Ambika Bumb

Ambika Bumb is an American biomedical scientist and businessperson. Bumb is a nanomedicine specialist who uses nanotechnology for the detection and treatment of disease. Her discoveries using nanodiamonds while working as postdoctoral researcher at the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute led to the launch of the biotech Bikanta. Bumb is Deputy Executive Director at the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.

Early life
Bumb was born to Indian Jain parents who immigrated to the United States for higher education. Her father was the first in his family to complete his Doctor of Philosophy degree, and her mother the first female in her town to get her college degree in a STEM field. Her maternal grandfather was a veterinarian. Bumb graduated from Southside High School as valedictorian in 2002.

Education
Bumb graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and a Minor in Economics from Georgia Institute of Technology, while being recognized with the Helen E. Grenga Outstanding Woman Engineer and E. Jo Baker President's Scholar Awards. With an early interest in nanomedicine, she conducted research focused on tracking quantum dots in bone and cartilage while also being an active leader in various campus organizations.

In 2008, Bumb completed her doctorate in Medical Engineering in three years from University of Oxford while also on the Marshall Scholarship and NIH-OxCam Program. She developed a triple-reporting nanoparticle and showed the technology's transferability across different disease types with studies in cancer and multiple sclerosis. The magnetic nanoparticles demonstrated strong potential in cancer diagnostics and therapy. Upon graduation, she continued on to two post-doctoral fellowships at the National Cancer Institute (2009-2011) and National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (2011-2013).

Career
Her breakthroughs in the areas of nanomedicine and diagnostics have led to multiple patents, publications, and the spin out of her biotech company Bikanta that is using nanodiamonds to allow academics and doctors to study and address disease at the cellular level. Bikanta was among the early biotechnology startups to receive funding from Y Combinator, and was a recipient of the California Life Science Institute's FAST Award, and named 1 of 4 Best Diagnostics Startups of 2015 by QB3.

As Bikanta prepared to move the technology into clinical trials, the Theranos scandal went public and many investors pulled out of the diagnostics space. Bikanta was unable to raise the funding to proceed with the clinical trials.

Complementary to her scientific and commercial interests, Bumb has also been involved in national science policy initiatives, particularly related to nanotechnology. After Bikanta, Bumb began working as Health Science and Technology Advisor for the Secretary of State in the office of Crisis Management and Strategy in December 2019, where she played a role in the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, she transferred to President Joe Biden's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, her new role being the Deputy Executive Director.

Awards and recognition

 * Marshall Scholarship
 * The Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Award - Georgia Institute of Technology