Matthew Ho

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Matthew was born and raised in Texas. He first became interested in biology during middle school at the St. Mark’s School of Texas, where he was recruited into his school’s academic competition team. He then competed in the USA Biolympiad throughout high school, placing in the top 50 nationwide. Since arriving at Harvard College, he has continued exploring the biomedical field through his studies in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology and research here at the Rajagopal Lab. In collaboration with Dr. Jiajie Xu, he studies the physiological functions of rare airway cells, focusing on diverse, chemosensory tuft cells and their heterogeneous intercellular communications. After graduation, he hopes to pursue an MD degree and become an academic physician performing patient-facing clinical work and research.

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What drew you to your field?

Biology has the remarkable power to explain complex phenomena using simple models that can be applied to predict and influence life-changing outcomes. The airway epithelium is particularly interesting to me because of its complex interactions between the body and the environment and its relevance to disease.

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What do you do when you’re not in the lab?

Outside of the lab and classes, I enjoy playing the violin. I am a concertmaster of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and a member of the Brattle Street Chamber Players. In my free time, I also enjoy exploring the Boston food scene.

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Describe Rajagopal lab culture in 3 words:

Rigorous, dedicated, innovative