In this episode, our host talks with Vivien Marmerstein about her path from BioBuilderClub student to educator and how synthetic biology helped her build confidence in her teaching. She traces the moments that pushed her toward microbiology, research, and ultimately a return to Western Reserve Academy to lead the next wave of student teams.

In Episode 42, Zeeshan takes a Hitchhiker’s Guide–inspired journey through the BioBuilder community, checking in with alumni, educators, and innovators. It’s a reflection on curiosity, creativity, and why the answer to life, the universe, and everything just might be biology.

Maria Bennes’ teaching career spans pharma training, academic workshops, and high school teaching. She has converged on one principle—education is communication tailored to the audience. Maria’s advice to the hesitant is heartfelt: you don’t need certainty, only curiosity and community like what she found with BioBuilder.

Edwin Gonzalez shares his journey from a BioBuilder apprentice to becoming a lead scientific support specialist at Thermo Fisher by age 23, highlighting how hands-on experiences and mentorship shaped his career path.

Dev Gupta shares how early curiosity, nurtured by family and hands-on projects like the BioBuilderClub, inspired his path into interdisciplinary science and technology. He and his co-founder Joshua Reljac discuss their startup AIVON and its flagship product, MediSense—an AI-powered diagnostic tool aimed at transforming healthcare with real-time, user-friendly symptom analysis

Nicole Mumbi is a former BioBuilder Apprentice who is now studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UMass Amherst

Greg is a senior at Emory University with plans to enter the Biomedical Engineering PhD program at Boston University this fall

Daniel teaches BioBuilder at Hamden Hall in Connecticut

Nico was a BioBuilder Apprenticeship who interned at Boston University and lead a HS iGEM team

Nathan joined BioBuilder’s Summer Research Program as a high school junior and is now an intern at Conduit