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Community-Supported News. Free to all.
VOL. 10, NO. 39
27
AUGUST 7, 2025
Hands On: Sterling Startup Trains Next Generation of Bioengineers, Scientists Interns and research scientists at the Sterling-based Athari BioSciences startup receive hands-on opportunities to learn and grow during summer programs.
Hanna Pampaloni/Loudoun Now
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BY HANNA PAMPALONI
hpampaloni@loudounnow.org
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s a local startup pushes cutting-edge scientific research, a hallmark of its work is raising the next generation of bioengineers, scientists and more through internship opportunities that emphasize hand-on learning and safe spaces to fail, troubleshoot and try again. Athari BioSciences Inc. was started by Susan Mitchell, who spent over two decades leading a federal contracting company, to transform healthcare through research, diagnostics and medical testing. The Sterling-based company houses a state-of-the-art Biosafety Level 2 Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certified lab. That facility, combined with a culture fostered by Mitchell and company leadership, has created an incubator for up-
and-coming industry professionals to gain knowledge and experience that is difficult to find. Among those are Loudoun’s own rising stars, including Mahaniya Srinivasan, Nina Zasypkina and Nina Bangaru. Bangaru said she never pictured herself in a biology-based career. Her aspirations lie in aerospace science, but during research for another program she was involved in, she discovered that within the first few months of a trip to space, astronauts lose large amounts of bone density and muscle. That’s a problem she wants to solve, but a background in aerospace alone won’t get her there. “What I decided to do is I emailed Ms. Mitchell, and I was talking to her about what my main focus was for this project,
ATHARI continues on page 34
A Message from the Executive Director
t the end of August, we will say goodbye to the print version of Loudoun Now. Loudoun Now isn’t going anywhere—in fact, we’ve been growing. You’ve already seen the first hints of what we’re up to here—you’ve seen our reporters offering up-to-the-moment updates on social media and in-depth, multimedia reporting to build on our written stories. You’ve heard our daily news podcast, the Morning Minute, and seen the new Loudoun Now Voice,
at loudounnow.com/voice. That’s only the beginning of what we have in mind. But as so many other local newsrooms have found, even with strong community advertising support, the economic realities of producing, printing and distributing a print edition every week get in the way of growing our newsroom and coverage. So the Aug. 28 edition, Vol. 10, No. 42, will be the last print edition of the paper. Then, even more opportunities for serving our community begin—we’ll have the
freedom to reinvest in growing our newsroom, to bring stories to life with multimedia coverage, to hear more voices and perspectives, to expand our in-depth coverage into more communities, and to engage directly in community conversations with you, our readers. And for our local businesses, we’ve been coming up with innovative, effective ways to get the word out about your business and connect with the community. As always, we’ll see you online at
loudounnow.com. If you value the work you see there, consider pitching in at loudounnow.com/donate. If you want to know more about our digital transformation, check loudounnow.com/online. And as always, thank you for your unwavering support for local, nonprofit, trustworthy news. Renss Greene Executive Director, Loudoun Community Media
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