Bumb was born to IndianJain parents who immigrated to the United States for higher education. Her father was one of the earliest in his family to complete his Doctor of Philosophy degree and her mother the first female in her town to go to college. Her maternal-grandfather was a veterinarian. Bumb graduated as from Southside High School as valedictorian in 2002, where her younger sister and brother also followed her as valedictorians.
Career
Bumb graduated in 2005 from Georgia Tech 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 prestigious Marshall Scholarship and NIH-OxCam Program. Her doctoral work brought together 4 labs from 2 institutes, 4 fields, and 2 countries. 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 to go on to two post-doctoral fellowships at the National Cancer Institute and National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. She has received much recognition for excellence in engineering and was profiled early in her career in Nature as a successful young scientist on the fast-track. Her breakthroughs in the areas of nanomedicine and diagnostics have led to multiple patents, publications, and the spin out of the biotech Bikanta that is using nanodiamonds to allow academics and doctors to study and address disease at the cellular level. Nanodiamonds are next generation imaging probes trailblazing cutting-edge research including applications with the recent Nobel Prize in Chemistry for super-resolved fluorescence microscopy and utility in portable cancer detection devices. Bikanta is one of the first biotechs to be funded by Y Combinator, winner of the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture and CapCon Competitions, a California Life Science Institute's FAST Awardee, and named 1 of 4 Best Diagnostics Startups of 2015 by QB3. Complementary to her scientific and commercial interests, Bumb has also been involved in national science policy initiatives, particularly related to nanotechnology. Bumb was featured as a female role model to empower young girls by Career Girls. She has been appreciated in various interviews, including by Nature at the NaturejobsCareer Expo, San Francisco and in an interview by WeFunder.
Selected works
Papers
Macromolecules, Dendrimers, and Nanomaterials in Magnetic Resonance Imaging: The Interplay between Size, Function, and Pharmacokinetics
Synthesis and characterization of ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles thinly coated with silica
Synthesis of a Cross-Bridged Cyclam Derivative for Peptide Conjugation and 64Cu Radiolabeling
