Saaim Ali Khan

Experience

Pertinent research, volunteering, and work experiences

Organized chronologically from most recent first.

Ongoing

Hearing loss genomicsMay 2023 – Present

Researcher · Translational Hearing Genomics

Translational Hearing Genomics Lab - Boston Children's Hospital

Working under Dr. Eliot Shearer while building a customized Oxford Nanopore sequencing protocol to improve diagnostic yield in noncoding regions of key hearing loss genes.
Partnering with Akouos (Eli Lilly) and Regeneron on otoferlin gene therapy trials, including Regeneron's FDA approval as the first ever gene therapy approved for hearing loss.

Healthcare investingMay 2025 – Present

Investing Advisor

Sterling Atlantic

Leading diligence on middle-market healthcare transactions; modeling target valuations with comps and forward ARR multiples.
Working directly with Managing Director Franco Scalamandre on early-stage VC capital raises for portfolio companies.

Healthcare investingOct 2022 – Present

Investor

Remus Capital

Evaluating healthcare tech startups with market research and financial analysis to support investment decisions.
Contributed to diligence around Allurion Health (NYSE: ALUR) and Vyome Therapeutics (NDAQ: HIND).
Supported investments into HelloPatient, Decoda Health, and RadiantGraph; ran a pilot for TranscribeGlass (live transcription accessibility).

TeachingJul 2019 – Present

Udemy Instructor

Intro Comp Bio Research Structural Biology 101

Created free courses on computational biology research and structural bioinformatics/drug discovery.
10,000+ students enrolled across 174 countries.

Completed

Advocacy & communitySept 2022 – May 2025

Social Media Co-Director

Hearing Loss Association of America - Boston Chapter

Coordinated and promoted New England Walk4Hearing fundraisers via social media; raised $80,000+ across 2022 and 2023.
Hosted/promoted workshops and live Q&As on hearing loss resources and advocacy.

Basic science researchJun 2020 – May 2025

Researcher · Yale Ear Lab

Yale Ear Lab - Yale School of Medicine

Worked under Dr. Joseph Santos-Sacchi and Dr. Dhasakumar Navaratnam while analyzing inner ear electromicrographs to characterize Map1s, prestin, and βV spectrin proteins in hearing and deafness.
Contributed to published work on outer hair cell structure, electromotility, and spectrin biology.

Stankewich MC, Bai JP, Stabach PR, Khan S, Tan WJT, Surguchev A, Song L, Morrow JS, Santos-Sacchi J, Navaratnam DS. Outer hair cell function is normal in βV spectrin knockout mice. Hear Res. 2022 Sep 15;423:108564. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108564. Epub 2022 Jul 3. PMID: 35864018.Read paper →Bai JP, Stankewich MC, Yang J, Tan W, Zuo Z, Song Q, Khan S, Wang L, Morrow JS, Santos-Sacchi J, Navaratnam DS. Electromotility can be disassociated from gating charge movement in outer hair cells of conditional alpha2 spectrin knockout mice. J Biol Chem. 2026 Mar;302(3):111226. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2026.111226. Epub 2026 Feb 2. PMID: 41638427; PMCID: PMC12955104.Read paper →

2024

AccessibilityNov 2023 – Jun 2024

Hard-of-Hearing DEI Consultant

Boston Museum of Science Feature

Advised on accessibility features for a new hearing loss exhibit to make it inclusive for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors.
Contributed lived experience perspective to strengthen the exhibit's impact.

2023

ASL / educationJun 2023 – Aug 2023

Classroom Assistant

Horace Mann School for the Hard of Hearing and Deaf

Assisted elementary school students during ASL instruction using interactive and adaptive teaching approaches.
Helped students adapt to ASL-only environments and reinforced deaf culture values.

2022

Hearing restoration researchSep 2021 – Oct 2022

Researcher · Edge Lab

Edge Lab - Eaton-Peabody Laboratories (EPL) - Mass. Eye and Ear

Worked with Dr. Dunia Abdul-Aziz and Dr. Albert Edge on inner-ear regeneration research focused on mechanisms that may support hearing restoration.
Contributed literature review and experimental-analysis support around hair cell biology, auditory repair, and translational hearing-loss therapeutics.
Connected bench research questions to patient-facing hearing-loss advocacy and education.

2021

Genomic medicine researchApr 2021 – Aug 2021

Researcher · BabySeq Project

Genomes2People (G2P) BabySeq Project

Worked under Dr. Robert Green and Bethany Zettler on research into how newborn genomic sequencing can be integrated into pediatric care and family decision-making.
Supported BabySeq-related analyses and study materials at the intersection of genomics, ethics, and clinical implementation.
Helped synthesize literature and project context around the medical, behavioral, and familial impact of returning genomic results in infancy.

2020

Computational neuroscienceJun 2020 – Sep 2020

Researcher · Auditory Research Laboratory

Auditory Research Lab - University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Worked in Dr. Yale Cohen's Auditory Research Laboratory on computational approaches to auditory perception and neural coding.
Developed supervised learning workflows in Python to categorize auditory stimuli from brain-activity patterns.
Explored how machine learning can help decode neural responses to complex sounds and support auditory neuroscience research.

Computational biology research2019 – 2020

Researcher · Computational Biology

Tseng Lab - Wayne State University

Worked under Dr. Jeffrey Tseng to study sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) by connecting the C. elegans protein sulp-5 to the human SLC5/prestin-isoform-2 target.
Built and refined a 3D SLC5 model using multi-template homology modeling with 5EUZ/6RTC, then identified poc6 as the top functional binding pocket for docking.
Screened 8.1M ZINC compounds on a self-assembled 16-node HPC cluster, nominating L4 and L1 as lead candidates with bootstrap p-values of 4.02E-5 and 1.19E-18.
Won the 2020 Michigan Science and Engineering Fair Grand Award as 1 of 2 projects selected from 338, was named a 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search Top 300 honoree, and qualified for the 2020 Regeneron ISEF before its cancellation due to COVID-19.