits and an average increase of 2.5% across all splits—compared to traditional methods like Adam.
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Sharpness-Aware Minimization (SAM) Improves Classification Accuracy of Bacterial Raman Spectral Data Enabling Portable Diagnostics

Kaitlin Zareno, Jarett Dewbury, Siamak Sorooshyari, Hossein Mobahi, Loza F Tadesse

ICLR 5th Workshop on practical ML for limited/low resource settings, 2024

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We present antibody-coated Dynabeads as strong Raman reporter labels whose effect can be considered a Raman parallel of immunofluorescent probes. Recent developments in techniques for separating target-bound Dynabeads from unbound Dynabeads makes such an implementation feasible with high specificity.
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More than magnetic isolation: Dynabeads as strong Raman reporters toward simultaneous capture and identification of targets

Lee J, McDonald M, Mhlanga N, Kang JW, Karnik R, Tadesse LF

Pre-print, 2023 

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Our Patents

Polymer-coated beads serving as Raman reporter for simultaneous target binding and identification

Filed, Appl. No. : 63/501,380

Label-free, real-time, whole-cell response monitoring with liquid Raman spectroscopy

Filed, Appl. No.: PCT/US2021/048668.2021

Biotemplating pores with size and shape diversity for Li-oxygen Battery Cathodes

Porous sheets US20180050913A1, 2018

News

Congratulations to Marissa for passing the HST Oral Qualifying Exams!

June 4, 2024

We are so proud of all the hard work you put into your proposal and are excited that you are officially our lab’s first candidate!

Caps off to our Graduates, Audrey and Kaitlin!

May 29, 2024
Audrey will start her PhD at MIT Mechanical Engineering with the Chee C. Tung (1996) departmental fellowship award, and Kaitlin Zareno (our first Master’s graduate!) will be heading to the University of Southern California for her PhD. 

Congratulations to Kaitlin and Jarett for getting their paper accepted!

March 2024

Soon to be published work on our collaboration with Google has been accepted ICLR workshop. More on this soon. 

Congratulations Audrey and Kaitlin!

February 2024

We are excited for you on your admissions to graduate schools. We look forward to see the amazing science you will continue to do. 

Congratulations Lauren on passing MechE Quals!

January 2024

Proud of you Lauren and look forward to great work you will do at MIT!

Welcome to the Lab Jia and Yanmin!

November 2023

We are glad to have you join us for your postdocs. 

Welcome to the Lab Jenn, Lauren, Kaitlin and Catalina!

August 2023

Excited for you to join the fun in the Tadesse Lab! 

Welcome to the Lab Jarett!

August 2023

We look forward to hosting you as our first intern. 

Open Philanthropy will support our collaboration with the Bhatia lab!

August 2023

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among children worldwide, accounting for 14% of deaths among those under age five. We are working in a multi-lab collaboration to develop a non-invasive, accessible platform to diagnose pediatric pneumonia in under-resourced areas.  More on this here. 

MIT Research Support Council to support our work!

June 2023

Thank you MIT RSC for providing our initial funding in enabling next generation diagnostics with Raman. 

Tadesse Lab presents at ACS Fall 2023

August 2023

We are excited to participate at the ACS meeting this Fall!  More than magnetic isolation: Dynabeads as strong Raman reporters for simultaneous capture and identification of targets- Marissa McDonald, oral

Advancing label-free live-cell monitoring using intelligent Raman spectroscopy and plasmonic particles: Milestones and implications for clinical translation- Loza Tadesse, oral 

Tadesse Lab receives research funding from Google

June 2023

Thank you Google for funding our work on enabling on device portable AI systems to fuel the analysis needs for our deployable devices. Looking forward to our collaboration. 

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Publication featured in MIT News

August 2023

Getting results from a blood test can take anywhere from one day to a week, depending on what a test is targeting. The same goes for tests of water pollution and food contamination. And in most cases, the wait time has to do with time-consuming steps in sample processing and analysis. 

Now, MIT engineers have identified a new optical signature in a widely used class of magnetic beads, which could be used to quickly detect contaminants in a variety of diagnostic tests. For example, the team showed the signature could be used to detect signs of the food contaminant Salmonella.

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Tadesse Lab receives research funding from Draper

April 2023

Marissa wins the NSF GRFP!

April 2023

Congratulations Marissa! The NSF GRFP will support 3 years of her study and provide access to an amazing network of scholars. 

Tadesse Lab officially started at MIT MechE and Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard

January 2023

Loza chaired 2022 Gordon Research Seminar in Plasmonics and Nanophotonics

July 2022

GRS Conference Information

Congratulations Alexis

June 2023

Join us in congratulating our first lab graduate Alexis who finished her Bachelors  at MIT!

Tadesse Lab welcomes...

September 2023

Postdoc candidate Jenn, PhD student Lauren, Masters students Catalina, Kaitlin and Audrey, and undergrad intern Jarett to the team

Loza named Forbes 30 under 30 Healthcare 2022. ​

December 2021

Loza’s Forbes Profile

Tadesse Lab will join MIT MechE in 2023!

June 2021

More News

Our Team

LozaTLowRes

Prof. Loza Tadesse

Principal Investigator

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Loza Tadesse is an assistant professor at MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering and an associate member of the Ragon Institue of MassGeneral, MIT, and Harvard. She received her PhD in bioengineering from Stanford University in 2021 and previously was a medical student at St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College in Ethiopia. She was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in the Computational Imaging lab of Prof. Laura Waller. Tadesse has been listed as a 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 in healthcare, received many awards including the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Career Development Award, and the Gates Foundation $200K grant for SciFro Inc., an educational non-profit she co-founded. She enjoys spending time with her family, watching movies, taking walks and hanging out with friends especially over delicious Ethiopian food.

lozat@mit.edu

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Support Staff

Winn Gatewood

Winn Gatewood

Administrative Assistant

winng@mit.edu

I joined the Tadesse Lab in June 2023, bringing 15 years of juggling different administrative and customer service roles.  I thrive on keeping things moving smoothly, like the epoxy holding it all together. I am excited to be in the academic world, supporting the professors and students of MIT.   When I am not on the ball at MIT, you can find me cooking in the kitchen or pushing my limits with running, biking, and swimming.

Liona Delva

Financial Officer

ldelva@mit.edu

I am a Financial Officer in the MechE RAS Finance Team. Although I joined MechE in March, I have been at MIT for seven and a half years. In my free time I enjoy reading, watching true crime shows and food review vlogs.

Postdoctoral Researchers

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Jeong-Hee (Jenn) Kim

Postdoctoral Researcher

khkim7@mit.edu

Linkedin

I completed my PhD degree in mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, using optical tools to study the molecular properties of biological samples. I am a postdoctoral fellow and begin working on developing Raman spectroscopy-based platforms for rapid and accurate diagnostics. In my free time, I enjoy climbing and exploring local ice cream shops!

yanmin

Yanmin Zhu

Postdoctoral Researcher

yanmin11@mit.edu

Linkedin

I received a B.S. degree in Electronic Engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and a B.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Southwest Jiaotong University, China. I received my M.S. degree in Optics and Photonics from Imperial College London, UK. I am now pursuing my Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. I’m excited to utilize my background in computational imaging to develop advanced imaging systems and artificial intelligence algorithms for intelligent diagnosis. In my free time, I enjoy traveling and spending time with lovely pets.

Email: jhkim7@mit.edu

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Jia Dong

Postdoctoral Researcher

jiadong@mit.edu

I received my PhD degree in Chemistry at Brown University. In Tadesse lab, I will design novel substrates and nanophotonic devices to enable Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) for diagnostic testing. In my free time, I enjoy music and reading books.

Aditya Garg

Postdoctoral Researcher

aditya14@mit.edu

I received my PhD degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, specializing in nanoplasmonic devices for pathogen detection. As a postdoctoral associate, I’m excited to use my background to develop translational diagnostic technologies for solving critical societal problems. In my free time, I enjoy watching cricket and exploring new countries and cuisines. 

PhD Students

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Marissa McDonald

PhD Student

mmcdon33@mit.edu

Linkedin

I received my BS from Johns Hopkins University where I studied Biomedical Engineering and Computational Medicine. I am now pursuing my PhD in Medical Engineering & Medical Physics in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology program. I’m excited to utilize my background in immune engineering to design immune diagnostics for global health and space medicine applications. In my free time, I enjoy dancing salsa and bachata and thrift shopping.

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Lauren Futami

PhD Student

lfutami@mit.edu

Linkedin

I am currently working toward my PhD in biomedical product design within mechanical engineering. I am co-advised by Loza Tadesse (Tadesse Lab) and Ellen Roche (Therapeutic Technology Design and Development) and very excited to be working on designing and iterating through methods and physical implementations for automation and biomedical devices! In my free time, I like watching everyone’s movie recommendations and watering dying plants.

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Aashini Shah

PhD Student

aashah28@mit.edu

I am a first-year PhD Student in the Health Sciences and Technology Program. I am  co-advised by Loza Tadesse and Eleftherios Paschalis (Massachusetts Eye and Ear) and developing a project to create implantable micro-optomechanical sensors for sensing and monitoring pathologies of the eye. Outside of lab, I am passionate about assistive technology, community-oriented design, and mentoring young scientists. On weekends, you can find me reading or trying to learn how to paint.

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Audrey Cui

PhD Student

audcui@mit.edu

I am a Course 6-9 MEng student interested in a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines across CS/EE/MechE. I hope to bring together my past work on interpretable machine learning models and data augmentation for limited datasets with my interest in medical devices to make diagnostic tools more accessible during my MEng. In my free time, I’m usually in a makerspace welding firespinning props or soldering LED spinning props, or outside biking.

Masters Students

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Catalina Romero

MS Student

cromero1@mit.edu

Linkedin

I earned my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT with a focus in Product Design and an Environment and Sustainability minor. I’m now pursuing my M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with the goal of designing accessible medical device diagnostics for areas in global health and space. I’m thrilled to use my previous mechanical design engineering experience from Apple and Tesla for medical device design applications. I enjoy ultramarathon running, sharing my Colombian culture, and watching soccer. 

Undergraduate Students

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Jarett Dewbury

B.A.Sc Student

jdewbury@mit.edu

Linkedin

I am currently pursuing a B.A.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Waterloo with a focus in medical artificial intelligence. I am interested in the intersection of medicine and machine learning to develop transformative precision diagnostic tools in low-resource settings. I enjoy maintaining an active lifestyle and am also excited to explore the culinary world that Cambridge and Boston have to offer.

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Shruthi Ravichandran

S.B. Student

shruthi@mit.edu

Linkedin

I am currently an undergrad at MIT, pursuing an S.B. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a BSAD in Art and Design. I am passionate about bringing healthcare and diagnostics to low-resource environments and am excited to bring my past experience in immunology, machine learning, and optics and interest in interdisciplinary approaches to research. In my free time, you can find me building something in a maker space, training for my next marathon, or finding new napping spots on campus.

Visiting Researcher

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Sujan Manna

PhD Student

sujan_24@mit.edu

Linkedin

I’m currently a visiting research scholar at MIT, pursuing my PhD from IIT Madras, India. My research pushes the boundaries of Raman spectroscopy, blending it with nanoparticles, nanoclusters, AI, and biology. Think of me as a “Jack of all trades, Master of some,” always pushing my limits. When not being a science wizard, I channel my inner Bollywood dance star, whip up gourmet delights, and embrace my quirky mix of nerdiness and enthusiasm. From cutting-edge research to cutting a rug, life’s an exciting adventure!

Collaborators

Microfluidics & Nanofluidics Research Laboratory

Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies

Edelman Lab

The Birnbaum Lab

Mass. Eye and Ear

Alums

Masters Students 

Kaitlin Zareno  – PhD Student, USC

Undergraduate Students 

Alexis Yang  – Researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Research Facilities

Our main lab is located in 5-019 in the Papallardo II lab spaces. This brand new space is equipped with a chemical synthesis room where we engineer novel substrates, an optics room where we build next generation imaging and spectroscopy systems and a biology room where we handle samples. We are also located at the Hatsopoulous Microfluidics Laboratory (HML) two floors above performing mechanical system designs for device buildouts and at the Ragon Institute for our tissue culture and BSL3 needs. Shared facilities at MIT.nano and Laser Biomedical Research Center provides shared tools access including the latest in nanofabrication with 50,000 square foot of clean room space and high class electron microscopy tools for our imaging needs. 

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Additional Facilities

Laser Biomedical Research Center at MIT

Hatsopoulos Microfluidics Laboratory at MIT

MIT.nano

Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, & Harvard

Outreach

Professor Tadesse is a co-founder of the non-profit organization SciFro, working on empowering the African youth to solve local problems through scientific research and innovation. The organization is generously supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Science Foundation, American Physical Society and others.

The Tadesse Lab, through SciFro, organizes and provides opportunities for the lab members and the broader MIT community to engage in educational outreach in Africa and underrepresented minority communities in the United States. This includes summer schools, boot camps, hosting research in the lab, online lectures, developing teaching kits, and recruiting for graduate studies. We are excited for the 2024 cycle of our school!

Lab Socials

Tadesse Lab works hard and plays hard! We plan meals and activities around the Boston area and look forward to the launch of our retreats!

Contact Us

We are seeking team members to join our vibrant lab. If you are interested in joining, please send your CV and research interests to Prof. Loza Tadesse at lozat@mit.edu.