The Bay Area has its hacker houses for techies looking to create Silicon Valley synergy. Los Angeles has a Hype House mansion for TikTokers to make content. Now Cambridge has hopped onto this trend with its own biotech house for young scientists.
The co-living space, known as "Dojo House," will host six future biotech entrepreneurs and scientists ages 19-22 this summer as they kick start their careers while participating in workshops, dinners and learning groups among themselves and the Greater Boston life sciences community.
The house is named after and run by Nucleate Dojo, a global program that supports undergraduate and non-graduate students within life sciences with education opportunities, community building and funding. The organization says Dojo House is the first-ever, biotech-focused house for young scientists.
“I felt a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out). All these tech kids have these hacker houses going on and they have these cool conferences, and everybody is so excited about the future of tech and crypto and web3 now,” said Subaita Rahman, co-founder of Nucleate Dojo and a biotech platform associate at Pillar VC. “And I want to bring that young, fresh energy to biotech.”
Rahman, a rising senior at the University of Toronto, said Nucleate Dojo and this program stemmed from a virtual group she helped create in 2020. The group, known as BioDojo, used a Discord server to help young people learn about and network in the life sciences. BioDojo merged with Nucleate, a nonprofit supporting young biotech leaders, at the beginning of 2022.
“They’re more focused I think on graduate students. Our focus is a bit younger and we really believe that the earlier people get exposed, the more intentional they can be about what kind of paths they want to take,” Rahman said.
The house is supported by funding from AGE1 fund, Emergent Ventures, VitaDAO, 1517 Fund, Ashton Trotman-Grant (currently at Fifty Years VC) and in partnership with Pillar VC. Rahman said scholarships are available to help participants pay for a portion or all of their stay in the house.
Inside the Dojo
The kitchen inside Dojo House is not just for cooking and eating. It is also the place where everyone gathers in the morning to share their goals for the day, Rahman said. The living room is a place for relaxing, but also where they host workshops with a projector to share their projects or new skills.
A window-lined room at the front of the apartment (Dojo House is located on the third floor of an apartment building) was turned into a WeWork-esque office, with desks pushed together to create collaboration spaces.
“We got kind of crafty with it, but it’s really nice for all of us to kind of work together,” Rahman said. “Sometimes you have conversations about things we are working on or read. It’s very spontaneous, which is a big part of why a house experience is a really good experience to have.”
Rahman and her Dojo House co-founder Carol Magalhaes, who will both live in the house this summer, helped choose three values each inhabitant of the house should embody: The willingness to take career risks, a history of taking action on ideas and an openness to changing their beliefs.
The six young people living in the house this summer are Sana Raisfirooz, Rikard Saqe, Reiss Jones, Seyone Chithrananda, Michael Gee and Yasmeen Hmaidan. They come from countries around the world, including Brazil, Canada and England, and have backgrounds in areas like machine learning, AI, biochemistry and neuroscience. Most are completing internships, co-ops or volunteering while living in the house this summer.
Rahman said she hopes the combination of in-person meetings and each person’s unique skill set will create moments of knowledge sharing and serendipitous discovery.
“It’s really nice to ideate with each other, talk with each other and see what can come out of it,” Rahman said. “Ideally it would be great if we could find our next co-founders in this co-living house.”
Dojo House’s first community event will be held on June 25 by Nucleate Dojo and Pillar VC. Rahman said the event is open to students, interns, founders and other young people interested in biotech in Greater Boston. Her goal is to see Nucleate Dojo continue to grow its reach, this summer and beyond.
“Having a community, having mentors to give you a confidence boost that you can innovate in biotech no matter what your age is. You can find the people, the resources to help you push your ideas forward,” Rahman said.
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