Harvard in Tech Spotlight: Nabiha Saklayen, co-founder and CEO of Cellino
I spoke with Nabiha Saklayen, co-founder and CEO of Cellino, a startup that converges physics, biology, and machine learning to enable paradigm shifts in autologous regenerative medicine. Cellino is building a proprietary platform technology that makes personalized stem cell-derived therapies scalable.
Nabiha completed her Ph.D. in the physics program at Harvard. Her research focused on new laser-based techniques capable of editing cells. She connected with biologists to better understand whether the technology would be useful for them. Through these conversations, she realized an enormous need to engineer cells with high precision, which laser systems can do incredibly well.
Derrick Rossi (co-founder of Moderna), and other incredible biologists, validated the potential of Nabiha’s research in truly transforming biology. Inspired by this realization, Nabiha knew her research could not end with the completion of her Ph.D. She decided to share this realization with her then lab mate, Marinna Madrid, with who she had worked for many years. Marinna was enthusiastic about the prospect of commercializing the research and joined as co-founder.
A few months after founding Cellino, the team won a major startup competition in San Francisco, which gave them further validation that they should go all-in on growing the company. They started connecting with and onboarding advisors and multi-talented full-time team members, including former entrepreneurs, to grow the company.
In 2020, Cellino was recognized by Forbes as the most intriguing newcomer in Biotech and Pharma. Cellino was founded by physicists with no formal biology training. As a result, they are bringing a fresh and unique perspective to building a disruptive platform.
Cellino recently announced their seed round with investors, including Khosla Ventures and The Engine, who Nabiha met early in the company’s journey. They are very aligned with Nabiha’s vision and the team’s ultimate goal to create a future where patients can have rapid access to life-saving, personalized stem cells.
Nabiha shared her advice for effective communication, hiring, and startup building.
Diversify your communication. In building a research-driven company, Nabiha is frequently communicating complex scientific and technical concepts with diverse audiences, including many non-technical partners.
Nabiha was first exposed to this setting before founding Cellino when she was a graduate student. She came from a laser physics and optics background but was working on research with biological applications. She did not speak the same scientific language as biologists, so she realized early the importance of patience in communication and explaining each concept in multiple ways until the other party has internalized it. She says it’s essential to take the time to dig deeper to understand the other party’s main points of confusion and learn how they best intake information. Also, try different communication methods. It’s essential to meet the other party where they are at in their uniqueness.
Nabiha’s experience as a teacher has served her well in communicating effectively. At Harvard, she taught physics to pre-med students, which taught her how to explain complex concepts and how to explain these concepts in a way that excited and engaged nonmajors and other people outside of the discipline.
Cellino’s team is incredibly diverse, with experts from various backgrounds, from physics to biology. As a result, they have spent a meaningful amount of time learning to understand each other’s language and mode of communication. They value effective communication so much that they brought on a leadership and communication specialist early in their company’s journey to ensure this focus was incorporated into their practices. They have found that proper communication accelerates innovation and helps the team achieve milestones more efficiently.
Bring the human element. As a graduate student, Nabiha was accustomed to just focusing on the science and the content of her research. However, in founding Cellino, and particularly in communicating with potential hires and investors, she has realized the importance of talking about the deeper meaning behind Cellino’s work. She has learned about the vital role of storytelling in building strong relationships, whether for fundraising or team building.
By sharing more about your own story, your life journey, and what has drawn you to solve the problem you are tackling, people connect with you. It is crucial to integrate the human element in business communication.
Keep an open mind. Nabiha’s Ph.D. work focused on the application of laser-based methods to delivering cargoes into cells. Cellino’s work now leverages lasers to sort and remove unwanted cells instead. When connecting with potential partners early on, Nabiha realized that stem cell scientists faced a significant challenge: creating stem cells by hand in a painstakingly manual process, using pipette tips to scrape away unwanted cells. She and her team saw immense room for innovation and incredible value in utilizing technology to leverage image-based machine learning to automate this process. Although this was an application area Nabiha had never before imagined, she kept an open mind by listening to the experts and the industry’s need to build something that could create an impact.
To create that impact, you must stay open to hearing ideas, even ones that go against your gut instinct. When you build a business, your focus is no longer on your interests but rather on the company’s greater good and its partners. Stay close to your partners and incorporate their perspectives in major decisions.
Hire people who inspire you. In team building, Nabiha intentionally looks for people who inspire her and who she can learn from. As an interdisciplinary company, Cellino needs to grow and collect expertise across many different spaces. Nabiha looks for meaningful levels of brilliance in these areas. When hiring, she asks herself, “Am I in awe of this person? Would I want to and be able to learn from them and grow with them continuously?”
Be honest as quickly as possible. When team members or hiring prospects are not working out within the company, it’s best to make and communicate that decision as soon as possible. Startups move so quickly that any lost time has a significant bearing on the company’s innovation speed and growth.
Treat everyone you have to say goodbye to with the utmost respect. Communicate your decision in an upfront manner to preserve your friendship even after the separation.
Prioritize your health. Looking back on her time at Harvard, Nabiha is very proud of what she achieved. She set ambitious goals for herself: to graduate from her Ph.D. program in 5 years (when the norm is seven years) and be the first author on three published papers. She achieved all of these goals and more. However, in hindsight, it was often at the expense of her health. She now realizes the importance of prioritizing her health, making sure to eat, sleep, and exercise properly. Making your well-being a top priority is the foundation for everything in research, company building, and life.
Take a long-term view. When asked about what advice she would give to her younger self, Nabiha underscores the importance of stressing less. Some challenges may feel like the end of the world in the moment, but in a few years, months, or even weeks, you might realize how trivial they were. No matter what, things move forward. There will always be more time and more opportunities. Everything will work out.
