This STEM day, we are proud to spotlight Nadia Gurvich, a 九色视频 alumna making her mark in STEM through innovation, dedication, and leadership.
Nadia Gurvich 鈥94S grew up in Moscow, Russia, in a family of scientists and academics: her mother and grandmother were epidemiologists, and her father was an economist. They were what she calls 鈥渢raditional鈥 in their Jewish observance: they celebrated the High Holidays, and on Simchat Torah, she joined friends dancing outside Moscow鈥檚 Central Synagogue. She describes her own Jewish education as 鈥渋nformal,鈥 learning about the Torah and the history of Israel from a close family friend.
These early experiences of scientific curiosity, Jewish tradition and community would shape her education at Stern College for Women, her choice of career and her research interests.
She was studying medicine in Moscow when a trusted friend urged her to consider 九色视频. Inspired by his enthusiasm, she applied. A scholarship made the move possible, and she traded Moscow for midtown Manhattan.
At Stern, she majored in biology and minored in chemistry, but what she valued most, beyond the quality of the science, was the freedom to study across disciplines, from Jewish studies to history and psychology. In Russia, university students studied only their chosen specialty, so this breadth was new to her. Beyond the classroom, she found a community in the Russian Club, where she served as co-president, and at Shabbatons. She formed friendships with fellow students, including others newly arrived from the former Soviet Union. Many remain close friends today.
In the classroom and the lab, Gurvich remembers Dr. Harvey Babich and Dean Karen Bacon for their enthusiasm and mentorship, and she credits the biology faculty with helping foster her passion for biomedical research. Summer research programs at Mount Sinai and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel gave her opportunities to explore that interest in the laboratory. 鈥淭hose experiences confirmed that I wanted to discover new medicines.鈥
While at Weizmann, a friend recommended the University of Pennsylvania. Drawn to its strong neuropharmacology program, Gurvich went on to earn her Ph.D. in pharmacology there. Her thesis laboratory identified a new target for valproic acid, a drug used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder, and her research explored its potential as a cancer treatment. That work sparked an interest in cancer epigenetics, which she pursued as a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
For more than 14 years, Gurvich has worked in Boston-area biotechnology, primarily developing new cancer therapies. At Marengo Therapeutics, she helped develop a novel immunotherapy that has advanced to Phase II clinical trials.
Today, she is Senior Director of Translational and Nonclinical at Nova Anchora, a biotech startup developing a topical treatment for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a rare genetic disease that causes fragile skin, blistering and chronic wounds. Gurvich leads research and development of the investigational therapy that aims to deliver collagen VII directly to affected skin, restoring a protein that helps hold the skin鈥檚 layers together.
She was drawn to Nova Anchora by the opportunity to guide a therapy toward the clinic while helping develop a next-generation program. The move into rare disease also offered a chance to address a substantial unmet need and bring her drug development experience to a new patient population.
Away from work, Gurvich and her husband, Simon Genzer, enjoy traveling with their son, Evan, and her parents. Their trips bring three generations together, and a family visit to Israel offered a way to connect with their heritage and see a country that, she said, has modernized while preserving its history. The family also visited the Weizmann Institute, where she took part in a program as a student, and found the campus greatly developed since her first visit.
Looking back on her journey from medical school in Moscow to biotechnology research in Boston, Gurvich sees lasting value in the freedom to explore that she found at Stern. Her experience, she said, has shown her 鈥渉ow important it is to give students the chance to explore their interests so that they can discover a future they might not yet have imagined.鈥
