Karolina Chwałek has a background in molecular biology, regenerative medicine, and biomedical engineering. Experienced in technology transfer and business development, she is passionate about fostering innovation through entrepreneurship and translation of biomedical scientific breakthroughs into biotech and pharma industry.

She is projects manager at The Sinclair Lab, at Harvard Medical School’s Dept of Genetics. The Sinclair lab is working on improving survival in space: the resilience of human and non-human life beyond Earth. They utilize genetic and pharmacological means to identify technologies that provide resistance of lifeforms to insults, including long-term exposure to ionizing radiation and low gravity. One of their major focuses is on maintaining and improving human health beyond Earth. A key asset is a mouse strain they have engineered to simulate the conditions of space travel, resulting in impairments in cognition, bone density and muscle strength among others. Using this model and other systems they have identified novel agents and approaches that show promise in slowing and even reversing the long-term impact of space travel and colonization.