Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based CEO’ operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Othman Laraki
Co-founder & CEO of Color
Othman Laraki, MS, MBA, is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Color, a health technology company building public health infrastructures such as scaled and efficient testing to contain the COVID-19 pandemic or using genomics for population health. Previously, Othman co-founded Mixer Labs and developed its GeoAPI platform, a powerful location engine for developers. After the company was acquired by Twitter in 2009, he served as the social media network’s Vice President of Product and helped expand its user base from 50 to 200 million unique accounts. Before this, Othman spent several years at Google, where he played an integral role developing front-end products, including the Chrome browser. Othman is a long-time investor and advisor to leading companies such as Pinterest, AngelList, Slack and Instacart, and serves as a board member for ESI Group and Frontier Medicines. He holds degrees in computer science and management from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
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Anne Wojcicki
Co-Founder and CEO of 23andMe
Anne co-founded 23andMe in 2006 after a decade spent in healthcare investing, focused primarily on biotechnology companies. Her hope was to empower consumers with access to their own genetic information and to create a way to generate more personalized information so that commercial and academic researchers could better understand and develop new drugs and diagnostics. Presently, 23andMe has built one of the world’s largest databases of individual genetic information. Its novel, web-based research approach allows for the rapid recruitment of participants to many genome-wide association studies at once, reducing the time and money needed to make new discoveries, and the company has created a proven and standardized resource for finding new genetic association and confirming genetic loci discovered by others. Under Anne’s leadership 23andMe has made significant advances in bringing personalized medicine directly to the public. Anne graduated from Yale University with a BS in Biology. Getting access to and understanding her own genetic information had always been one of her ambitions.
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About 23andMe, The Brin Wojcicki Foundation: 23andMe is a DNA testing technology company that enables its users to access their ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits.
Lin Jixun
Founder & CEO of ACON Laboratories
Lin Jixun has served as our director since 2008 and is the founder and chief executive officer of ACON Laboratories Inc., a worldwide leading manufacturer of high-quality rapid diagnostic test products. Mr. Lin founded ACON Laboratories Inc. in 1995 and serves on the company’s board of directors. He also serves on the board of directors for ACEA BioSciences Inc., a company providing innovative cell-based assay systems for basic life science research and drug discovery. Mr. Lin received his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the Medical University of South Carolina and a Bachelor of Medicine from Zhejiang Medical University.
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About ACON Laboratories: ACON Laboratories is a biotechnology firm that offers medical diagnostic and healthcare products.
Trevor Martin
Co-Founder and CEO of Mammoth Biosciences
As co-founder and CEO of Mammoth Biosciences, Trevor Martin is focused on creating the world’s first CRISPR-based platform for disease detection, taking impactful CRISPR technology out of the lab and into the hands of doctors and consumers. Prior to co-founding Mammoth, Trevor completed his PhD in Biology at Stanford University, where he worked at the intersection of statistics and genetics. In addition to having taught a course in Statistics at Stanford, Trevor has penned educational guides for university courses across the globe. His work has been featured in outlets like FiveThirtyEight and The Atlantic.
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About Mammoth Biosciences: Mammoth Biosciences develops novel CRISPR applications for disease detection, research, agriculture, biodefense, and more.
Raja Dhir
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Seed Health
Raja Dhir is a life sciences entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Seed Health, a venture-backed microbiome company pioneering the application of bacteria for both human and planetary health. He leads Seed’s R&D, academic collaborations, technology development, clinical trial design, supply chain, and intellectual property strategy. Together with Dr. Jacques Ravel, he Co-Chairs Seed’s Scientific Advisory Board–an interdisciplinary group of scientists and doctors who lead research teams and teach at institutions including the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the Trial Innovation Unit of Mass. General Hospital (MGH). Raja has designed clinical trials with leading academic institutions including the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the Trial Innovation Unit of Mass. General Hospital (MGH). Raja has unique expertise translating scientific research for product development with a track record that includes patented inventions to stabilize sensitive compounds to improve alpha-diversity of the gut microbiome (derived from micro-algae) and most recently, the co-invention of microbial technologies to protect honeybee populations (Apis mellifera) from neonicotinoid pesticides and pathogen colonization. His work also includes biofermentation and scale-up for both facultative and strict anaerobic organisms. Raja has negotiated multiple joint-ventures, strategic partnerships, technology transfer and licensing agreements with publicly traded companies (NYSE, LSE) and academic institutions (Harvard Medical School, UCLA). To date, entities he has co-founded own the rights to 15+ patents and research emerging from $25MM+ of non-dilutive funding over 10+ years from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institute of Health (NIH). Raja serves on the Editorial Board for the scientific journal, Microbiome. He is a member of the Microbiome Think Tank at Mass. General Hospital (MGH) and sits on the Advisory Committee for the International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP). Raja is also a Director and Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for Micropia, a $20MM microbial ecology / education platform and the world’s first museum dedicated to microbes.
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About Seed Health: Seed Health is a microbial company that focuses on therapeutics, consumer health innovations, and environmental solutions.
Ara Katz
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Seed Health
Ara Katz is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Seed Health, a microbial sciences company pioneering the application of bacteria to impact human and planetary health. She has worked at the intersection of technology, consumer, design, and media is now working to steward a new standard in probiotics and how science is communicated to change how we discern evidence from evangelism to make the most informed choices for our bodies, our health, and our world. Ara previously co-founded and served as CMO of mobile commerce marketplace, Spring (backed by LMVH, sold to ShopRunner), and was on the founding team of social commerce company, BeachMint (sold to Conde Nast), where she launched six direct-to-consumer, influencer subscription brands. She is an angel investor and advisor in companies such as mindbodygreen, Stadium Goods (recently sold to FarFetch), RXDefine, women’s healthcare startup, Mahmee, and new biomaterials company, C16. Ara has been a fellow at the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Future Storytelling and CCA’s Design MBA program, was named in Marie Claire’s “The New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in America”, listed on Business Insider’s “Silicon Alley Top 100” and “36 Rockstar Women in NYC Tech”, and Create + Cultivate’s 100 List for STEM.
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About Seed Health: Seed Health is a microbial company that focuses on therapeutics, consumer health innovations, and environmental solutions.
Sam Santhosh
Founder Chairman & Global CEO of MedGenome
Sam Santhosh is the Founder and CEO of MedGenome. He has been an entrepreneur, with over 20 years of experience in the software industry. Currently, he is at the helm of affairs as CEO and promoter of MedGenome Labs Pvt Ltd. Sam sits on the board of a number of companies, both in the US and India. In this role he advises, guides and mentors companies to help them grow and realize their true potential. Prior to this Sam was the CEO and Managing Director of California Software Limited (Calsoft) from 1992 – Feb 2012. He founded Calsoft in 1992 and under Sam’s vision, Calsoft rapidly grew from a niche player in the Silicon Valley to a global player with over 1200 employees and presence in 8 countries. Sam took Calsoft Public and the company is listed the in Indian Stock Exchanges. Sam oversaw the growth of Calsoft in all key areas – Finance, Strategy, Customer Acquisition, and inorganic growth through eight acquisitions including companies in the U.S, UK, Japan, and India. He has been constantly retooling himself and has attended various training programs in different U.S universities including MIT. In 2010, he completed the Executive Education program at the Singularity University in Sunnyvale, California. Sam has an engineering degree and an MBA (majoring in Management Information Systems) from India’s premier institute, IIM Calcutta.
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About Agrigenome, MedGenome: MedGenome develops a genomics-based diagnostics and research solution for healthcare providers to understand the genetic basis of diseases.
John Melo
Director, President & Chief Executive Officer of Amyris
John Melo has 30 years of combined experience as an entrepreneur and thought leader in developing and growing technology companies and as a senior executive in the Oil & Gas industry. As President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Melo has led Amyris through successful technology development, industrial start up, product development and commercialization and a series of funding rounds, including the initial public offering. Before joining Amyris in 2007, Mr. Melo served in various senior executive positions at BP Plc (formerly British Petroleum) most recently as President of U.S. fuels operations where he successfully led a business transformation and significantly improved the financial performance. During his tenure at BP, Mr. Melo also served as Chief Information Officer of the refining and marketing segment; Senior Advisor for e-business strategy to Lord Browne, BP group chief executive; and Director of global brand development. In this last role, he helped develop the “Helios” re-branding effort. Before joining BP, Mr. Melo was with Ernst & Young. Mr. Melo currently serves on the board of directors of Renmatix Inc., serves on the board of directors of BayBio, serves on the Bio Industrial and Environmental section governing board, is a member of the Council for the Portuguese Diaspora and is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). He was formerly an appointed member to the U.S. section of the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum. When not working on the mission of making sustainable chemistry mainstream or championing the eradication of malaria, John enjoys skiing, reading and time with his family on the island of Pico in the Azores, his childhood home.
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About Amyris: Amyris Biotechnologies specializes in creating renewable products focusing on fuels and chemicals.
Kimberlie Le
CEO and Co-Founder of Prime Roots
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About Prime Roots: Prime Roots is celebrating the culture of meat by reimagining protein itself.
Michael Heltzen
Chief Executive Officer of Cardea Bio
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About Cardea Bio, Nanomed: Cardea is developing a new generation of (bio)technology infrastructure based on proprietary biology-gated transistors.
Francis deSouza
CEO of Illumina
Francis A. deSouza, 50, has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Illumina, Inc., a biotechnology company, since 2016 and served as President of Illumina from 2013 to 2016. Prior to joining Illumina, Mr. deSouza was President, Products and Services, of Symantec Corporation from 2011 to 2013, and Mr. deSouza served as Symantec’s Senior Vice President, Enterprise Security Group, from 2009 to 2011. Prior to that time he founded or worked in a variety of other technology businesses. He has served as a Director of Illumina since 2014 and was a director of Citrix Systems, Inc. from 2014 to 2016. He was elected a Director of the Company in December 2017, effective February 1, 2018.
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Jay Flatley
President & CEO of Illumina
Jay was appointed President and CEO of Illumina in 1999 and oversaw the company’s expansion into the whole genome sequencing area with the acquisition of Solexa in 2006, and more recently into diagnostics and consumer sequencing. Under his leadership, Illumina has been named multiple times to the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 and Fast 500 lists, as well as to the Forbes 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies (2007, 2009 and 2010), the Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing Companies (2010 and 2011) lists, and recognition by MIT Technology Review as the World’s Smartest Company in 2014. Previously, Jay served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Dynamics. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors for Molecular Dynamics he led the company to its initial public offering in 1993. He helped Molecular Dynamics develop and launch over 15 major instrumentation systems, including the first capillary-based DNA sequencer. Currently, he is an Advisory Board member for UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center, and a member of the Board of Directors at Coherent, Denali, and Illumina, Inc. Jay received a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna College and a B.S. and M.S. (summa cum laude) in industrial engineering from Stanford University.
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Robert Alexander
Chief Executive Officer of Allakos
Robert Alexander has been involved in the formation and leadership of numerous biotechnology companies. Robert Alexander was CEO of ZS Pharma where he led the initial public offering and sale of ZS Pharma to AstraZeneca. Prior to ZS Pharma, Robert Alexander was a Director at Alta Partners, a venture capital firm, and was also Executive Chairman and interim CEO of SARcode Bioscience. During his time at Alta Partners, he led investments in SARcode Bioscience (acquired by Shire), Lumena Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shire), ZS Pharma (acquired by AstraZeneca), and Allakos. Prior to Alta Partners, Robert was a Principal in MPM Capital’s BioEquities Fund. Robert Alexander joined MPM from Genentech, where he worked in the Business Development group. Robert Alexander is on the Board of Directors of Allena Pharmaceuticals. He holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor Science in Zoology from Miami University of Ohio.
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About Allakos: Allakos is a biotechnology company that develops antibody-based therapeutics to treat various allergies and diseases.
Erik Holmlin
President, CEO of Bionano Genomics
Erik Holmlin has two decades of experience in the life science and health care industries. His expertise spans technology development and commercialization, global marketing, commercial operations, venture financing, mergers & acquisitions and intellectual property. Recently, he served as president and CEO of GenVault Corporation, a life science company bring innovative solutions to biosample management. He merged GenVault with IntegenX, Inc. in January of 2011. He also served as an entrepreneur in residence (EIR) at Domain Associates, LLC, a leading dedicated life science venture-capital firm. Prior to these roles, Erik was chief commercial officer at Exiqon A/S, where he was responsible for global sales, marketing, and clinical affairs for two businesses: Oncology Services in a CLIA lab and Consumables Business in Life Sciences Research. In 2001 Mr. Holmlin led the formation of GeneOhm Sciences, Inc., for which, over a span of 5 years, he was director of chemistry, senior technology director, vice president of technology and business development, and vice president of marketing.
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About Bionano Genomics: BioNano Genomics develops nanoscale imaging and analytic platforms designed to analyze DNA and other genome-related peptides and proteins.
Roy Paxton Yih
Co-Founder and CEO of Biocare Medical
Roy Paxton Yih, BS, MA, co-founded Biocare Medical, LLC in 1997 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Roy Yih served as a Director of Sales & Marketing at Biocare Medical LLC. Roy Yih is primarily involved at sales, marketing and business development activities. He holds a BS Degree in Biochemistry from U.C. Davis and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara.
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About Biocare Medical: Biocare Medical is a provider of immunohistochemistry instrumentation.
Cary Gunn
CEO & Founder of Genalyte
Dr. Cary Gunn — who drives Genalyte’s strategic vision, direction, culture and success — has been blazing trails in the technology community for almost 30 years. Prior to leading Genalyte, Cary served as co-founder and chief technical officer of Luxtera, a developer of innovative optical solutions; his military career includes almost 10 years in the United States Air Force, where he was responsible for launching GPS satellites. Holding 81 (and counting) issued U.S. patents, Cary has been recognized in publications including the MIT Technology Review, which named him a Top Young Innovator in 2003. Five years later, Cary’s achievements in silicon photonics were awarded with the Optical Society of America Adolph Lomb Medal and the Berthold-Leibinger Foundation Innovation Prize. He received his bachelor’s degree in applied physics and organic chemistry from the United States Air Force Academy and his PhD in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). At Genalyte, Cary is proud to pioneer technology that has “a positive impact on life and human health.”
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About Genalyte: Genalyte is a life sciences company developing and commercializing innovative next-generation multiplexing technology.
Zhen Li
Founder, President & CEO of ADARx Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Li is a co-founder of ADARx and a successful executive with more than two decades of diverse experience in research and development in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Prior to ADARx, Dr. Li served as Senior VP at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals where she led the discovery and non-clinical development of Arrowhead’s delivery platform and multiple product candidates that are now in clinical studies. Previously, Dr. Li was a director at Merck, leading a team dedicated to siRNA development. Dr. Li received her Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University, and her B.S. from Peking University.
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About ADARx Pharmaceuticals: ADARx Pharmaceuticals is a genetic medicine company focusing on the base editing of mRNA transcripts.
Osman Kibar
CEO & Founder of Biosplice Therapeutics
Dr. Kibar is an entrepreneur and an inventor, with numerous successful start-ups under his belt. He was the Scientific Founder of Genoptix (an oncology diagnostics company), which went public in 2007 (NASDAQ: GXDX) and was later acquired by Novartis in 2011. Dr. Kibar was also a Co-Founder of E-Tenna, whose assets relating to wireless antennas were acquired by Titan and assets relating to thermal management of microprocessors by Intel. He was a Vice President at Pequot Capital’s venture capital and private equity team. Dr. Kibar received his M.S. and Ph.D., specializing in Biophotonics and Optoelectronics, from University of California, San Diego, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Caltech and a B.A. in Mathematical Economics from Pomona College.
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About Biosplice Therapeutics: Biosplice Therapeutics is in the medical research and development for tissue-level regeneration.
Paul Dabrowski
CEO of Synthego
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About Synthego: Synthego is a genome engineering company that enables access to CRISPR to accelerate life science research and development.
Charles Homcy
M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Maze Therapeutics
Charles Homcy is a partner at Third Rock Ventures, where he focuses on the formation of companies that discover and develop novel therapeutic approaches. He brings significant experience building and leading successful biotech companies and has played an integral role in the launching and building of Third Rock Ventures’ portfolio companies, including Ambys Medicines, Global Blood Therapeutics, Pliant Therapeutics, Relay Therapeutics, Goldfinch Bio, CytomX and MyoKardia. Prior to Third Rock Ventures, Charles co-founded Portola Pharmaceuticals, where he served as president and CEO. Earlier, he served as president of research and development at Millennium, following the company’s acquisition of COR Therapeutics in 2002. Charles joined COR in 1995 as executive vice president of research and development and served as a director of the company from 1998 to 2002. From 1997 to 2008 Charles was a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School and an attending physician at the San Francisco VA Hospital. He was previously president of the medical research division of American Cyanamid-Lederle Laboratories. Charles currently serves on the boards of Portola Pharmaceuticals, Ambys Medicines, Global Blood Therapeutics and Pliant Therapeutics. Charles holds an A.B. and M.D. from Johns Hopkins University, where he presently serves on the board of trustees.
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About Maze Therapeutics, Third Rock Ventures: Maze Therapeutics is an operator of a biotechnology firm used to focus on translating genetic insights into new medicines.
Kim D. Blickenstaff
President and Chief Executive Officer of Tandem Diabetes Care
Kim joined Tandem in August 2007, bringing more than 30 years of healthcare experience in finance, marketing management, sales and strategic planning. Prior to joining Tandem, he was Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Biosite Incorporated, a medical diagnostic company that was acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations for $1.8 billion in June 2007. Prior to founding Biosite, he held various finance, operations, research management, sales management, strategic planning and marketing positions with Hybritech Incorporated and Baxter Healthcare. Kim has been active in the medical device and diagnostics industry over the last 12 years, serving on the board of directors for innovative, young healthcare companies such as SenoRx and MediVation Incorporated. He holds a Masters of Business Administration from Loyola University Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.
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About Tandem Diabetes Care: Tandem Diabetes Care develops medical devices for the treatment of diabetes offering diabetic insulin pumps for adults and children.
Alexander Ford
CEO of Karius
Alexander Ford has over 30 years of experience in the genomics, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries, and has a proven track record driving commercial growth and performance for businesses in highly competitive and regulated biomedical markets. He was previously the Chief Operating Officer for Myriad Genetics, a molecular diagnostic company. During his time at Myriad, he launched new products and scaled new business units in Women’s Health, Oncology, Urology, and Prenatal screening. Previously, Alec has held leadership positions at Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Nektar Therapeutics, and Pfizer.
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About Karius: Karius provides genomic insights for infectious diseases to enable clinicians to make life-saving treatment decisions.
Mike Nolan
Chief Executive Officer of Freenome
Mike brings nearly three decades of experience to his role as Freenome’s Chief Executive Officer, building on a proven record of delivering transformative diagnostic technologies that help clinicians drive better outcomes for their patients. Previously, Mike served as the company’s Chief Business Officer, where he led Freenome’s corporate and business development, product management, clinical development and operations, program management, and marketing teams. He also oversaw partnerships with biopharma companies, academic medical centers, and health systems where our multiomics platform is deployed to move research and medicine forward.
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About Freenome, Freenome, Freenome: Freenome is a biotechnology company with a comprehensive multiomics platform for cancer detection using a routine blood draw.
Martin G. Reese
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer & President of Fabric Genomics (formerly Omicia)
Martin Reese is an internationally recognized expert and entrepreneur in Genomics and Bioinformatics. Prior to founding Omicia, Martin Reese served as Vice President of Discovery Informatics for ValiGen. Prior to this, Martin Reese co-founded Neomorphic, where he served as President and Chief Scientific Officer. The human genome annotation software that Martin Reese developed at Neomorphic, provided the foundation for the successful commercialization of microarrays by Affymetrix. During his career Martin Reese has been actively involved in community-wide assessments of genome annotation. He organized the state-of-the-art Genome Annotation Assessment Project and was a member of the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project, which provided the essential proof-of-concept platform for “shotgun” sequencing technology. At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories Martin Reese developed gene-finding algorithms for the Human Genome Project. He holds a Masters degree in Medical Informatics from the University of Heidelberg and a Ph.D. in Genetics jointly from the University of Hohenheim, Germany and the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Fabric Genomics (formerly Omicia): Global healthcare platform for genomics-driven precision medicine. Fabric’ proven AI algorithms power genomic insights.
Fei Li
Chief Executive Officer & Chairwoman of Hycor Biomedical LLC
Fei Li first joined Hycor in 2016 as President and Chairwoman of the Board. In September 2017, she became President and CEO of Hycor. Dr. Li has over 20 years’ experience in the fields of in vitro diagnostics (IVD), medical devices and Clinical Medicine. Over her distinguished career, Dr. Li has consistently demonstrated her ability to deliver results as she has led teams that improved product design, realized operational efficiency and recognized investment opportunities in the domestic and international healthcare sector. Dr. Li’s strengths include her extensive experience in building and empowering a team to manage through organizational growth to improve processes, decrease costs and accelerate business performance. Dr. Li also has extensive investment experience in the healthcare industry. She has successfully executed cross-border transactions and has been effective in managing pre- and post-investment activities between stakeholders and investment targets. Dr. Li has had the distinction of serving in multiple strategic roles including Chief Operating Officer for QuantumTech Medical Devices during 2016-2017, Chief Operating Office for Beyond Diagnostics Inc. between 2008 – 2011, Head of Business Development for Siemens Healthcare China from 2007 – 2008 and Director of Product Validation for Diagnostic Products Corporation from 2006 – 2007. Dr. Li holds a medical degree from San Yat-Sen University in Guangdong, China. In addition, she received a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, Riverside and a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from the University of Redlands.
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About Hycor Biomedical LLC: Hycor Biomedical is a medical device company that provides vitro diagnostics products.
Cheng Liu
Founder, CEO of Eureka Therapeutics
Cheng Liu is the founder and CEO of Eureka Therapeutics, a California biotech company dedicated to antibody research and discovery for cancer immunotherapy. Prior to founding Eureka, Dr. Liu was a Principal Scientist in antibody drug discovery at Chiron (now Novartis), where he championed anti-CSF1 antibody program for treatment of bone metastasis to human clinical trials. He is the inventor of multiple issued US patents in drug discovery. In 2007, he was awarded Special US Congressional Recognition for his contributions to improving human health. Dr. Liu received his B.S. in Cell Biology and Genetics from Beijing University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Eureka Therapeutics: Eureka Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focusing on immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Frank Lee
CEO & Founder of Virus Geeks Inc.
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About CarSnatch, Virus Geeks Inc.: SaaS, Mobile App, BioHealth, Information Technology
Hesaam Esfandyarpour
Founder and CEO of Genapsys
Hesaam is the Founder and CEO of GenapSys Inc. He is an inventor of electronic DNA sequencing, a technology he developed during his PhD work at Stanford. Hesaam has dedicated the past decade of his life to the development of this novel DNA sequencing technology, which has at its core the convergence of multiple fields of science – engineering, chemistry, biology, and computing. Hesaam incubated the technology at the Stanford Genome Technology Center for a period of six years before securing licenses to the IP and incorporating GenapSys in January of 2010. He has grown GenapSys from just a handful of employees working out of Menlo Labs incubator space, to over 50 employees across seven functional teams. In 2012, Hesaam partnered GenapSys with StartX, an accelerator for the development of Stanford’s top entrepreneurs. He has raised approximately $50M for GenapSys in Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds of financing. Hesaam holds a PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering, and MSc Management degree, all from Stanford University. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering with Honors from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. When he is not at GenapSys HQ (which is rare!) you can find Hesaam spending time outdoors, hiking or spending time with family and friends. He is also a great lover of poetry, his favorite of which are poems by the Persian poet Saa’di.
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About Genapsys: Transform the human condition by building a scalable, affordable genomic sequencing ecosystem that will support research and diagnostics
Greg Gosch
Co-Founder, President, & CEO of ChromaCode
Greg has over 20 years of management experience in the molecular diagnostics and nucleic acids research fields. He spent 9 years at Luminex, when the company grew revenues from $30 million to over $200 million. He held multiple roles including VP of Sales and Marketing, where he was responsible for global commercial operations, and VP/GM of Biosciences, where was responsible for developing novel instrument and assay products for gene expression, microRNA, newborn screening and Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to Luminex, Greg served in various commercial leadership roles at Nanogen, Chiron Diagnostics and Bio-Rad. He has a bachelors degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from the University of Colorado and dual masters degrees in business and healthcare administration from the University of Minnesota.
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About ChromaCode: ChromaCode is a molecular diagnostics company focusing on bioinformatics.
Pieter van Rooyen
CEO & Co-founder of Pleno Inc.
CEO & Co-founder at Pleno Inc.
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About EvoNexus, Pleno Inc.: It is a Biotechnology Industry Located at San Diego, California.
Alan Collier
Chairman & CEO of Endonovo Therapeutics
Alan Collier Chairman & Chief Executive Officer has more than twenty years of experience in corporate finance, IP development, telecommunications and technology with a concentration in healthcare and technology over the last five years. Prior to his appointment as Endonovo’s CEO and chairman, Mr. Collier served as CEO and director of IP Resources International, Inc. where he was instrumental in developing a platform for for the licensing and acquisition of life science and technology companies. Previously, Mr. Collier served as a Senior Managing Director at Mid-Market Securities, a FINRA-registered Broker-Dealer. Prior to joining Mid-Market Securities, Mr. Collier was a Managing Director at Mosaic capital and co-managed its Capital Markets Group. He was previously a Vice President at Corporate Capital Group and Managing Director and CEO of Greenbridge Capital Group. Over the progression of his career, he has specialized in the development and financing of early stage, high growth, and acquisitive companies (public and private). He has structured, participated in, and completed numerous transactions including mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt placements, capital restructuring, joint venture development, and channel partner procurement. He has held numerous board and executive positions throughout his career in the telecommunications, technology, specialty finance, corporate finance and healthcare industries. Mr. Collier holds FINRA Series 7, 79, 63, and 24 Licenses.
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About Endonovo Therapeutics, IP Resources International: Endonovo Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing off-the-shelf regenerative products.
Anna Skaya
CEO & Founder of Basepaws
Anna Skaya is the founder and CEO of Basepaws, a provider of low-cost pet genomic products and services. Most recently, Anna was a partner and COO at breakupbuddy. She was also the founder and former CEO of Visual DNA. Prior to Visual DNA, Anna was a CEO at Groupon Russia.
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About Basepaws: Pet genetics & health monitoring.
Deepak Thomas
Co-Founder & CEO of Phil
Mr. Deepak Thomas Founded Phil, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. After a particularly frustrating experience at a chain drug store, Mr. Thomas sat down and did the math on the number of hours he had spent standing in line for his prescriptions. When he realized that he had spent over 500 hours standing in line at drug stores, he decided to spend at least 500 hours trying to build a better experience before founding Phil, Inc. Prior to this, he held product and general management roles at eBay, Shutterfly, Match.com and Oracle.
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About Phil: Phil is a software therapy deployment platform, offering pharmaceutical manufacturers a modern alternative to patient access solutions
Sasan Amini
Co-Founder and CEO of Clear Labs
Sasan combined his academic expertise and passion for healthy living when he co-founded Clear Labs with a mission to set a new paradigm for food safety and quality. Prior to serving as the CEO of Clear Labs, he worked in the Advanced Research department at Illumina. Sasan earned his PhD in Genomics from Princeton and holds multiple patents and publications in the field.
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About Clear Labs: Clear Labs is a provider of a fully-automated sequencing platform for turnkey diagnostics.
Fred Aslan
President & CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics
Born and raised in Brazil, Fred Aslan is the founder of Adavium Medical (previously known as ADVANCE Medical). He is also affiliated with Venrock, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm he joined in 2006. While a full-time investor at Venrock prior to founding Adavium, Fred Aslan was a co-founder and board member of Receptos Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed biotech company, which was subsequently acquired by Celgene for more than $8 billion. He also led Venrock’s investment in Zeltiq, a NASDAQ-listed medical device company that was valued at more than $1 billion. Prior to Venrock, he was Director of Business Development and led Investor Relations at CuraGen, a NASDAQ-listed oncology-focused biotech company, and was a strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He was named the “2014 Business Professional of the Year” by the Brazilian government, recognizing the achievements of Brazilian professionals living outside of Brazil. He is also a board member of Femasys, a US-based women’s health medical device company, and BayBrazil, a Silicon Valley-based not-for-profit organization promoting ties between Silicon Valley and Brazil. Fred Aslan received a B.S. in Biology from Duke University, an M.D. from Yale and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
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About Adavium, Artiva Biotherapeutics: Artiva Biotherapeutics is a biotech company focused on developing and commercializing allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies.
Nishan de Silva
Chief Executive Officer of AFYX Therapeutics
Nishan de Silva brings 20 years of experience in biotechnology operations, biopharmaceutical venture capital, and healthcare management consulting. He previously served as president, chief operating officer, and director of Poseida Therapeutics, where he oversaw clinical development, regulatory, manufacturing, finance, and business development activities. Prior to Poseida, he was chief financial officer and vice president of finance and strategy at Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LGND). Earlier in his career, Nishan de Silva served as a principal at private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC, responsible for late-stage biopharmaceutical investment opportunities, and was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company. He holds a B.A. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard University, an M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. with Distinction in healthcare management from The Wharton School.
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About AFYX Therapeutics: AFYX Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company
Nishan de Silva
Chief Executive Officer of AFYX Therapeutics
Nishan de Silva brings 20 years of experience in biotechnology operations, biopharmaceutical venture capital, and healthcare management consulting. He previously served as president, chief operating officer, and director of Poseida Therapeutics, where he oversaw clinical development, regulatory, manufacturing, finance, and business development activities. Prior to Poseida, he was chief financial officer and vice president of finance and strategy at Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LGND). Earlier in his career, Nishan de Silva served as a principal at private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC, responsible for late-stage biopharmaceutical investment opportunities, and was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company. He holds a B.A. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard University, an M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. with Distinction in healthcare management from The Wharton School.
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About AFYX Therapeutics: AFYX Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company
Chris Wheeler
Co-Founder & CEO of Diagnose Early
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About Diagnose Early, WISC Partners: Diagnose Early provides detection technologies for cancer, neurological, and infectious diseases.
Tim Sweeney
Co-Founder & CEO of Inflammatix
Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD is the co-Founder & CEO of Inflammatix, Inc., which focuses on using robust informatics and machine learning to derive novel HostDx™ diagnostics based on ‘reading’ patterns in the immune system. Inflammatix’s first tests are focused on diagnosing acute bacterial and viral infections and sepsis. The company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Stanford-StartX Fund and the U.S. government’s DARPA program. Tim Sweeney completed his MD and PhD at Duke University, after which he was a surgery resident at Stanford. While training as a surgeon, he became frustrated with the limitations of current diagnostic tools for infection. During his residency, he completed a postdoctorate MS in Biomedical Informatics, mentored by Dr. Purvesh Khatri. Together they designed the custom informatics algorithms for sifting through heterogeneous ‘big data,’ which formed the core technology on which Inflammatix is based.
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About Inflammatix: Inflammatix develops novel molecular diagnostics for acute infections and sepsis that work by reading the immune system.
Hira Thapliyal
Founder, President & CEO of Aneumed
Hira Thapliyal is the founder, president & CEO of AneuMed, Inc.AneuMed is an early stage company engaged in developing devices for the treatment of various ailments affecting the human cardiovascular system. Prior to that, Dr. Thapliyal was the co-founder, president & CEO of VytronUS, Inc., a development stage company working on products for treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Currently, VytronUS is conducting human clinical trials for its products. Before that, Hira was the co-founder, president & CEO of Tescient, Inc. Tescient was focused in developing products aimed at tissue regeneration and wound healing in human body. Tescient prototype products did not perform well in early animal tests, so Dr. Thapliyal closed Tescient and returned 60% of the invested capital back to the investors. Prior to Tescient, Dr. Thapliyal co-founded ArthroCare Corp (NASDAQ: “ARTC”) in 1993, and served its president & CEO and took the company public in 1996. ArthroCare was recently acquired by Smith & Nephew for $1.7 billion. ArthroCare markets products in the field of arthroscopy, ENT, spine, skin, and wound healing. Before ArthroCare, Hira served as the president of MicroBionics, a company developing products for continuous measurements of blood parameters in critically ill patients. Before MicroBionics, Hira co-founded and served as the president of CardioVascular Imaging Systems (NASDAQ: “CVIS”) which developed and marketed an ultrasound based imaging system, Intravascular Ultrasound (‘IVUS’), for the human blood vessels. CVIS went public and was later acquired by Boston Scientific (“BSX”). Prior to that, Hira served as the Vice President of Devices for Vascular Interventions (DVI) which developed and marketed products for removal of plaque form inside on the diseased arteries. DVI was acquired by Eli Lilly in 1989. Prior to DVI, Dr. Thapliyal held engineering and management positions at Oximetrix, Inc., Amdahl, and Corning. Dr. Thapliyal holds a BSEE degree from Washington State University, a MSEE from University of Idaho, and a PhD degree in Materials Science & Engineering from Cornell University. Hira has received numerous awards, and currently serves as an advisor to the Stanford-India Biodesign Program at Stanford University. Dr. Thapliyal also served as a judge for the Entrepreneur of the Year award at Earnst & Young. Dr. Thapliyal currently holds over 193 issued US and International patents for various medical devices.
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About Aneumed, VytronUS: Aneumed is a biotechnology company based in California, United States.
Harry Gruber
CEO, Co-Founder & President of Tocagen
Harry E. Gruber, M.D., one of the pioneers in gene therapy, co-founded Tocagen and led the company as chief executive officer before assuming the role of president, research and development in November 2016 and president, science and innovation in October 2017. He has been a member of the board of directors since August 2007. Dr. Gruber served as our chief executive officer from August 2007 to November 2016 and served as chairman of our board of directors from August 2007 to October 2014. Dr. Gruber is a co-founder of Tocagen and has been the co-founder and/or co-inventor of key technology for the following publicly held companies: Viagene Inc., a gene therapy company acquired by Novartis Pharmaceuticals; Gensia Inc., a biopharmaceutical company acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd.; INTERVU Inc., a technology company acquired by Akamai Technologies, Inc.; Kintera, Inc., a technology company acquired by Blackbaud. He is the author of more than 100 original scientific articles and an inventor on more than 100 issued and pending patents. Dr. Gruber holds a medical degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and trained in Internal Medicine, Biochemical Genetics and Rheumatology/Immunology at the University of California, San Diego, where he subsequently joined the medical school faculty until founding Gensia Inc.
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About Tocagen: Tocagen is a biopharmaceutical company developing gene therapy products for the treatment of cancer.
Eric Hobbs
CEO of Berkeley Lights
Eric D. Hobbs joined Berkeley Lights in May 2013 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in March 2017. Prior to becoming CEO, Eric held various senior management roles, including most recently, Senior Vice President of Operations and Consumables. Prior to Berkeley Lights, Eric led the design, development, and launch of 3 new product architectures at FormFactor, Inc. as a senior member of both R&D and Operations organizations. He holds more than 62 U.S. and International patents. Eric has lectured both at UC Berkeley and Stanford speaking on Engineering Design, Invention, and Optimization Algorithms. Eric earned his Ph.D. & M.S. in MEMS Design and Microfluidic Devices at UC Berkeley. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from U.S.C.
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About Berkeley Lights: Berkeley Lights is a provider of research and development services using micro-droplet technology that change the biological processes.
Ilya Rachman
Co-Founder & CEO of Immix Biopharma
Ilya Rachman is a physician-scientist and clinical faculty at UCLA. He received both his MD and PhD in neuroscience and cell biology from the University of Illinois-Chicago, and his MBA from UCLA Anderson. Previous to Immix, Dr. Rachman founded a clinical research organization that conducted clinical trials on behalf of pharmaceutical companies. He has completed several clinical trials as a Principal Investigator and is a co-inventor of Immix’ platform therapeutic technology.
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About Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Immix Biopharma: Immix Biopharma is a biotech company that develops treatments for cancer and other inflammation-driven diseases.
Corey McCann
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pear Therapeutics
Corey M McCann M.D., Ph.D. is the President and CEO of Pear Therapeutics, a company developing prescription digital therapeutics and drug/software combinations for treatment of severe medical conditions. Previously, he was an investor with MPM Capital, where he evaluated new healthcare investment opportunities, managed relationships with strategic partners, and oversaw strategy and execution at portfolio companies. Prior to MPM, he was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company, where he advised pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of life science technologies. He led McKinsey’s central nervous system (CNS) expertise group, advising clients across the healthcare value chain. Corey has previous investment experience with RiverVest Venture Partners, where he performed diligence on early stage investments, and at NeuroInsights, where he evaluated brain related technologies. Corey is also a co-founder, advisor, or Board Director at AgNovos Healthcare, Alcyone Lifesciences, Dragonfly Sciences, Edumedics, Resolute Bio, Selexys Pharmaceuticals, and Zillion Health. Dr. McCann trained as a physician-scientist via the Medical Scientist Training Program. For his PhD, he studied the molecular biology of synapses at Harvard University and at Washington University in St Louis. He was also a post-doctoral researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he developed imaging techniques for the visualization of the brain. Dr. McCann received his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. He graduated summa cum laude from The Pennsylvania State University where he was an Evan Pugh Scholar, receiving a B.S. in Biology with minors in neuroscience, biochemistry, and molecular biology.
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About Pear Therapeutics: Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
Peter Gassner
Founder and CEO of Veeva
Peter is responsible for the overall direction and management of Veeva Systems. In 2010, Peter was named to the PharmaVOICE 100, which recognizes the 100 most influential people in the life sciences industry. Peter is a twenty year veteran of the software industry. Prior to founding Veeva, Peter was Senior Vice President of Technology at salesforce.com where he had responsibility for building the salesforce.com platform including product, marketing and developer relations. During Peter’s tenure, salesforce.com completed its public offering and grew the technology into the most successful SaaS platform in the industry. Before salesforce.com, Peter was with PeopleSoft for 9 years as both Chief Architect and General Manager of PeopleTools. Peter led a team of over 450 professionals who provided the development, strategy, marketing and customer support for PeopleSoft’s technology platform. PeopleTools was widely regarded in the industry as the best application platform of its day. Peter began his career with IBM in relational database development and research at IBM Silicon Valley Lab and then at IBM Almaden Research Center where he had the privilege of working closely with some of the inventors of relational database technology. Peter holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Oregon State University.
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About Veeva: Veeva Systems is a provider of cloud-based business solutions for the global life sciences industry.
Serge Saxonov
Co-founder & CEO of 10X Genomics
Serge Saxonov is the founder and chief executive officer of 10X Genomics. Prior to that, he was the vice president for applications at QuantaLife. Saxonov holds a PhD in biomedical informatics from Stanford University. He has also studied applied mathematics at Harvard University. Saxonov lives in San Francisco, California, United States.
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About 10X Genomics: 10X Genomics ELV solutions and security systems company that provides an innovative genomics platform.
Noga Leviner
Co-Founder & CEO of PicnicHealth
Noga was inspired to create Picnic after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and struggling to keep track of her own health data. She had previously co-founded Lumni USA, where she raised and deployed the first US investment fund to help underserved students access low-risk, equity-style student loan products. She has been a regular speaker and consultant on financial innovation for the underbanked and, more recently, an advocate for patient data access in the healthcare system. Noga has a BA from Stanford where she studied Human Biology and Economics. She can regularly be found spacing out while trying to meditate.
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About PicnicHealth: PicnicHealth helps patients easily access their medical records and gives them the opportunity to contribute data to medical research.
Mark Herrema
Co-Founder & CEO of Newlight Technologies
As CEO and co-founder of Newlight, Mr. Herrema has over a decade of industrial experience in chemical, biological, and process engineering, intellectual property development, polymer functionalization, private equity finance, and strategic business development. Mr. Herrema has invented a range of proprietary carbon capture and conversion systems and materials, receiving numerous associated US and international patents, steering Newlight through multiple private placement offerings, executing a range of strategic partnerships, and leading the engineering, construction, optimization, and expansion of Newlight’s carbon capture platform. Mr. Herrema graduated magna cum laude High Honors from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Political Theory, with additional work in Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry.
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About Newlight Technologies: Newlight Technologies is a biotechnology company producing advanced sustainable materials.
Daniel Levitt
Founder & CEO of Bioz
Daniel Levitt is the CEO & Founder at Bioz.
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About Bioz, StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund), Stemrad: Bioz is a disruptive startup at the intersection of information technology and scientific research.
Gerald McMahon
President & CEO of Harpoon Therapeutics
Dr. McMahon joined Harpoon in December 2016 bringing more than 25 years of biotechnology leadership, scientific innovation and creative deal-making experience. Dr. McMahon was previously president and CEO of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, an oncology biologics company acquired by Celldex in 2016, and senior vice president of R&D oncology at MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca. He also served as a venture partner at Bay City Capital and in executive leadership roles at Poniard Pharmaceuticals and SUGEN (ultimately acquired by Pfizer), where he was a key player in the development of innovative oncology drugs Sutent® and Palladia®. Dr. McMahon holds an academic appointment at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center at Yale University, and held previous appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine, department of hematology & oncology at the New England Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his BS in biology and PhD in biochemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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About Harpoon Therapeutics: Harpoon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing novel T cell engagers (TriTACs) for the treatment of cancer.
Ben Lewis
CEO of Limbix
Ben Lewis is the co-founder of Tapjoy. He has an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, and his first job out of college was working as an engineer on Xbox Live. After spending some time at Microsoft, he returned to Michigan for his MBA where he focused on entrepreneurship and technology. Ben then moved to Google where he spent 4 years as a Product Manager, working on products such as the Toolbar, Search, and Checkout. Ben left Google to found Tapjoy, which began with the launch of TapDefense. Ben now leads the Tapjoy product team and manages accounts for the top publishers.
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About Green Shoots Distribution, Limbix: Limbix is a prescription digital therapeutics platform that provides mental health treatment for young people.
Joseph Huang
CEO of StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund)
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About StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund): StartX is an educational non-profit that helps Stanford’s top entrepreneurs.
Mark McKenna
Founder, President and CEO of Prometheus Biosciences
Mark McKenna currently works as President and Chief Executive Officer at Prometheus Biosciences. He previously worked at Bausch + Lomb as Senior Vice President and General Manager.
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About Prometheus Biosciences: Prometheus Biosciences develops and commercializes pharmaceutical and diagnostic products to help physicians individualize patient care.
Martyn Gross
Co-Founder & CEO of Zerigo Health
Advisor at Cooler Heads Care & Chief Business Officer at Mindera.
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About Dthera Sciences, MiNDERA Corporation, Zerigo Health: Clarify Medical is a developer of a handheld medical device used to treat psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo .
Chris Varma
Founder, President & CEO of Frontier Medicines
Chris joined Flagship in 2007 as Partner and focuses primarily on Life Science investments. He came to Flagship with significant management experience in clinical development, regulatory strategy, business development, sales, and marketing in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to Flagship, Chris was with Novartis Pharmaceuticals since 2004 where he served most recently as Director of the Tekturna (aliskiren) marketing team responsible for all Medical Marketing, Medical Strategy, and Professional Promotions activities in the U.S. Chris also oversaw Tekturna�s extensive clinical development programs, and played a key role in the FDA approval, CMS reimbursement coverage approval, and successful commercial launch of Tekturna in early 2007. Previously at Novartis, Chris was Director of Business Development & Licensing where he identified several in-licensing opportunities and drove key transactions. Prior to that, Chris focused on corporate strategy working directly with the Novartis Pharma CEO in Basel, Switzerland. Before Novartis, Chris was a consultant for Millennium Pharmaceuticals working on special projects in the Personalized Medicine Group. Before Millennium, Chris worked for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Office of Combination Products coordinating and managing reviews across the major Centers. Early in his career he co-founded Epitrope Corporation, a company that developed server-side solutions for wireless telecom carriers.
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About Frontier Medicines, Harvard Medical School, Vision Medicines: Frontier Medicines is a developer of a chemoproteomics platform intended to further accelerate the path to drug discovery.
Ben Chiarelli
Founder and CEO of Cellibre
Ben Chiarelli is the founder and CEO of Cellibre. He is also the founder and managing partner at Divitempus Ventures. Ben earned his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
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About Cellibre: Cellibre turns cells into specialized, sustainable factories for the manufacture of globally significant products at scale.
Fabian Gerlinghaus
Co-Founder & CEO of Cellares
Fabian Gerlinghaus is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cellares.
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About Cellares: Cellares is a life sciences technology company that develops the Cell Shuttle to automate cell therapy manufacturing.
Wenbin Jiang
Co-Founder and CEO of Cytek Biosciences
Wenbin Jiang is a co-founder of Cytek Biosciences, Inc. and a seasoned entrepreneur and inventor. E2O communications was the first company he cofounded in late 1990s, which was acquired by JDS Uniphase in 2004. He is an inventor of more than 90 US patents and an author of 4 book chapters and more than 50 peer reviewed technical papers.
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About Cytek Biosciences: Cytek Biosciences is a manufacturer and supplier of flow cytometry products and services.
Colleen Cutcliffe
Co-Founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics
Colleen Cutcliffe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics.
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About American Diabetes Association, California Life Sciences Association, Pendulum Therapeutics: Pendulum Therapeutics is a biotechnology company improving health through products targeting the microbiome.
Benjamine Liu
CEO and Co-Founder of TrialSpark
Benjamine Liu is the CEO and Co-Founder of TrialSpark. He is a former Computational Biologist at Translational Neuroscience and Dementia Research Group and ChenPloktin Lab, Department of Neurology. Mr. Liu graduated from Yale University with a bachelor of science in Biology and earned a master of philosophy in Computational Biology, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University and received a doctor of philosophy in Computational Biology and Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.
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About ResearchWe, TrialSpark: TrialSpark is a technology company that helps bring treatments to patients faster by reimagining how clinical trials are run.
Nancy Yu
Co-Founder & CEO of AllStripes
Nancy previously led Corporate Development at 23andMe, the largest consumer genetics company. She worked on 23andMe’s next generation sequencing platform, drug discovery strategy, and business development programs. Before that, she worked on Wall Street as a biopharma investment banker. Nancy began her career doing genetics research at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s passionate about bridging the gap between patients and industry to make drug R&D cheaper, faster, and better.
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About AllStripes: AllStripes is a healthcare technology company that accelerates drug development and research for the treatment of rare diseases.
Bruce Cozadd
Chief Executive Officer of Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Bruce Cozadd is a co-founder and has served as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since April 2009.From 2003 until 2009, he served as our Executive Chairman. From 1991 until 2001, he held various positions with ALZA Corporation, a pharmaceutical company now owned by Johnson & Johnson, most recently as its Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, with responsibility for research and development, manufacturing and sales and marketing. Previously at ALZA Corporation he held the roles of Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Corporate Planning and Analysis. He serves on the boards of directors of Cerus Corporation, a biomedical products company, Threshold Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, and The Nueva School and Stanford Hospital and Clinics, both non-profit organizations. He received a B.S. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Jazz Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company that identifies, develops and commercializes innovative treatments.
Matthew Scullin
CEO of MycoWorks
Matthew L. Scullin is the CEO of MycoWorks.
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About MycoWorks: MycoWorks is a biotech company that delivers commercially viable non-plastic and non-animal materials to the market.
Maneesh Jain
CEO and Co-Founder of Mirvie
Maneesh Jain currently works as Chief Executive Officer and the Founder of Mirvie. He previously worked at Cirina (Grail) as CEO and President.
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About Mirvie: Mirvie is a biotech company that creates precise, actionable, and non-invasive tests for maternal-fetal health.
Christopher Anzalone
President & CEO of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals
President & CEO at Arrowhead Research.Dr. Christopher Anzalone has been President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company since December 1, 2007. In 2005, Dr. Anzalone formed and served as CEO of the Benet Group LLC, a private equity firm focused on creating and building new nano-biotechnology companies from university-generated science. Prior to his tenure at the Benet Group, he was a partner at the Washington, DC-based private equity firm Galway Partners, LLC, where he was responsible for sourcing, structuring, and building new business ventures. Prior to Galway, Dr. Anzalone was an NIH-supported post doctoral fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology at the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation and Research Center. Dr. Anzalone holds a Ph.D. in Biology from UCLA and a B.A. in Government from Lawrence University.
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About Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Galway Partners: Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company that focuses on the development of medicine to treat diseases with a genetic origin.
Dan Widmaier
CEO of Bolt Threads
Dan is fascinated by finding the right conditions to grow things. Dan has carefully tended Bolt’s growth since 2009, using his passion and expertise to lead the company through technology development, expansion, and financing. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from UC San Francisco, where his graduate research involved designing genetic circuits to control microbial organelles.
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About Bolt Threads: Bolt is a materials company that invents and scales materials that put the planet on a path towards a better future.
Vivian Qu
CEO & Founder of ViaeX
Vivian Qu is a dedicated professional operating within the material science and biotech venture space in Silicon Valley. She is the CPO at ORA Nano Mask, and she founded ViaeX Technologies, Inc. in 2016 to contribute to the advancement of our society through sustainable technological developments. For her work across her career, Vivian Qu has earned recognition as the recipient of the Dow Chemical SISCA Award, the Clinton Global Initiative Award, and the Fung Fellowship. Additionally, she received the NSF Innovation Corp Grant and the Big Ideas Berkeley – Energy and Alternative Resources Prize. Vivian was also recognized in the Pulse by Business Insider for her work as a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Tidal Vision, ViaeX: ViaeX creates biological nanofiltration systems for water and air which are 400% more efficient than current solutions.
Moran Shochat Snir
Co-Founder & CEO of Clear Genetics
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About Clear Genetics, Invitae: Clear Genetics is a digital health company dedicated to the thoughtful integration of genetics into routine patient care.
Sourav Sinha
Co-founder, CEO of Oncolinx
Sourav Sinha is the Founder and CEO of Oncolinx LLC. Oncolinx is an early-stage bio-oncology company focused on creating targeted cancer therapies carry drugs directly to cancer cells and not healthy cells–avoiding many of the adverse side-effects of cancer. Oncolinx is partnered with more than 15 leading pharmaceutical partners, and 6 academic labs all over the world. Sourav also serves as the Entrepreneur In Residence of The Center For Advancing Innovation (CAI), a first-of-its-kind initiative to spin out the best inventions from the NIH, NCI, NASA, and other government funded agencies. Most uniquely, the fund redirects much of the value created into regional endowments to create jobs, increase prosperity, and support future sustainability. Sourav was named as a top 50 global entrepreneur under the age of 25 by Inc. Magazine and has been published in top scientific journals. Sourav holds an AB from Dartmouth College in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, an MA in Biomedical Sciences from Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences, and is a graduate of the Singularity University Global Solutions Program.
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About Longevity Vision Fund, Oncolinx, The World Economic Forum: Oncolinx is developing antibody-drug conjugates.
Mark McCamish
President and Chief Executive Officer of Forty Seven
Dr. McCamish is President and Chief Executive Officer of IconOVir Bio. Previously he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Forty Seven, Inc. He led Forty Seven, Inc. during critical phases of clinical development to help patients defeat their cancer. This included growing from a valuation of $169 million as a private company through a Series B offering, Initial Public Offering, two secondary fund raises and finally the acquisition of Forty Seven by Gilead for $4.9 Billion. He is an international expert in biologic and biosimilars development and manufacturing. Mark is passionate about mentoring and developing people while focusing on meeting patient needs through efficient, commercially viable efforts. He is a senior executive with extensive experience at multiple companies including Abbott, Amgen, and Novartis/Sandoz. He led pioneering efforts in filing/launching biosimilars worldwide. He has demonstrated a commercial mindset in establishing research and development strategies leading to approvals and commercial success in multiple therapeutic areas and regulatory categories including biologics, biosimilars, drugs, devices, and medical foods. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from UCSB and, after completing his PhD in Human Nutrition from Penn State and MD from UCLA, he completed Residency and Fellowship Training at the University of California, Davis. He held professorships at UC Davis and The Ohio State University
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About Forty Seven, IconOVir Bio, Nemesis Bioscience: Forty Seven is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company that is developing therapies targeting cancer immune evasion pathways.
Chris K. Achar
Founder & CEO of GenZum Life Sciences
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About GenZum Life Sciences: Genzum Life Sciences is a globally integrated Generic Pharmaceutical Product Development and Out-licensing company, based in Los Angeles
Zachary Hornby
Chief Executive Officer & President of Boundless Bio
Zachary Hornby brings a dozen years of life sciences business experience to Ignyta. Prior to joining Ignyta, Mr. Hornby was senior director of business development at Fate Therapeutics where he was responsible for pharmaceutical partnerships and non-dilutive funding. Mr. Hornby has also served in various business and commercial roles at Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO), Neurocrine Biosciences (NASDAQ: NBIX) and TKT (now Shire Human Genetic Therapies), and was a life sciences consultant at L.E.K. Consulting. Mr. Hornby holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Boundless Bio, City Hill Ventures: Boundless Bio is a precision oncology company developing therapeutics directed against extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in aggressive cancers.
Anatoly Chubais
CEO & Founder of RUSNANO
Anatoly Chubais is the CEO & Founder of RUSNANO.
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About RUSNANO: Rusnano is a joint-stock company aimed at commercializing developments in the nanotechnology industry.
Nima Farzan
Chief Executive Officer of Kinnate Biopharma
Nima Farzan is the chief executive officer of Kinnate Biopharma. He has his MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.
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About Kinnate Biopharma: Kinnate Biopharma develops precision oncology therapeutics to treat patients with genomically-defined cancers.
Tyler Shultz
Co-Founder & CEO of Flux Bioscience
Tyler Shultz is an entrepreneur fostering innovation in healthcare.
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About Ethics in Entrepreneurship, Flux Bioscience: Flux Biosciences is a company spun out of Stanford University, where the technology used to read and write computer hard drives .
Athena Countouriotis
President and Chief Executive Officer of Turning Point Therapeutics
Athena Countouriotis became president and chief executive officer and was named to the Turning Point Therapeutics board of directors in September 2018. She has broad oncology biotech leadership experience, guiding multiple development programs to approval. Her experience includes large and small molecule therapeutics in hematologic and solid tumor indications, with multiple regulatory approvals in the U.S. and Europe. She joined Turning Point Therapeutics in May 2018 as executive vice president and chief medical officer to advance the clinical development of repotrectinib. She previously served as senior vice president and chief medical officer for Adverum Biotechnologies, and before that as senior vice president and chief medical officer of Halozyme Therapeutics. Athena Countouriotis also served as chief medical officer of Ambit Biosciences, where she helped lead the company’s initial public offering and was responsible for the clinical development of quizartinib until the company’s acquisition by Daiichi Sankyo in November 2014. Earlier in her career, Athena Countouriotis led various clinical development organizations within Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb for oncology therapeutics including Sutent®, Mylotarg™, Bosulif® and Sprycel®. Athena Countouriotis also serves on the board of directors of Trovagene and NuMedii. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. She received her initial medical training in pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and additional training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program.
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About Turning Point Therapeutics: Turning Point Therapeutics is a structure-based drug design pharmaceutical company.
Steve James
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics
Steven James has 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including the creation and leadership of multiple companies. He is currently President and CEO of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics and was the President and CEO of Labrys Biologics from 2012 until it was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Prior to joining Labrys, Steven James was President and CEO of KAI Pharmaceuticals from 2004 until the company was acquired by Amgen in 2012. His previous positions have included Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Exelixis, Chief Business Officer at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals and VP of Business Development at Isis Pharmaceuticals (now Ionis). He began his career in new product planning at Eli Lilly. Steven James is Chairman of Antiva Biosciences, and a director of Chrono Therapeutics. He was formerly on the board of Cascadian Therapeutics (acquired by Seattle Genetics) and a past director of Ocera Therapeutics (acquired by Mallinckrodt). Steve holds a Masters in Management from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree from Brown University.
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About Pionyr Immunotherapeutics: Pionyr Immunotherapeutics is a developer of cancer immunotherapies designed to target the tumor microenvironment.
Thomas Yuen
Chairman, President and CEO of PrimeGen Biotech
Tom Yuen is a proven serial entrepreneur who has founded several successful publicly traded companies including AST Research Inc. and SRS Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRSL). Tom Yuen received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine in 1974. Tom Yuen Has received many honors including: Director of the Year, Orange County Forum for Corporate Directors (1997), Top 25 Executives, Consumer Industry, Computer Reseller News Magazine (1991 & 1987), The UCI Medal (1990), The UCI Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award (1987), and The UCI Distinguished Alumnus Award (1986).
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About PrimeGen Biotech: PrimeGen Biotech is a privately held stem cell research company dedicated to optimizing the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells.
Tom Yuen
President & CEO of PrimeGen Biotech
Yuen is a proven serial entrepreneur who has founded several successful publicly traded companies including AST Research Inc. and SRS Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRSL). Yuen received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine in 1974. Yuen Has received many honors including: Director of the Year, Orange County Forum for Corporate Directors (1997), Top 25 Executives, Consumer Industry, Computer Reseller News Magazine (1991 & 1987), The UCI Medal (1990), The UCI Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award (1987), and The UCI Distinguished Alumnus Award (1986).
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About PrimeGen Biotech: PrimeGen Biotech is a privately held stem cell research company dedicated to optimizing the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells.
Alice Zhang
Co-Founder & CEO of Verge Genomics
CEO and Co-founder at Verge Genomics; Angel Investor in Tech-Enabled Bio
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About Verge Genomics: Verge Genomics uses machine learning and human genomics to accelerate drug discovery.
Josh Tetrick
Co-Founder & CEO of Eat Just
Josh is the CEO & Co-Founder of Eat Just, Inc., a San Francisco-based company on a mission to bring delicious, accessible, healthier and more sustainable food to everyone, everywhere. Prior to founding the company, Tetrick led a United Nations business initiative in Kenya and worked for both former President Clinton and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. As Fulbright Scholar, Tetrick taught schoolchildren in Nigeria and South Africa and is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Michigan Law School. Tetrick has been named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business,” Inc.’s “35 Under 35” and Fortune’s “40 Under 40.”
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About 33needs, Eat Just: Eat Just offers a plant-based egg substitute intended to provide healthy and nutritional food alternatives.
Guy Miller
Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder of Edison Pharmaceuticals
Guy Miller, MD, PhD is the co-founder of Edison Pharmaceuticals, and has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Board since 2005. Prior to founding Edison, he founded Galileo Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company, and was its Chairman and CEO from 1995-2005. Dr. Miller holds an MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Virginia. He completed his surgical internship at the University of Chicago, and a residency in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Miller completed a fellowship in multidisciplinary critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins, where he was on the faculty as an Assistant Professor until 1996. He is currently an attending physician in medical-surgical critical care medicine at Stanford University-PAVAMC.
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About Ampere Life Sciences, BioElectron Technology Corporation, Edison Pharmaceuticals, Stanford University School of Medicine: Edison Pharmaceuticals develops medicines for the treatments of children and adults diagnosed with rare and neglected diseases.
Sean George
CEO of Invitae
Sean George was co-founder and CEO of Locus Development, an early-stage genetic analysis startup. Prior to co-founding Locus, he served as the chief operating officer at Navigenics, an early leader in personalized medicine. He has also served as senior vice president of marketing at Affymetrix, senior vice president of life science business at Affymetrix, and vice president of labeling and detection business at Invitrogen. He has worked at McKinsey & Company and Molecular Probes as well. Dr. George holds a Bachelor of Science from UCLA with a major in molecular genetics, a Master of Science in molecular biology from University of California, Santa Barbara and a doctorate in molecular genetics from University of Califonia, Santa Cruz.
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About Invitae: Invitae is a medical genetics company that bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to improve healthcare.
Victor Perlroth
Chairman & CEO of Kodiak Sciences
Victor Perlroth co-founded Kodiak Sciences in 2009 and is the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Together with a talented core team, he has built Kodiak on a foundation of scientific excellence with a simple mission—to design and develop novel medicines for highly prevalent diseases. Under Perlroth’s leadership, Kodiak is building a pipeline of potentially life transforming ophthalmology drug candidates. Previously, Perlroth served as Venture Partner and then Entrepreneur in Residence at MPM Capital, a dedicated healthcare venture capital investment firm. In 2003, Perlroth co-founded Avidia, a biopharmaceuticals drug discovery and development company where he served as General Manager and Vice President of Corporate Development. In this role, at various times he had broad management responsibility across both corporate and research and development activities. Perlroth was one of two principals involved in the acquisition of the company by Amgen for $450 million. Earlier, Perlroth worked at Guzik Technical Enterprises, the industry-leading provider of test equipment to the hard disk drive industry, where he was Chief Operating Officer. Perlroth earned his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University and an A.B. in Molecular Biology summa cum laude from Princeton University.
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About Kodiak Sciences: Kodiak is designing and developing novel therapies for the treatment of retinal disease.
Arthur T. Sands
Chief Executive Officer of Nurix Therapeutics
Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D. has served as the Chief Executive Officer at Nurix and a member of the company’s board of directors since September, 2014. In 2015, Dr. Sands and his management team completed a strategic collaboration with Celgene for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel small molecule therapeutics in oncology, inflammation and immunology that included an upfront payment of $150 million and significant milestones, royalties and options for commercialization of drugs. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Sands co-founded Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director from 1995 to 2014. At Lexicon, Dr. Sands pioneered the development of large-scale gene knockout technology for use in drug discovery and guided the evolution of Lexicon from a research-stage company to a drug development company Dr. Sands holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine and a B.A. in economics and political science from Yale University.
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About DeCART Therapeutics, Nurix Therapeutics: Nurix develops small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of proliferative and degenerative diseases.
Ryan Pawell
Founder & CEO of Indee Labs
Ryan Pawell (Founder, Director & Chief Executive Officer) is a Y Combinator alumni, published author and subject matter expert in the areas of fluid dynamics, advanced manufacturing, and biomicrofluidics. Ryan has been invited to present his work by the Australian National Fabrication Facility, White House Cancer Moonshot Taskforce, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, and National Cancer Institute among others.
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About Axial, Indee Labs, Pioneer Fund: Indee Labs is unlocking gene-modified cell therapy for the masses with scalable hardware for gene delivery.
Ryan Pawell
Founder & CEO of Indee Labs
Ryan Pawell (Founder, Director & Chief Executive Officer) is a Y Combinator alumni, published author and subject matter expert in the areas of fluid dynamics, advanced manufacturing, and biomicrofluidics. Ryan has been invited to present his work by the Australian National Fabrication Facility, White House Cancer Moonshot Taskforce, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, and National Cancer Institute among others.
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About Axial, Indee Labs, Pioneer Fund: Indee Labs is unlocking gene-modified cell therapy for the masses with scalable hardware for gene delivery.
Anish Bhatnagar
Chief Executive Officer, President & Chief Operating Officer of Soleno Therapeutics
Dr. Bhatnagar was appointed as our Chief Executive Officer in February 2014. Prior to that, he served as our President and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Bhatnagar joined us in 2006, and has held positions of increasing responsibility since then. Dr. Bhatnagar is a physician with over 15 years of experience in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries. His experience spans development of biologics, drugs, drug-device combinations and diagnostic as well as therapeutic medical devices. His prior experience includes working at Coulter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 1998 to 2000 and Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2000 to 2006. He is the author of several peer-reviewed publications, abstracts and book chapters. He obtained his medical degree at SMS Medical College in Jaipur, India and completed his Residency and Fellowship training in the U.S. at various institutions, including Georgetown University Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Soleno Therapeutics: Soleno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
Ivor Royston
CEO & President of Viracta Therapeutics
Ivor Royston is president & CEO, Viracta Therapeutics.
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About Viracta Therapeutics: Viracta Therapeutics is a precision oncology company focused on new treatment of virus-associated malignancies.
Allan Camaisa
Chairman, CEO, and Founder of Calidi Biotherapeutics
Allan Camaisa is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and technologist, with proven leadership skills in bootstrapping start-ups. He has had four successful exits, which were sold to publicly traded Fortune 1000 companies with tremendous shareholder returns. Since taking over as Chairman and CEO of Calidi Biotherapeutics, he has made a number of advancements, including a partnership with the U.S. NIH, recruitment of a Scientific Advisory Board, and the engagement of license negotiations with large pharmaceutical organizations, among others. Several years ago, Mr. Camaisa lost his own father to cancer; a tragedy that inspired him to co-found Calidi and make it his personal mission to bring to market a cure for difficult-to-treat cancers. Previously, Mr. Camaisa was the CEO and Chairman of Parallel6, Inc., a creator of a digital mobile software platform that engaged clinical trial participants and powered the enrollment, management, and retention of those participants on behalf of pharmaceutical organizations. Parallel6 was sold to PRA Health Sciences in 2017. Their clients included Sanofi, STSI/Genentech, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen, Abbott/Abbvie, PPD, PRA Health, Pfizer, Roche, and the NIH, among others. In 2005, Mr. Camaisa founded Anakam, Inc., a software security company that pioneered and patented SMS two-factor authentication, focused on healthcare, government, banking, and e-commerce, which safeguarded digital records and infotmation through a platform that delivered government-level multifactor authentication and security. Anakam sold a global license to the Veterans Administration (VA) to secure access to the VA’s primary patient portal called My HealtheVet. Other notable Anakam clients included the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, the Department of Homeland Security and several medical device companies including Boston Scientific and EntraHealth. Anakam was recognized by INC 500 as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. and was acquired by Equifax in 2010. Prior to Anakam, Mr. Camaisa founded High Technology Solutions (HTS) in the early 1990’s, a software systems integrator that he grew from two people to more than 500 employees and $50 million in revenue. Under his lead, HTS also developed and patented many technologies such as online car configuration, touchscreen kiosks, an online food delivery and ordering service. HTS was recognized as an INC 500 company three years in a row and was sold to Wireless Facilities, Inc. (now Kratos Defense) in 2004. Before entering business, Mr. Camaisa served eight years as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. He currently owns seven U.S. patents and has received many personal awards including the Deloitte FAST 50, the Governor’s Small Business of the Year Award and the Ernst and Young Regional Entrepreneur of the Year. He also received awards from the San Diego Asian Business Association, Tech America, and the U.S. Small Business Association, which honored him as Small Business Person of the Year. He is a graduate of both the United States Naval Academy and the prestigious Owners Management Program at Harvard Business School. Mr. Camaisa serves as a member of the YPO (Young Presidents Organization) San Diego Coastal Chapter. He also participated on several other volunteer boards including the United Way of San Diego, and Opportunity International (Micro-Enterprise Loans to the Poor).
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About Calidi Biotherapeutics: Calidi Biotherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company at the forefront of oncolytic virus-based immunotherapies for cancer.
Alan Hahn
CEO of MycoTechnology
Alan Hahn is the VP of Worldwide Sales and a Co-founder at [Scale](/organization/scale-computing). He has been in general management and sales leadership roles for over 20 years with consistent success and brings strategic and tactical planning from building and managing teams ranging in size from 25 to almost 1,300. Alan’s industry experience ranges from telecommunications to enterprise software solutions focused on the Fortune 1000. Alan’s leadership experience encompasses start-up companies to major corporations. He has successfully grown a start-up from zero revenue to $200M per year, delivering a $1.1B return on a $40M investment. Alan has been a senior officer of a large $1.5B company. As SVP/GM of the largest telecommunications distributor in North America, he had revenue responsibility of $450M. Alan is focused on team building and achieving success through the “Lens and Ram†leadership development program that he developed.
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About MycoTechnology: MycoTechnology utilizes fungi-based food-processing platforms to transform the flavor and value of agricultural products.
Terry Rosen
CEO of Arcus Biosciences
Terry Rosen is the CEO at Arcus Biosciences.
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About Arcus Biosciences: Arcus Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of cancer.
Paul Grayson
President and CEO of Bird Rock Bio
Paul Grayson is the Partner at Versant Ventures.
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About AccessBioVentures, Bird Rock Bio, Tentarix Biotherapeutics: Bird Rock Bio is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative immuno-inflammatory regulators.
Paul F. Truex
President & CEO, Director of Anthera Pharmaceuticals
Mr. Truex has served as Director, President and Chief Executive Officer since the inception of Anthera in 2004.He was responsible for negotiating Anthera’s product license for A-623, our anti-BAFF peptibody program from Amgen.Prior to founding Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Truex served as a Founder, Director, President and CEO of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals.During that time Mr. Truex raised over $81 million of institutional capital (including $21 million from a strategic partner) and negotiated both of Peninsula’s product agreements with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Doribax®, doripenem) and Takeda Chemical Industries (Teflaro®, ceftaroline). Peninsula was acquired by Johnson and Johnson in April of 2005 for $245 million in an all cash transaction.The remaining entity, Cerexa was subsequently acquired in 2006 for $480 million in cash.During his career, Mr. Truex has successfully raised over $150 million in venture investments and more than $500 million in various public and private equity and debt offerings including Anthera’s Initial Public Offering in 2010 and Versicor’s IPO in 2000.Mr. Truex has extensive experience in sales’ marketing and business development in several industries including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, consumer electronics, and telecommunications.Prior to Peninsula, Mr. Truex was Vice President of Commercial Development for Versicor Incorporated (acquired by Pfizer) where he directed early commercial efforts for their infectious disease portfolio and participated in the company’s successful $55 million initial public offering.Prior to joining Versicor, Mr. Truex worked at Eli Lilly and Company where he served in various marketing and sales roles during the launch of three different products for the primary care physician market (Actos®’ Evista®’ and Humalog 75/25®). His business development experience includes the Lilly ICOS LLC joint venture’ two majorproduct divestitures and numerous small research collaborations. While there Mr. Truex also worked with several product teams on various divestiture strategies.Mr. Truex obtained his Masters of Business Administration in Marketing and Finance from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Waterloo.Mr. Truex is a member of the Board of Directors of Trius Therapeutics, Milestone Pharmaceuticals and Waterloo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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About Anthera Pharmaceuticals: Anthera Pharmaceuticals is focused on developing products to treat diseases associated with inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
David Cory
President and Chief Executive Officer, Board Director of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
David Cory is an entrepreneur and industry veteran with 25-years experience in large pharmaceuticals, emerging stage biotechnology, and specialty pharmaceutical organizations with an established track record of operational, transactional, and financial success.Mr. Cory is currently the President and CEO of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals since 2008. He is responsible for negotiating Eiger’s multiple product licenses from Merck and Astra Zeneca. Cory was previously President and Chief Operating Officer of Prestwick Pharmaceuticals, an Orphan CNS specialty pharmaceutical company, which was acquired by Biovail Pharmaceuticals for $160 million in 2008. Cory was Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at CoTherix, an Orphan Pulmonary Hypertension company, which was acquired by Actelion for $425 million in 2006. Cory began his start up career as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at InterMune, a public biotechnology company focused on developing Orphan products for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. He was as a key executive in the InterMune IPO, building and managing the company’s commercial organization, in-licensing 4 products and raising over $400 million in the capital markets. Mr. Cory spent the first 12 years of his career in operating positions of increasing responsibility at The Upjohn Company, Glaxo, Glaxo Wellcome, and Glaxo Smith Kline leading teams in CNS, Critical Care, Oncology, Infectious Disease, and Respiratory therapeutic areas, where he directed 10 pharmaceutical product launches and the commercialization of 20 brands.David Cory is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College of Pharmacy, is board certified in Pharmacy, and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.
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About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
David Woodhouse
Chief Executive Officer of NGM Biopharmaceuticals
David Woodhouse became Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors in September 2018 and has served as our Chief Financial Officer since March 2015. From 2002 to 2015, he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, most recently as a Managing Director in the healthcare investment banking group and co-head of biotechnology investment banking. Earlier in his career, Dr. Woodhouse worked at Dynavax Technologies and also as a research assistant at Amgen, Inc. Dr. Woodhouse received a B.A. in pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Stanford University School of Medicine.
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About NGM Biopharmaceuticals: NGM Biopharmaceuticals is a drug discovery company developing biotherapeutics for the gastrointestinal endocrine system.
Daphne Koller
Founder & CEO of Insitro
Daphne Koller is CEO and Founder of insitro, a company using machine learning and high-throughput biology to transform drug discovery. Daphne was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she served on the faculty for 18 years. She was the co-founder, co-CEO and President of Coursera for 5 years, and Chief Computing Officer of Calico, an Alphabet company in the healthcare space. She is the author of over 200 refereed publications appearing in venues such as Science, Cell, and Nature Genetics. Daphne was recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2012. She received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004 and the ACM Prize in Computing in 2008. She was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 and elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014 and of the International Society of Computational Biology in 2017.
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About Engageli, Insitro: Insitro is a drug discovery and development startup that utilizes machine learning and biology to transform drug discovery.
Eric Ostertag
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Poseida Therapeutics
Eric Ostertag is the CEO at Poseida Therapeutics.
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About Hera Testing Laboratories, Poseida Therapeutics: Poseida Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that utilizes genome engineering capabilities to develop targeted life-saving therapeutics.
Hyunjun Park
Co-Founder & CEO of Catalog
Hyunjun Park is the Co-Founder & CEO at CATALOG.
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About Catalog, Forbes Technology Council, GIST: Catalog is a developer of a data conversion and storage platform used to offer the next generation of digital data archives.
Sajith Wickramasekara
Co-Founder & CEO of Benchling
Sajith Wickramasekara is the Co-Founder and CEO at Benchling since June 2012. He was a Research Assistant at Liquidia Technologies and Duke University Medical Center. Ms. Wickramasekara received a bachelor of science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About Benchling: Benchling is a cloud-based software platform for biology researchers and research and development organizations.
Sofie Qiao
President and Chief Executive Officer of Vivace Therapeutics
Dr. Qiao is the founding president and CEO of Vivace Therapeutics & Virtuoso Therapeutics.
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About Virtuoso Therapeutics, Vivace Therapeutics, WuXi Healthcare Ventures: Vivace Therapeutics is a venture-backed start-up dedicated to discovering and developing cancer therapeutics by targeting a novel pathway.
