Sharanya Iyer
Sharanya Iyer is a biomedical engineer with over a decade of experience in cell culture, assay development, and laboratory automation. Her journey into the research field began at IAVI in New York as an intern, where she learned cell culture and microscope-based imaging techniques while working with dendritic cells. Following this, she spent six years at Merck Research Laboratories as part of their centralized cell culture team, supporting cell line development and cell-based screening assays for early-stage drug discovery.
In 2018, Sharanya joined Moderna’s research platform, where she oversaw the Moderna Cell Bank ‘s operation and digitization. She later transitioned to the automation team, which was established to assist the research and early development departments in automating assays to meet the company’s growing demands. Currently, she serves as the assay lead, focusing on automating cell-based assays such as neutralization assays and intracellular staining for flow cytometry, supporting the advancement of the infectious disease and immunology pipeline.