Each year we spotlight graduates who carry their Athenian education into the world in meaningful ways. This year’s theme is Innovators—alumni who are reimagining what’s possible in their fields, workplaces, and communities.
This first installment featuring Alison Burklund ’11, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Nanopath, appeared in our Annual Magazine last month.
Alison Burklund ’11 has always been driven by curiosity. Growing up near Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, her childhood was steeped in science. Her father was a mechanical engineer in the lab’s nuclear weapons program, and her mother ran its environmental protection department.
“That early exposure catalyzed a lot of my interests in the sciences,” Alison says.
By middle school, she knew she wanted to be an engineer. At Athenian, she gained the tools—and the perspective—to pursue that goal with purpose. She credits her humanities teachers like Lizette Dolan and Gabe Del Real with broadening her worldview.
“Before attending Athenian, I tended to view the world in black and white,” she says. “Athenian taught me to appreciate nuance across a wide range of topics, a perspective I believe is essential for making a holistic and inclusive impact in the world.” That outlook inspired her to tackle real-world inequities through science and technology.
At Athenian, Alison found room to explore, test ideas, and stay curious. Physics teacher Bruce Hamren was a mentor who supported her intellectual growth and fostered the “learning mindset” that continues to guide her today. “No matter the idea—good or bad—Bruce always provided the resources for me to explore it, even if just to humor me,” she says. “He nurtured my curiosity and confidence.”
Hands-on learning experiences—like designing a working waterfall sculpture in 3D art and architecture class—taught Alison how to work creatively with her hands in order to bring ideas into the physical world.
Today, Alison is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Nanopath, a healthcare technology company developing a rapid diagnostic platform for infectious diseases. She holds degrees from Johns Hopkins (B.S.), UC Berkeley (M.Eng.), and Dartmouth College (Ph.D.). Among those institutions, she says, Athenian had the most formative influence.
“Towards the latter half of my time at Athenian, I was very decisive that whatever I was going to do, it would hopefully make a positive impact on the world,” she says. “I give Athenian complete credit for the way in which I think about my work.”
As a college undergrad, Alison studied abroad in South Africa, working on HIV diagnostics at the University of Cape Town. At Berkeley, she continued developing low-cost, portable diagnostic tools for underserved communities.
By the time she began her Ph.D. at Dartmouth, her focus had sharpened. “I wasn’t going to be happy just ideating or doing bench science,” she says. “I cared about developing an impactful technology and bringing it from bench to market.”
At Dartmouth, she met fellow Ph.D. student Amogha Tadimety, whose research on cancer screening aligned with Alison’s work. The two co-founded Nanopath in 2019 while still in school. “We kind of just started the company as a learning exercise,” Alison says. “Which I can also credit to Athenian and this innate hunger to learn.”
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated interest in rapid diagnostics, and Nanopath quickly gained traction. By the fall of 2020, they had raised their first million dollars. Alison completed her doctorate that spring and moved to Cambridge, MA, where she and Amogha began building the company at The Engine, MIT’s non-profit incubator.
Nanopath has since raised over $22 million and grown to a team of 16. Its core product—designed to offer the performance of a PCR test with the ease of a rapid test—is initially focused on women’s outpatient healthcare, a market intentionally chosen due to its high unmet need.
“Diagnostics for women in doctors’ offices have remained unimproved for over 50 years,” Alison says, noting that Nanopath is building relationships with organizations that support medically underserved communities. “We’re talking to all these areas where there’s maybe one OB-GYN per 1,000 people, with more than half of OB-GYNs reporting burnout in 2024.”
In 2023, she was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in healthcare. While she appreciates the recognition, she’s most proud of the resilient and collaborative team she’s built at Nanopath. “There was one point where we ran into some unexpected technical hurdles,” she says. “In a startup environment, especially when there’s a lot of capital behind you, things have to move fast, and anything that slows you down can have a huge impact on the company’s growth trajectory.”
But the challenge proved galvanizing. “It built some resilience and it also brought us together,” Alison says. “And now, the science is working beautifully and we’re ready to build our go-to-market product.”
Pending FDA clearance, Nanopath’s product could be in use by early 2027. Reflecting on her journey, Alison remains grateful to the school that pushed her to grow.
“Athenian was the institution that enabled me to find my voice,” she says. “I was exposed to topics that I would never have encountered in my entire academic career. Exposure to those topics was a huge competitive advantage in the way I think about science and entrepreneurship, and I stand by that today.”
