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 United States based Founder operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a Founder 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.
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.
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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.
Robert Nelsen
Co-Founder & Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners
Robert Nelsen is a co-founder and a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. He joined ARCH at its founding and played a significant role in the early sourcing, financing and development of more than 100 companies, including nineteen which have reached valuations exceeding $1 billion. His seed and early-stage investments include Illumina (ILMN); Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY); Juno Therapeutics (JUNO); Unity Biotechnology (UBX); Sienna Biopharmaceuticals (SNNA); Vir Biotechnology, Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO); Sage Therapeutics (SAGE); GRAIL, Ikaria; Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (KYTH), Receptos (RCPT); Aviron (AVIR); Denali Therapeutics (DNLI); Rubius Therapeutics, KSQ Therapeutics, Beam Therapeutics, NetBot; Bluebird Bio (BLUE); R2 Technology; XenoPort (XNPT); Caliper Life Sciences (CALP); Trubion Pharmaceuticals (TRBN); Adolor (ADLR); deCODE Genetics; Array BioPharma (ARRY); Editas (EDIT), IDUN Pharmaceuticals; Classmates.com; Hua Medicine; Fate Therapeutics (FATE); WuxiNextCODE; and Everyday Learning Corporation. Mr. Nelsen is a director of Vir Bio, GRAIL, Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Beam Therapeutics, Unity Biotechnology, Denali Therapeutics, Arivale, Syros Pharmaceuticals, and serves as Chairman of Hua Medicine, among others. He previously served as a Trustee of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, the Institute for Systems Biology, and was a director of the National Venture Capital Association. Mr. Nelsen holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. from the University of Puget Sound with majors in Economics and Biology.
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About ARCH Venture Partners: ARCH is an early-stage venture firm that focuses on life science discoveries to prevent, detect, and cure disease.
Keith Crandell
Founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners
Keith L. Crandell is the Co – Founder & Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners. He focuses on chemical and specialty materials companies, electronics and instrumentation, optics and photonics, communications, and enterprise infrastructure businesses. He previously served as Senior Manager at ARCH Development Corporation, where he was responsible for ARCH Venture Fund I activities at Argonne National Laboratory. Mr. Crandell has played a key role in the formation and initial funding round of Quanterix, Alfalight, PixelEXX Systems, ALIS Corp. (acquired by Carl Zeiss SMT), Eichrom Industries (acquired by Gary Comer, Inc.), Nanophase Technologies (NANX), and Illinois Superconductor. He was also responsible for ARCH’s investment in New Era of Networks (NEON, acquired by Sybase-SY), Apropos Technology (APRS, acquired by Syntellect-ESL), Teach.com (acquired by Intellinex), CelebrateExpress (BDAY, acquired by Liberty Media-LINTA), Ahura Scientific (acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific-TMO), Adesto Technologies, Ciespace, Boreal Genomics, and Crystal IS (acquired by Asahi Kasei-AHKSY), among others. He is a Director of Quanterix, Nanosys, Alfalight, Adesto Technologies, Boreal Genomics, PixelEXX Systems, Univa, Ciespace. Mr. Crandell also serves as a Director of the Illinois Venture Capital Association. Prior to the founding of ARCH, Mr. Crandell was with the specialty chemical and polymer company, Hercules, Inc. He holds an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago. An M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Arlington. B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from St. Lawrence University.
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About ARCH Venture Partners: ARCH is an early-stage venture firm that focuses on life science discoveries to prevent, detect, and cure disease.
Clinton Bybee
Co-Founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners
Clinton Bybee is a co-founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. Mr. Bybee concentrates primarily on advanced materials, electronics, semiconductors, photonics, and infrastructure businesses. Mr. Bybee has helped organize and finance numerous companies including MicroOptical Devices (acquired by EMCORE), Cambrios Technologies, Aveso, Innovalight, Intelligent Reasoning Systems (acquired by Photon Dynamics), Semprius, Nanosys, and Xtera Communications. He is a board member of Impinj, Innovalight, Cambrios Technologies, Xtera Communications, Nitronex and Aveso. Mr. Bybee is an organizing member of the Texas Venture Capital Association and currently serves as its first President. Previously, Mr. Bybee worked with ARCH Development Corporation. He also managed a venture investment fund for the State of Illinois and was a production engineer with Amoco Corporation.
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About ARCH Development Corporation, ARCH Venture Partners, Nitronex: ARCH is an early-stage venture firm that focuses on life science discoveries to prevent, detect, and cure disease.
Ben Lamm
Founder & CEO of Colossal Biosciences
Ben Lamm is the co-founder and CEO of Colossal. Ben is a serial technology entrepreneur driven to solve the most complex challenges facing our planet. For over a decade, Ben has built disruptive businesses that future-proof our world. In addition to leading and growing his own companies, he is passionate about emerging technology, science, space and climate change. Active in angel investing, incubators and startup communities, Ben invests in software and emerging tech, and is deeply engaged in the technology, defense and climate change communities. Prior to Colossal, Ben served as the founder and CEO to a number of companies, including Hypergiant, an enterprise AI software company focused on critical infractures, space, and defense; Conversable, the leading conversational intelligence platform that helps brands reach customers through automated experiences acquired by LivePerson; and Chaotic Moon, a global creative technology powerhouse acquired by Accenture. Ben was also the co-founder of Team Chaos, a consumer gaming company acquired by Zynga. Ben is a fellow of the Explorer’s Club, whose mission is to promote the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences. He also serves as a Scientific Advisory Board member on the Planetary Society and sits on the Advisory Board for the Arch Mission. Ben has appeared as a thought leader in many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wired, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and Newsweek on topics such as innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.
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About Capital Factory, Colossal Biosciences, Hypergiant, Nautilus Magazine, Techstars: Colossal is a breakthrough bioscience and genetic engineering company that builds radical new technologies to advance the field of genomics.
Jennifer Doudna
Co-Founder of Mammoth Biosciences
As an internationally renowned professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley, Dr. Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues rocked the research world in 2012 by describing a simple way of editing the DNA of any organism using an RNA-guided protein found in bacteria. This technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, has opened the floodgates of possibility for human and non-human applications of gene editing, including assisting researchers in the fight against HIV, sickle cell disease and muscular dystrophy. Doudna is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, and the Executive Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Doudna is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and has received numerous other honors including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Japan Prize, and the Kavli Prize. Doudna’s work led TIME to recognize her as one of the “100 Most Influential People” in 2015, and she is the co-author of “A Crack in Creation,” a personal account of her research and the societal and ethical implications of gene editing. She is a vocal proponent of its responsible use, first calling for a moratorium on using CRISPR technology to make permanent changes to the human germline in 2015.
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About Caribou Biosciences, Editas Medicine, Intellia Therapeutics, Mammoth Biosciences, Scribe Therapeutics, University of California Berkeley: Mammoth Biosciences develops novel CRISPR applications for disease detection, research, agriculture, biodefense, and more.
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.
Chris Gibson
Co-Founder & CEO of Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Chris completed his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Utah in the fall of 2013 before taking a leave of absence from medical school (he was enrolled in the MD/PhD program) to found and grow Recursion. He developed the core technology underlying this venture while in the lab of Dr. Dean Li. Chris comes from a family of entrepreneurs, is a graduate of Rice University with degrees in bioengineering and managerial studies, and recently completed an intense course in entrepreneurship at Stanford GSB. Chris is also a Board Member of CureHHT, a patient advocacy group for Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia. Chris enjoys cycling on both the road and the trails that cut through Utah’s great wilderness,as well as spending precious time with his family.
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About Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion Pharmaceuticals is a digital biology company, developing a drug discovery platform and pipeline with machine learning.
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.
Mitchell Rales
Co-Founder of Danaher
Mitchell Rales is a co-founder of Danaher and has served on Danaher’s Board of Directors since 1983, serving as Chairman of the Executive Committee of Danaher since 1984. He was also President of Danaher from 1984 to 1990. In addition, for more than the past five years he has been a principal in private and public business entities in the manufacturing area. Mitchell is a member of the board of directors of Colfax Corporation, and is a brother of Steven Rales. The strategic vision and leadership of Mitchell and his brother, Steven Rales, helped create the Danaher Business System and have guided Danaher down a path of consistent, profitable growth that continues today. In addition, as a result of his substantial ownership stake in Danaher, he is well-positioned to understand, articulate and advocate for the rights and interests of Danaher’s shareholders.
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About Danaher: Danaher is a global science and technology innovator committed to helping their customers solve complex challenges and improve quality.
Steven Rales
Co-Founder of Danaher
Steven Rales is a co-founder of Danaher and has served on Danaher’s Board of Directors since 1983, serving as Danaher’s Chairman of the Board since 1984. He was also CEO of Danaher from 1984 to 1990. In addition, for more than the past five years he has been a principal in private business entities in the area film production. Steven is a brother of Mitchell Rales. The strategic vision and leadership of Steven and his brother, Mitchell Rales, helped create the Danaher Business System and have guided Danaher down a path of consistent, profitable growth that continues today. In addition, as a result of his substantial ownership stake in Danaher, he is well-positioned to understand, articulate and advocate for the rights and interests of Danaher’s shareholders.
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About Danaher: Danaher is a global science and technology innovator committed to helping their customers solve complex challenges and improve quality.
Richard Terry
CEO, CTO and Founder of Harton Therapeutics
Prior to founding Harton, Richard was the CEO, CTO, and founder of ReadCoor, the leading developer of a true spatial biology platform. Before ReadCoor, he was the Lead Senior Staff Scientist at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
At the Wyss, he supported advancements in reading, writing, and editing nucleic acid, better known as nucleic acid sequencing, gene synthesis, and gene editing.
Richard was one of the Institute’s first hires and joined the founding team before the research center opened its doors. He built and transformed the Synthetic Biology Platform from its earliest form into the world-renowned Translational Synthetic Biology group that it is today.
A sample of the tools developed by the Synthetic Biology group under his charge includes Ultra-Long DNAs, Next-Gen Sequencing, Nanopore Sequencing, Multiplexed Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE), Programmable DNA Nanotherapeutic Robotic Device, CRISPR, TALEN, Zinc Finger, CADnano, SeqTag, Data Encoding and Enzymatic Synthesis of DNA.
Before joining the Wyss, Richard resided in the Church Lab at Harvard Medical School. During his time in the lab, he designed, developed, and produced a cost-effective, high throughput, open-source DNA sequencer: The Polonator. Prior to his time at the Church Lab, Richard developed implantable nerve stimulation devices to treat vestibular disorders at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He also held the position of Senior Project Manager for an optical subsystem of the Large Hadron Colliders (LHC) at The Center of European Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.
While completing his graduate degree and following its completion, he conducted urology research for diagnostic devices at Boston Medical Center. He has served as a consultant for a diverse selection of companies ranging from medical device startups to large manufacturing firms (Johnson & Johnson, NeuroKinetics, Intelligent Bio Systems, Good Start Genetics, ABVitro, Merck, Fero Solutions, Halcyon Molecular, Gen9, and Helicos Biosciences).
Additionally, he founded a DNA sequencing chemistry company and an engineering consulting firm.
Richard is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the 2020 Goldman Sacks 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs; ReadCoor NEVC startup of the year 2016 (nominated); and ReadCoor NEVC deal of the year 2020 (nominated).
He received his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Boston University and has numerous patents and publications spanning multiple disciplines.
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About Harton Therapeutics, Harvard Medical School: Harton is a biotechnology platform company pioneering the next revolution in personalized immune therapies to treat each and every patient.
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.
David Yu Zhang
Co-Founder & Head of Innovation of NuProbe
David Zhang, Ph.D., is the Ted Law Jr. Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University. He is a leading expert in molecular diagnostics and DNA biotechnology, and maintains active collaborations with multiple biotech companies.
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About NuProbe: An early stage molecular diagnostics company.
Peng Yin
Co-Founder, Director of NuProbe
Peng is a Professor in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as a Core Faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, where he co-founded Ultivue. Co-Founder, Director at Torus Biosystems.
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About Harvard Medical School, NuProbe, Torus Biosystems, Ultivue, Wyss Institute: An early stage molecular diagnostics company.
Yingshuang Chai
Co-Founder & CEO of NuProbe
Yingshuang Chai is a Co-Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Directors at NuProbe.
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About NuProbe: An early stage molecular diagnostics company.
Junfeng Luo
Co-Founder & Vice President, R&D – NuProbe, China of NuProbe
Junfeng Luo is a Co-Founder and Vice President of R&D at NuProbe, China.
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About NuProbe: An early stage molecular diagnostics company.
Yundi Chen
Co-Founder of NuProbe
Yundi Chen is a Co-Founder at NuProbe.
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About NuProbe: An early stage molecular diagnostics company.
Mark Bouzyk
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of AKESOgen
Mark Bouzyk is Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at AKESOgen.
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About AKESOgen: AKESOgen is a biomarker, genomics, and pharmacogenomics contract research organization.
Gregory Winter
Scientific Founders of Bicycle Therapeutics
Professor Sir Gregory Winter is a member of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge and most of his scientific career was based there. He was Head of Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry, succeeding Cesar Milstein and has served as both Deputy and Acting Director of the LMB. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, was knighted in 2004 for services to science and in 2012 was appointed by the Queen as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Sir Gregory is a graduate of University of Cambridge (1973), specialising in chemistry and biochemistry; for his PhD (1976) and postdoctoral work (1977-1981) he specialised in protein and nucleic acid sequencing respectively and with colleagues determined the genome sequence of influenza virus. From 1982 he pioneered the science of protein engineering, focusing first on enzymes (with A. Fersht) and then antibodies. He invented techniques to humanise rodent antibodies for use as therapeutics (1986–), working with H. Waldmann in the development of alemtuzumab/Campath-1H. Later, in competition with R. Lerner, he developed methods to make fully human antibodies (1989–) against human self-antigens using antibody libraries. His inventions are used in most of the antibody products on the market, including the humanised antibodies alemtuzumab/Campath-1H, trastuzumab/Herceptin, bevacizumab/Avastin, palivizumab/Synagis and the first human antibody (adalimumab/Humira) to be approved by the US FDA. Sir Gregory has acted as an entrepreneur to translate his scientific inventions to medicines. He was a founder of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT,1989) and Domantis (2000); these companies pioneered the use of antibody libraries to make fully human antibody therapeutics. CAT was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1997 and was responsible for the co-development of the therapeutic antibodies adalimumab/Humira and belimumab/Benlysta. CAT was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006. Domantis developed a range of product leads based on single antibody domains and was acquired by GSK in 2006 in a private sale. Sir Gregory has won several international scientific prizes, including the Prix Louis Jeantet de Medecine (Switzerland) in 1989; the King Faisal International Prize for Medicine (Molecular Immunology, Saudi Arabia) in 1995; the Biochemical Analysis Prize of the German Society for Clinical Chemistry in 1995; the Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award (US) in 1999; and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 2011. For his work with industry, he received the National Biotechnology Ventures Award (US) in 2004 and the BioIndustry Association Award (UK) in 2008. In March 2013 he was awarded the Gairdner Prize for the engineering of humanised monoclonal antibodies and their widespread use in medical therapy, particularly for treatment of cancer and immune disorders.
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About Ahren Innovation Capital, Bicycle Therapeutics, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Trinity College, Dublin: Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a technology for the creation of new generation biotherapeutics.
Christian Heinis
Scientific Founders of Bicycle Therapeutics
Christian Heinis is Scientific Founders at Bicycle Therapeutics.
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About Bicycle Therapeutics: Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a technology for the creation of new generation biotherapeutics.
Joshua Nixon
CTO 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.
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.
Herb Yoo
Co-Founder, CTO of Senaptec
Herb has extensive experience in the innovation and delivery of sensory performance products and services. While working for Nike, he created sensory assessment and treatment tools resulting in over 25 patents and directed the sensory research program that led to collaboration and published work with research universities. He also provided sensory performance training directly to professional sports teams, college athletic programs, and special operations units in the US military. Herb also spent 8 years in the Nike Sport Research Lab, conducting performance product research and conceptualizing athlete performance evaluation services. He completed both undergraduate work and Masters degree at the University of Michigan in the College of Engineering where he studied human factors and biomechanics. During his graduate school years, he conducted research on the visual demand and impact of in-vehicle systems on driving performance at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Herb lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife Christine and two children.
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About Senaptec: Senaptec is developing a portfolio of tools to assess and improve brain health and performance.
Paul Chang
President, CEO/CSO and Lead Founder of ARase Therapeutics
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About ARase Therapeutics: Arase Therapeutics is a science-focused oncology company developing therapies that modulate cancer-relevant cell signaling pathways.
Eric Fischer
Co-Founder of Civetta Therapeutics
Eric Fischer is the Founder at Neomorph.
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About Civetta Therapeutics, Neomorph: Civetta Therapeutics is a cancer therapeutics company to advance new medicines through small molecule targeting of beta-propeller domains.
William Sellers
Co-Founder of Civetta Therapeutics
William Sellers is the Co-Founder of Civetta Therapeutics.
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About Civetta Therapeutics: Civetta Therapeutics is a cancer therapeutics company to advance new medicines through small molecule targeting of beta-propeller domains.
Ross Bundy
Co-Founder, Chief Entrepreneur, Chief Production Office of Cardea Bio
A founding member of Nanomed and the company’s CEO, Ross is a graduate of UCSD with an MBA from SDSU. Ross’s passion is precision execution, and he applies this to driving company direction and operations, developing strategic collaborations and partnerships, and raising capital funding. Ross brings business development, supply chain, finance, and operations expertise from 13 years of experience in industries ranging from consumer goods to defense manufacturing to financial services. At Bumble Bee Foods, Ross created and implemented cross-functional supply chain procedures that reduced processing hours while improving scheduling accuracy and decreasing cost. Prior to Bumble Bee at General Dynamics, Ross identified and negotiated business development projects that gained the company new opportunities in alternative energy, commercial construction, and heavy tool manufacturing. At UBS Financial Services, Ross created financial models to estimate future growth rates. Ross brings a demonstrated track record of successful implementation and a well-rounded background to his role as CEO of Nanomed.
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About Cardea Bio: Cardea is developing a new generation of (bio)technology infrastructure based on proprietary biology-gated transistors.
Kiana Aran
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Cardea Bio
Kiana Aran is a Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Cardea Bio.
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About Cardea Bio: Cardea is developing a new generation of (bio)technology infrastructure based on proprietary biology-gated transistors.
Agustin Fernandez III
CEO & Co-Founder of Rational Vaccines
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About Duende Media, Rational Vaccines: Rational Vaccines is a pre-clinical stage that develops live-attenuated herpes simplex virus vaccines.
Steve Arnold
Co-Founder and Partner Emeritus of Polaris Partners
Prior to starting Polaris, Steve served as a special advisor to Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. following more than 10 years in executive positions in the software industry. He served as vice president of Broadband Media Applications at Microsoft Corporation and as president and CEO of Continuum Productions (now Corbis), a private company founded by Bill Gates to pioneer the creation of large digital libraries for online distribution. Before coming to Continuum, Steve served as vice president and general manager of LucasArts Games and Learning divisions, and vice president of the New Media Group at Lucasfilm Ltd. He continues to serve as vice chairman of the board of directors of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Steve holds a BS with honors from Macalester College and an MA and PhD from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco.
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About Polaris Partners: Polaris Partners invests in healthcare and technology companies across all stages from founding to profitable growth.
Edwin Kania
Managing Partner & Co-Founder; Chairman Emeritus of Flagship Pioneering
Edwin Kania is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Flagship Ventures and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Flagship Ventures between 2001 – 2014. Edwin has 33 years of experience in the venture capital industry. Prior to co-founding Flagship Ventures in 2000, Edwin spent 14 years as General Partner of OneLiberty Ventures and of its predecessor firm, Morgan, Holland Ventures. From 1983 – 1984 Edwin served as an Investment Officer at First Capital Corporation of Boston, the venture capital subsidiary of Bank of Boston and previously, as Research Associate at Harvard Business School and as General Manager at J. Cunningham, Inc. Edwin is a frequent speaker on venture capital and entrepreneurship. Edwin earned his undergraduate degree in Physics from Dartmouth College and his MBA from Harvard Business School. While at Dartmouth, Edwin was an All-American Track and Field athlete and a national and collegiate record holder. Throughout his professional career, Edwin has operated both as an investor and as an active partner to entrepreneurs in company building. Edwin’s direct investment experience covers over 100 companies. In addition, Edwin has been intimately involved in the launch and development of more than a dozen companies as the founding, lead or co-lead investor, and on occasion has assumed operating roles in support of management. Several of these companies are now publicly traded while others have been acquired by significant publicly-traded companies. The total value of the companies in which Ed has participated as founding or lead investor is currently several billion dollars. Among the companies for which Ed has served as an active Director are Acceleron Pharma (NASDAQ: XLRN), Adolor (NASDAQ: ADLR), Alere Corp. (purchased by Inverness Medical), Anesta Corp. (NASDAQ: NSTA, purchased by Cephalon), Aspect Medical (NASDAQ: ASPM, purchased by Covidien), AudioLogic (purchased by Cirrus Logic), ChemGenics Pharmaceuticals (purchased by Millennium), Cytyc Corp. (NASDAQ: CYTC), EXACT Sciences (NASDAQ: EXAS), Interactive Supercomputing (acquired by Microsoft), Ontogeny (merged into Curis, NASDAQ: CRIS), PerSeptive Biosystems (NASDAQ: PBIO, purchased by Applera), Somatogen (NASDAQ: SMTG, purchased by Baxter), and VisEn Medical (acquired by PerkinElmer). He was also a founding investor in IDEXX Laboratories (NASDAQ: IDXX) and in TripAdvisor (purchased by InterActive Corp). Currently, Edwin is a Director of Flagship portfolio companies EcoSense Lighting, Oasys Water, Selecta Biosciences, TARIS Biomedical, Tarveda Therapeutics, TransMedics and Visterra, as well as on the Board of DataCore Software. Edwin also serves on the Board of Common Impact, a non-profit organization that connects skilled professionals from global corporations to local, high potential non-profits. Edwin has been a long-time Member of the Board of Directors of MassBio, a not-for-profit organization representing theMassachusetts biopharmaceutical industry and serves as a Member of Harvard Partners’ Innovation Advisory Board and The Johns Hopkins Medicine Alliance for Science and Technology Development.
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About Flagship Pioneering: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Noubar Afeyan
Founder & CEO of Flagship Pioneering
Noubar Afeyan is Founder, Senior Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer at Flagship Ventures, a leading early stage venture capital firm. Noubar also leads the firm’s VentureLabs unit that invents and launches transformative startups. Noubar is a Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management where he has taught courses on technology-entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership since 2000. Noubar lectures widely in the United States and internationally on diverse topics ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation and venture capital to biological engineering, drug discovery, medical technologies and renewable energy. During his 28-year career as inventor, entrepreneur, CEO and venture capitalist, Noubar has co-founded and helped build over 35 successful life science and technology startups. Noubar was Founder and Chief Executive Officer at PerSeptive Biosystems, a leader in the bio-instrumentation field that grew to over $100M in annual sales within six years from its first sales. After PerSeptive’s acquisition by Perkin Elmer/Applera Corporation in 1998, Noubar was Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Applera, where he initiated and oversaw the creation of Celera Genomics. Currently Noubar serves on a number of public and private company boards including CiBO Technologies, Epiva BioSciences, Evelo BioSciences, Joule Unlimited, Kaleido BioSciences, Moderna Therapeutics, Pronutria Biosciences and Seres Therapeutics. Previously, Noubar was a Member of the founding team, Director and Investor in several highly successful ventures including Chemgenics Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), Color Kinetics (acquired by Philips), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb) and Affinnova (acquired by AC Nielsen). Noubar received a Technology Pioneer 2012 award from the World Economic Forum in recognition of the breakthrough solar fuel technology being developed at Joule Unlimited. Noubar has served as Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Chemicals, Advanced Materials and Biotechnology of the World Economic Forum as well as being a member of the Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies. Noubar is a Member of the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he serves on the board of AmeriaBank and of UWC Dilijan International School, both of Armenia. Previously, Noubar was a Co-Founder and Member of the Board of Directors at National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, a private-public partnership dedicated to promoting economic development in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. In 2008 Noubar received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an award granted to outstanding Americans who have distinguished themselves as United States citizens and who have enabled their ancestry groups to maintain their identities while becoming integral parts of American life. Noubar has authored numerous scientific publications and patents since earning his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from MIT in 1987. Cygnal is a best-in-class team of biomedical experts and leaders collaborating to revolutionize how the world treats diseases.
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About BIND Therapeutics, Cogen Therapeutics, Cygnal Therapeutics, Ensemble Therapeutics, Flagship Pioneering, Generate Biomedicines, Harvard Business School, Indigo, Joule Unlimited Technologies, Laronde, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Moderna Therapeutics, Omega Therapeutics, Permeon Biologics, Ring Therapeutics, Rubius Therapeutics, Seres Therapeutics: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
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.
Nichola Eliovits
Co-Founder, Chief Business Officer of DermBiont
Nick’s investment expertise spans across asset classes with an extensive focus on microbiome oriented companies across all stages of venture capital. Nick is a Managing Partner at Olive Tree Capital; he led his last company through acquisition and has successfully seeded and structured companies across multiple industries. His passion for the Microbiome originates from personal experiences with skin infections and c-diff. Nick graduated with honors from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and started his career in commodity markets at CPM Group in New York.
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About DermBiont, Popover: DermBiont is a biotech company that develops skin microbiome therapeutics to treat and prevent skin diseases.
Eli Casdin
CIO & Founder of Casdin Capital
Eli Casdin, Chief Investment Officer and Founder, founded Casdin Capital in 2011. For the last 16 years he has analyzed and invested in disruptive technologies and business models in life sciences and healthcare. Prior to founding Casdin Capital, Eli was a vice president at Alliance Bernstein “thematic” based investment group where he researched and invested in the implications of new technologies for the life science and healthcare sectors. His Alliance Bernstein black book, “The Dawn of Molecular Medicine” detailed the early yet already accelerating wave of innovations in life sciences, and the next wave of investment opportunities. Eli’s prior experience includes time at Bear Stearns and Cooper Hill Partners, a healthcare focused investment firm. Eli earned a B.S. from Columbia University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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About Casdin Capital: Casdin Capital is a fundamental research investment firm focused on the life sciences and healthcare industry.
Lanny Sun
Co-Founder & CEO of Silicon Therapeutics
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About Silicon Therapeutics: Silicon Therapeutics is a fully integrated drug design, research, and development company.
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.
Geraldine Harriman
CSO & Co-Founder of HotSpot Therapeutics
Geraldine Harriman is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of HotSpot Therapeutics.
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About HotSpot Therapeutics: HotSpot Therapeutics is a developer of a therapy platform designed to discover medicines and provide proper treatment.
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.
Matthew Milford
Co-Founder of Genetic Foresight
Matthew Milford is the Co-Founder at Foresight.
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About Foresight Mental Health, Genetic Foresight: Genetic Foresight is personalizing medicine to enable safer and more effective prescriptions.
Seth Harrison
Founder & Managing Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Seth Harrison is the managing partner of Apple Tree Partners and serves as Executive Chairman of Braeburn Pharmaceuticals. He has invested in life sciences since 1991. Seth has served as founding investor, acting CEO or chairman of numerous portfolio companies. He is currently also Chairman of Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Chairman of Aileron Therapeutics and Deputy Chairman of Heartware International, all companies he founded. Prior to founding ATP, Seth was a general partner at Oak Investment Partners and earlier was a venture partner at Sevin Rosen Funds. His prior investments include: ArQule, Coelacanth, Cyrano Sciences, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, Informed Access, SGX Pharmaceuticals, Ultracision and ViroPharma. Seth received an A.B. from Princeton University, an MD and MBA both from Columbia University and completed a surgery internship at the Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York. From 2002 – 2010 he served on the board of the International Partnership for Microbicides, a Rockefeller Foundation/Gates Foundation sponsored public-private partnership engaged in the development of anti-HIV microbicides.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
David Maizenberg
Co-Founder and General Counsel of ValenzaBio
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About ValenzaBio: ValenzaBio is developing safe and effective treatment options for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Martin Shkreli
Founder & Executive Chairman of Turing Pharmaceuticals
Martin Shkreli is the founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He is the founder of Retrophin, LLC (the predecessor of Retrophin, Inc.) and former President of Retrophin, Inc. since its formation. Martin Shkreli is also the founder and managing partner of MSMB Capital Management, a New York hedge fund firm founded in 2006 that manages a variety of partnerships. Prior to MSMB, Martin Shkreli was employed at Intrepid Capital Management from 2004 to 2006 and previously at Cramer Berkowitz & Co, both of which are hedge fund firms based in New York. Martin Shkreli is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry investor, particularly in businesses with orphan drugs. Martin Shkreli received his BBA from Baruch College.
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About Shkreli Foundation, Turing Pharmaceuticals: Turing Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on patients with unmet medical needs.
Nessan Bermingham
Founder, CEO & currently Exec Chair of Triplet Therapeutics
Nessan Bermingham is founder and CEO of Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. He is a serial biotech entrepreneur and investor who has founded several companies including Triplet, Korro Bio and Intellia Therapeutics, “one of the top 10 biotech start-ups in 2014” and a “Fierce 15 biotech company,” taking the company from concept to IPO and large partnering deals with approximately 200 employees. He has nearly two decades of experience in Life Sciences startups and investments, including small molecules, biologics, medical devices, and diagnostics through venture, public, and secondary markets. As a venture partner at Atlas Venture and managing partner at Omega Funds, he successfully invested in and managed multiple investments across the United States and Europe. Currently he is also a venture partner at Atlas Venture and is Chair of the Board of Directors of F-star and Akrevia Therapeutics. He served as Intellia’s President and CEO from inception until December 2017. Previously he was an independent advisory board member of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and MerckSerono KGaA. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Imperial College London and was a Howard Hughes Associate Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine. He is an avid mountain biker, snowboarder and trail runner. Nessan is co-founder and was previously chief executive officer of Intellia Therapeutics. He led Intellia from seed investment and incubation at Atlas Venture through its IPO and the advancement of its gene editing platform toward clinical development. He has over ten years of experience in life science investing across venture, secondary, and public markets. Previously, Nessan was a partner at Omega Funds and founder of Bio Equity Capital, a healthcare focused special situations firm. Nessan is also co-founder of Tal Medical.
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About Korro Bio, Triplet Therapeutics: Triplet is developing transformative therapies that treat repeat expansion disorders at their source.
James C. Katzaroff
CEO, Chairman and Founder of Vivos Inc
A serial entrepreneur who started his first company importing minerals and pewter from Brazil while in high school in southern California, Mr. Katzaroff is constantly searching for outstanding opportunities. Hired straight out of college Mr. Katzaroff was a financial consultant for Wall Street firms Bateman Eichler, Smith Barney and EFHutton. Since 1990, he has been responsible for corporate engineering, senior-level corporate strategy, fostering investment bank relationships, and has served as a senior financial advisor for numerous start-ups and development stage companies. A strong desire to make an unshakable impact in the fight against cancer led Mr. Katzaroff to found AMI in 2006.
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About Vivos Inc: Vivos Inc develops manufacturing equipments for the production of medical isotopes used in diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
Mickey Kertesz
President, CPO & Co-Founder of Karius
Kertesz co-founded Karius in 2014 to bring the pathogen detection technology he and colleagues developed at Stanford closer to the bedside. Prior to that, he was the CEO and co-founder of Moleculo, a long-reads DNA sequencing company, which was acquired by Illumina in late 2012. Dr. Kertesz earned an MS in computer science from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in computational biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He went on to complete his postdoctoral work in bioengineering at Stanford University, where he developed novel methods for investigating the genetic diversity of human viruses.
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About Karius: Karius provides genomic insights for infectious diseases to enable clinicians to make life-saving treatment decisions.
Tim Blauwkamp
Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder of Karius
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About Karius: Karius provides genomic insights for infectious diseases to enable clinicians to make life-saving treatment decisions.
Charles Roberts
Co-Founder, Chief Growth Officer of Freenome
A clinician by training, Charlie is Freenome’s Chief Partnership Officer, focusing on mid- and longer-term relationships that will help define the company’s future directions and revenues and works closely with the business development team in managing corporate client accounts and institutional collaborations. Prior to co-founding Freenome, Charlie co-founded a company that uses circulating cell-free (cf)DNA from maternal blood samples to diagnose chromosomal abnormalities during pregnancy. The resulting in-vitro diagnostic, IONA, has been marketed successfully across Europe and the Middle East. Charlie studied medicine and neuropsychology in the UK, earning a Masters degree from Oxford with a focus on immunotherapy. He has worked in some of the UK’s leading oncology centers, including the Royal Marsden.
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About Freenome, Relation Therapeutics: Freenome is a biotechnology company with a comprehensive multiomics platform for cancer detection using a routine blood draw.
Riley Ennis
Co-Founder and COO of Freenome
Riley is a Thiel Fellow who created a cancer vaccine with his previous company Immudicon as Co-Founder & Chair. Co-Founder, COO at Freenome.
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About Freenome, Immudicon, Oncolinx, The Thiel Foundation: Freenome is a biotechnology company with a comprehensive multiomics platform for cancer detection using a routine blood draw.
Rene Bharti
Founder & Executive Chairman of Future Fertility
Rene has held several key roles in both public and private companies, including those in the resource, technology and entertainment industry. Rene Bharti co-founded ARHT Media, along with legendary singer Paul Anka, with the aim of creating the worlds most lifelike digital humans to conduct e-commerce in a unique and viable platform. Rene Bharti holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) from Queens University.
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About Future Fertility, Spend: Future Fertility is a provider of artificial intelligence tools for reproductive medicine.
Wei-Wu He
Founder and CEO of Origene Technologies
Wei-Wu He is a biotech executive dedicated to the commercialization of innovative life sciences technologies for the healthcare market.He is currently Chairman and CEO of OriGene Technologies, Inc. He is also the founder and General Partner of Emerging Technology Partners, LLC (ETP), a venture firm dedicated to incubating innovative life sciences companies. He is also a Venture Partner of IDG/Accel Partners, a $4 Billion venture fund designed to fund innovative companies in China.He started his biotech career as a scientist at the inception of Human Genome Sciences, Inc.He has been involved in the funding and founding over 20 biotech companies throughout his career and has served on many biotech company boards. Most recently He was named the Executive Chairman of Casi Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company dedicated to the development of innovative cancer treatments both in China and the US.He has conducted cancer research at Mayo Clinic and at Massachusetts General Hospital as a research fellow. He has been awarded over 30 United States patents and has more than 25 original research publications.He received a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Nanjing University, P. R. China, an M.B.A. from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine.
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About Emerging Technology Partners, Origene Technologies: OriGene Technologies is a research tool company that provides a commercial collection of full-length human cDNAs.
Rhodemann Li
Founder, EVP Strategy & Finance of Vesselon
Mr. Li is the founder of Vesselon and is a serial medical device entrepreneur and brings more than thirty years of experience in finance, business development, strategy, patents and regulatory submissions. Prior to founding Vesselon in 2012, Mr. Li worked in private equity evaluating investment opportunities. Mr. Li co-founded an orthopedic implant company, Li Medical Technologies, which developed and sold sports medicine surgery and spinal implants. Li Medical was venture capital funded and ultimately acquired by ConMed Corporation. Mr. Li has five issued patents for medical devices. Mr. Li also worked for FMR Group, an investment vehicle for healthcare investors, and Golden Pond Healthcare, a special purpose acquisition corporation formed to assume a healthcare company, where he sourced investment opportunities. Prior to his healthcare experience, Mr. Li was a Vice President in Corporate Finance at UBS Securities and a Vice President in Corporate Lending at Manufacturers Hanover. Mr. Li holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
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About Accelerator for Biosciences in Connect, Vesselon: Vesselon is a medical device company developing novel therapeutic Immuno-Oncology complexes.
Clay Larsen
President and CEO, Co-Founder of Vesselon
Mr. Larsen co-founded Vesselon in 2012 and brings over thirty years of executive management, marketing, sales, clinical innovation and engineering/project management in the healthcare industry. Mr. Larsen was a senior executive with FUJIFILM Medical Systems, where he was largely responsible for building the company’s first healthcare software division from the ground up. Mr. Larsen recruited the original senior architects and was instrumental in the development, marketing, commercial release and field support of Fuji’s Synapse® Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS). In a move to Silicon Valley in 1988, Mr. Larsen served in several senior roles at Acuson Corporation culminating as Vice President of New Market Development. Acuson was one of the leading ultrasound technology companies that was later acquired by Siemens. Early in his career he specialized in Sales and Marketing Management of Ultrasound and Nuclear Medicine for Picker International. Mr. Larsen holds a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.
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About Vesselon: Vesselon is a medical device company developing novel therapeutic Immuno-Oncology complexes.
Chiu Chau
Co-Founder, CTO of OpenTrons
Chiu worked in biotech for 20+ years before building the first OpenTrons robot. In his previous company (bought by Immucor in 2008) he led the engineering team to build the core multiplex qPCR automation technology now used in most blood banks for advanced blood typing. Chiu grew up in Hong Kong and is a diehard raquetball player.
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About OpenTrons: OpenTrons is a developer of a pipetting robot technology designed to automate experiments.
Will Canine
Co-Founder and CPO of OpenTrons
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About OpenTrons: OpenTrons is a developer of a pipetting robot technology designed to automate experiments.
Alexis Borisy
Co-Founder of Blueprint Medicines
Alexis Borisy is the Chairman of the Board of Directors & Co – Founder of Foundation Medicine Inc.He is also a Partner at Third Rock Ventures.Alexis Borisy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with 20 years of experience building and operating innovative science-based organizations. Alexis Borisy joined the life sciences venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures in 2009 to focus on the formation, development and strategy of new companies. He co-founded Foundation Medicine and served as the company’s interim CEO through May 2011.Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Alexis Borisy founded CombinatoRx in 2000, serving as its Chief Executive Officer and bringing the company public on the NASDAQ. He has raised $750 million in financing and business development deals, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. Trained in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard where he was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow, Alexis Borisy was honored as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review Innovator of the Year. He was also chosen as the New England Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences and was honored as a Presidential Scholar.Alexis Borisy’s Undergraduate Degree in Chemistry is from the University of Chicago, and he did his graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Schreiber at Harvard University. Alexis Borisy serves on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, is an Overseer at the Boston Museum of Science, is the Chairman of Forma Therapeutics, and serves on the board of Blueprint Medicines.
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About Blueprint Medicines, Blueprint Medicines, EQRx, Third Rock Ventures: Blueprint Medicines engages in the discovery and development of highly selective kinase inhibitors for genomically defined cancer subsets.
Nick Lydon
Scientific Founder of Blueprint Medicines
Nick Lydon, Ph.D., is a scientific founder of Blueprint Medicines. Before founding his current consulting company, Granite Biopharma, LLC, Dr. Lydon served as vice president, small molecule drug discovery at Amgen. Prior to joining Amgen, he founded and led Kinetix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of selective protein kinase inhibitors, a number of which are now advancing through clinical development. Kinetix was acquired by Amgen in 2000. Prior to Kinetix, Dr. Lydon worked at CIBA-GEIGY, in Basel, Switzerland, where he was responsible for the protein kinase inhibitor program. He and his team identified a number of protein kinase inhibitors. The most advanced drug from this program is Gleevec®, a selective Bcr-Abl inhibitor for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Dr. Lydon began his pharmaceutical career at Schering-Plough Corporation, where his research involved studies on recombinant alpha, beta and gamma interferons. In 2009, Dr. Lydon was awarded the Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Medical Research for his work on developing Gleevec®, converting a fatal cancer into a manageable chronic condition. Other awards include the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, the AACR-Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award, and the Charles F. Kettering Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for his contributions to the discovery and development of Gleevec®. Dr. Lydon earned a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Leeds, England, and received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Medical Sciences Institute, University of Dundee, Scotland. His thesis involved research work on adenylate cyclase and cAMP dependent protein kinase. Dr. Lydon served as an advisor and member of the board of directors of Ambit BioScience from 2004 to 2009 and assisted in the development of AC220, a FLT3 kinase inhibitor in Phase 2 clinical development in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
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About Blueprint Medicines: Blueprint Medicines engages in the discovery and development of highly selective kinase inhibitors for genomically defined cancer subsets.
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.
John Stuelpnagel
Co-Founder & Chairman of Fabric Genomics (formerly Omicia)
Dr. John Stuelpnagel currently serves as the Executive Chairman of Ariosa Diagnostic since 2009 and a board member at Sequenta, two leading genomic-based Diagnostic companies in the San Francisco bay area. Prior to this, John co-founded Illumina Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of life science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. John was involved in making Illumina one of the most successful life science companies, serving as its first President and Chief Executive Officer from 1998 to 1999, Vice President of Business Development from 1999 to 2002, Senior Vice President of Operations from 2002 to 2005 and Chief Operating Officer from January 2005 to April 2008. Prior, he was a venture capitalist at CW Group from 1997 to 1998 and with Catalyst Partners, a venture capital firm, from 1996 to 1997. While at CW Group, John uncovered what would become Illumina’s BeadArray technology at Tufts University and negotiated an exclusive license to that technology which led to the founding of Illumina Inc. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Illumina Inc. from April 1998 until April 2008. John received his B.S. in Biochemistry and his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of California, Davis and his M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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About Ariosa Diagnostics, Fabric Genomics (formerly Omicia): Global healthcare platform for genomics-driven precision medicine. Fabric’ proven AI algorithms power genomic insights.
Mirza Cifric
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Veritas Genetics
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About Veritas Genetics, YPO: Veritas Genetics is a provider of a genetic testing platform intended to empower people to live healthier and longer.
Jonathan Zhao
Founder & Managing Director, Asia of Veritas Genetics
Jonathan Y. Zhao, Ph.D. is Co-Founder of Veritas Genetics and serves as its Managing Director of Asia. Jonathan Zhao is responsible for Asia strategy and new products at Amgen and Pfizer. He holds MBA from MIT Sloan and Ph.D. in Chemistry.
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About Veritas Genetics: Veritas Genetics is a provider of a genetic testing platform intended to empower people to live healthier and longer.
Steve Gorlin
Founder of Hycor Biomedical LLC
In January 2014, Mr. Gorlin joined the Company as its Executive Chairman. Over the past 40 years, Mr. Gorlin has founded several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Hycor Biomedical, Inc. (acquired by Agilent), Theragenics Corporation (NYSE: TGX) , CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTR), Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation (sold to Valeant for approximately $2.6 billion), EntreMed, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENMD), MRI Interventions (MRIC) , DARA BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: DARA), MiMedx (NASDAQ: MDXG), and Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN). Mr. Gorlin has served on the Business Advisory Council to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and has previously served on The Johns Hopkins BioMedical Engineering Advisory Board. He also serves on the Board of the Andrews Institute. He founded a number of non-medical related companies, including Perma-Fix, Inc., Pretty Good Privacy, Inc. sold to Network Associates, Judicial Correction Services, Inc. sold to Correctional Healthcare, and NTC China. He started The Touch Foundation, a nonprofit organization for the blind and was a principal financial contributor to the founding of Camp Kudzu for diabetic children. He presently serves as the Executive Chairman of DemeRx, Inc., and serves on the Board of NTC China, Inc.
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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
Mark P. Clein
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Precision Medicine Group
Mark Clein is the Co-Founder and CEO of Precision Medicine Group. He has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Prior to Precision, Mr. Clein was Co-Founder, President and CFO of United BioSource Corporation (UBC), which became the leader in real-world research addressing safety, value, and comparative effectiveness for the life science industry. UBC was acquired by Medco Health Solutions in late 2010 and is now part of Express Scripts. Prior to UBC, Clein was Founder and CFO of U.S. Bioservices, a leading provider of distribution services for specialty pharmaceuticals and biologics. Clein also served as Chief Executive Officer of PMR Corporation, a leading provider of outpatient services for psychiatric and central nervous system disorders. In 2002, PMR merged with Psychiatric Solutions, Inc., which grew into the largest US provider of psychiatric inpatient services. Clein served on its board of directors until the company’s acquisition by Universal Health Systems in 2010. He received his Master of Business Administration degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Business and his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina. Clein also serves on the Arts and Sciences Foundation Board at the University of North Carolina.
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About Precision for Medicine, Precision Medicine Group: Precision Medicine Group accelerates values and improve outcomes for innovative pharmaceutical and life science companies.
Ethan D. Leder
Co-Founder, Partner & Executive Chairman of Precision Medicine Group
Ethan Leder is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Precision Medicine Group. Over the past 25 years, he has been an entrepreneur focused on building and managing innovative, market-leading companies that address critical gaps in the healthcare industry. Prior to Precision Medicine Group, Leder was the Founder and CEO of United BioSource Corporation (UBC), which became the leader in real-world research addressing safety, value, and comparative effectiveness for the life science industry. UBC was acquired by Medco Health Solutions in late 2010 and is now part of Express Scripts. Before UBC, Ethan was the Co-Founder and CEO of U.S. Bioservices, Inc., which addressed a growing need for personalized, direct-to-patient distribution of high-cost biotechnology for serious medical conditions. U.S. Bioservices was acquired by AmerisourceBergen in 2002. Prior to U.S. Bioservices, he was the Founder and President of HealthCare Financial Partners, the leading specialty lender to the healthcare industry. It was acquired by GE Capital in late 1999. Ethan received his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins University and is active in many charitable and community development projects in the Washington DC, metropolitan area.
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About Precision for Medicine, Precision Medicine Group: Precision Medicine Group accelerates values and improve outcomes for innovative pharmaceutical and life science companies.
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
Anna Villarreal
Founder & CEO of LifeStory Health Inc
Leading the first-ever discovery research into the clinical utility of menstrual blood, a recent Proof of Principle study resulted in findings of unique signatures specific to menstrual blood. On-going clinical studies aim to develop the diagnostic science further in order to support our preliminary pipeline. Anna’s resourceful leadership style and entrepreneurial experience has lead LifeStory Health, Inc. through remarkable discoveries and growth in a very short time when compared to most bioscience companies. She attributes this to her steadfast passion for and about Women’s Health. A strong advocate for women’s healthcare, Anna’s pioneering vision to map the menstrual blood proteome through a set of resolute, data-leading principles and an award winning scientific methodology has led to biomarker discovery based on precision medicine. Anna guest lectures for several graduate level programs at Northeastern University including data analytics, chemistry, regulatory affairs, and master’s in business administration. She teaches her own class in the Master’s of Biotechnology Program titled “Women’s Health: Driving Innovation and Cultural Change”. Her advocacy for women’s health continues on her podcast, “Setting the Pace”, in which she and her co-host highlight fellow female innovators.
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About CEOWORLD Magazine, LifeStory Health Inc, NEFC, The Doctor Weighs In: LifeStory Health is a biotech company committed to changing the women’s healthcare market through technology, innovation and vocalization.
Oguzhan Atay
Co-Founder of BillionToOne
Oguzhan is responsible for implementing BillionToOne’s vision and for all day-to-day management decisions. During his PhD at Stanford, he has combined machine learning and genetics to solve problems in cell biology. His PhD research has been featured as Cover Article in Cell Systems, and his work has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, including Cell and Journal of Cell Biology.
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About BillionToOne: BillionToOne is a precision diagnostics company that makes molecular diagnostics accurate, efficient, and accessible for all.
Aditya Rajagopal
Co-Founder & CTO of ChromaCode
Aditya Rajagopal is the Founder & CTO of ChromaCode, Inc, and a Visiting Associate in Electrical Engineering at Caltech. He completed his education at Caltech (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.) and has fifteen years of experience in medical engineering, microfluidics, nanotechnology and bioengineering. Aditya Rajagopal’s research has resulted in innovative technology developments and he has authored over 50 patents and publications. He is the recipient of numerous honors including the Caltech Grubstake Award in 2017 and the Caltech Innovation Initiative (CI2) in 2014 and 2015.
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About ChromaCode: ChromaCode is a molecular diagnostics company focusing on bioinformatics.
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.
Axel Scherer
Co-Founder of ChromaCode
Axel is a ChromaCode founder and the Bernard A. Neches Professor of Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Physics at Caltech. He joined the Electrical Engineering department at Caltech in 1993, after working in the Microstructures Research Group at Bellcore. Axel’s group works on micro- and nanofabrication of optical, magnetic and fluidic devices. He has co-authored over 300 publications and holds over 70 patents in the fields of optoelectronics, microfluidics, and new nanofabrication techniques. Axel has co-founded three high-technology companies and built a state of the art laboratory for advanced high-resolution lithography and pattern transfer at Caltech. He has pioneered microcavity lasers such as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, microdisk lasers and photonic crystal lasers in many materials systems. Presently, his group works on integration of microfluidic chips with electronic, photonic and magnetic sensors. His group has also developed silicon nanophotonics and surface plasmon enhanced light emitting diodes, and has perfected the fabrication and characterization of ultra-small structures by lithography and electron microscopy. He received hi PhD in 1985 from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
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About ChromaCode: ChromaCode is a molecular diagnostics company focusing on bioinformatics.
Kevin Kinsella
Managing Member, Founder of Avalon Ventures
Kevin Kinsella founded Avalon in 1983. He has specialized in the formation, financing and/or development of more than 60 early-stage companies, including: Athena Neurosciences (acquired by Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN)); Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONXX); Sequana Therapeutics (merged with Arris to form AXYS Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Celera Genomics (NYSE: CRA)); Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTX); Synaptics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNA); Vocera Communications; and Sytera Ophthalmics Inc. (acquired by Sirion Therapeutics). Mr. Kinsella was the founding chairman of Athena Neurosciences, Aurora Biosciences Corporation, Landmark Graphics, NeoRx, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Synaptics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, X-Ceptor and Sequana Therapeutics. Prior to founding Avalon, Mr. Kinsella worked for Solar Turbines International (Caterpillar Tractor) where he was in charge of all international joint ventures, barter and counter-trade. Previously, he was an advisor to the Peruvian government in National Nutrition Planning, ran a technology exchange program between the U.S. and Latin America based in Mexico City, and taught algebra at the American High School in Beirut, Lebanon. He was also a guest op-ed columnist for the Boston Herald American. Mr. Kinsella is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MITâ€) with a Bachelor of Science degree in management, with minors in electrical engineering and political science. He holds a Master of Arts degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (“SAISâ€) and conducted post-graduate work in political economy on a Rotary International Fellowship at the University of Stockholm, Sweden. He is a member of the Circumnavigators Club, an elite group of explorers who have gone around the world in a continuous trip using multiple modes of transport. Mr. Kinsella is a Life Sustaining Fellow at MIT and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at SAIS. He is the largest individual producer of the Tony Award-winning hit Broadway musical, [url=http://www.theatreticketscheap.com/jersey-boys/]Jersey Boys[/url], and the partner of Rhino Records (Time Warner) in producing the Grammy Award-winning Jersey Boys Original Cast Recording, which has gone Platinum (selling over 1 million copies). Mr. Kinsella is a member of the Boards of Directors of Amira, Anaptys, and InCode, all Avalon portfolio companies. Mr. Kinsella is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Broadway League (Tony voter). He and his wife, Tamara, own Kinsella Estates Winery (Healdsburg, California), whose first vintage of premium Dry Creek cabernet sauvignon will be released in 2011.
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About Avalon Ventures: Avalon Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund focused on information technology and life sciences.
Dennis Purcell
Founder & Senior Advisor of Aisling Capital
Dennis Purcell has served as the Senior Managing Partner of Fund I and Fund II since February 2000 and is responsible for the management of the Partnership. Prior to joining Fund I, Dennis Purcell served as Managing Director of the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Chase H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist, “H&Qâ€) for over five years, and served on the Executive Committee of Hambrecht & Quist. While at Hambrecht & Quist, he was directly involved with over two hundred completed transactions and supervised over $10 billion of financing and advisory assignments in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical products industries. During his tenure, BioWorld and other industry publications cited H&Q as the leading underwriter of life sciences securities. Dennis Purcell has also often been cited as one of the sector’s leaders. He was honored in the “Biotech Hall of Fame†by Genetic Engineering News and named to the Biotechnology All-Stars list by Forbes ASAP. Prior to joining H&Q, Dennis Purcell was a Managing Director in the Healthcare Group at PaineWebber, Inc. Dennis Purcell currently serves as a director of Dynova Laboratories, Inc. and Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Previously he served as a director of Aton Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cengent Therapeutics, Inc., and Valentis, Inc. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) – Emerging Companies Section. He has served as a member of the Advisory Council at Harvard Medical School.
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About Aisling Capital, bioWorld, Hambrecht & Quist, PaineWebber, Poliwogg Holdings: Aisling Capital believes the next decade will be marked by a revolution in healthcare driven by new therapeutics generated by
Michael M. Henson
Founder of Endologix
Michael Henson is a co-founder of Reverse Medical Corporation, was named “Corporate Director of the Year” among all Orange County executives in 2000. He founded the MedFocus Fund with the Japan Asia Investment Company, Ltd., one of the largest venture capital firms in Japan and a group of international limited investors from around the world. Mr. Henson has participated in the formation of more than seventeen medical technology and pharmaceutical firms. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of nine medical firms, and is Chairman of seven of the companies. Mr. Henson has founded or served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board for many successful emerging health care, medical device or biotechnology firms. Mr. Henson has successfully taken a number of companies public via the IPO process and negotiated the successful acquisition of several emerging companies to large multi-national healthcare firms.
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About Endologix, Interventional Spine, Reverse Medical: Endologix is a developer and manufacturer of minimally invasive treatments for aortic disorders.
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
Puran Singh
Co-Founder/Head of Engineering of Phil
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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.
David Adair
Founder & Chairman of Glenveigh Medical
C. David Adair, MD (Chairman and CSO) is a board certified maternal-fetal medicine specialist and president of Regional Obstetrical Consultants, an MFM practice with over 50 employees and offices in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dr Adair is Professor and also serves as Vice-Chairman, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He has more than 50 publications and more than 20 teaching/research awards, including 4 Best Research Awards for Clinical Obstetrics. Dr Adair received his undergraduate degree in biological sciences at Morehead State University, his medical degree from Marshall University, residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Florida Health Science Center, Jacksonville, and fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Wake Forest University. He received extern training at Henry Ford Hospital, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, and at the Renal Unit Mass General Hospital.
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About Glenveigh Medical, Solas BioVentures: Glenveigh Medical is a life science and medical technology company that focuses on advancing the practice of obstetrics.
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.
.. Reason
Co-Founder and CEO of Repair Biotechnologies
Reason is co-founder and CEO of Repair Biotechnologies. He is the founder and writer of Fight Aging!, a leading blog in the aging biotech community. Reason is also an active angel investor in the space. Previously, Reason was principal software engineer at technology startups. Reason has Masters degrees in Space Physics and Astrophysics.
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About Repair Biotechnologies: Repair Biotechnologies is a biotechnology company with the mission to develop and bring to the clinic therapies.
Bill Cherman
Co-Founder and Chairman of Repair Biotechnologies
Bill is co-founder and Chairman of Repair Biotechnologies. He is a Partner at Front Seat Capital, where he leads investments in biotech and blockchain. Previously, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Bill is a student of the Master of Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins University, and has a B.A. in Economics from PUC-Rio.
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About Repair Biotechnologies: Repair Biotechnologies is a biotechnology company with the mission to develop and bring to the clinic therapies.
Prashant Mali
Co-Founder of Shape Therapeutics
Prashant Mali is a co-Founder at Shape Therapeutics with Francois Vigneault and John Suliman. Prashant has been an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego since 2014. His research focuses in the fields of synthetic biology and regenerative medicine, with a long-term focus on developing tools for enabling gene and cell based human therapeutics.
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About Seven Therapeutics, Shape Therapeutics: A biotechnology company developing RNA technologies to shape the future of gene therapy
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.
Tarek Tabsh
Co-Founder of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies
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About Alta Flora, Arcview Group, New Amsterdam Naturals, Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, Province Brands of Canada: OCT is a biopharmaceutical company established to combine cannabinoid medicine with world class scientific research.
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.
Otello Stampacchia
Founder of Omega Funds
Otello Stampacchia is a partner at Omega Funds where he has had particular recent involvement in investments in Micromet, BioVex, Juno and Jounce Therapeutics. Previously, Otello was in charge of life sciences direct investments at AlpInvest Partners, one of the largest private equity asset managers worldwide. At AlpInvest, Otello was responsible for the direct life sciences investments, as well as assisting in due diligence for healthcare venture fund of funds investments. Before AlpInvest, Otello was the portfolio manager of the Lombard Odier Immunology Fund, a $3bn listed investment vehicle, investing in public and private healthcare companies worldwide. Previously, Otello was a member of the HealthCare corporate finance and M&A team at Goldman Sachs. Before joining Goldman, Otello helped co-found the healthcare investment activities at Index Securities (now Index Ventures). Otello has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and a PhD in Biotechnology.
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About Omega Funds: Omega Funds global life sciences-based investment firm specialized in direct secondary transactions.
Jenny Rooke
Founder & Managing Director of Genoa Ventures
Dr. Jenny Rooke has been deploying capital at the frontiers of life sciences innovation, with a penchant for technology-fueled solutions and category-defying opportunities. Jenny got her start in venture at Fidelity Biosciences, a Cambridge-based healthcare VC, during their Fund I formation. Jenny then brought her unique toolkit of genetics domain expertise, strategic business acumen, and venture investing to the Gates Foundation, where she deployed and managed over $250M in funding in genetic engineering, diagnostics, and synthetic biology. She also played a key role in establishing the foundation’s investing function. In 2014, Dr. Rooke began independently investing under the brand 5 Prime Ventures, financing her investments using what has become the largest life sciences syndicate on AngelList, and one of the highest-performing AngelList syndicates of any sector. Jenny founded Genoa Ventures in 2018, building on the 5 Prime Ventures track record, in order to scale a proven, differentiated investing strategy, to ensure continued access to the very best deals, and to maximize portfolio returns.
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About Genoa Ventures: Genoa Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage life sciences technology companies.
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.
Thomas Clozel
Co-Founder & CEO of Owkin
Thomas is a former assistant professor in clinical hematology/oncology from Hopital Mondor in Paris, with a special focus on lymphoma epigenetics and a former member of Ari Melnick’s lab in Weill Cornell, New York. He co-founded OWKIN in June 2016 with Gilles Wainrib, a former Assistant Professor in Artificial Intelligence at Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, and pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence. OWKIN uniquely integrates Systems Biology with Artificial Intelligence to make accurate medical predictions and compare populations. From molecule to market, OWKIN accelerates drug discovery and discover hidden patterns to help individual patients.
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About Owkin: Founded in 2016, Owkin uses artificial intelligence to find the right treatment for every patient.
Igor Khandros
Co-Founder of Berkeley Lights
Igor Y. Khandros Co-Founded Berkeley Lights, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Igor Khandros served as an Advisor of FormFactor Inc. Igor Khandros founded Formfactor Inc. and served as its Executive Chairman. Igor Khandros served as the Chief Executive Officer of Formfactor and also served as its President Igor Khandros served as the Vice President of Development of Tessera Technologies Inc., that he co-founded. he was employed at the Yorktown Research Center of IBM Corporation as a Member of the Technical Staff and a Manager. Igor Khandros was employed at ABEX Corporation as a Research Metallurgist and a Manager, and he served as an Engineer at the Institute of Casting Research in Kiev, Russia. Igor Khandros has been a Director of FormFactor Inc., Igor Khandros holds an M.S. equivalent degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Kiev Polytechnic Institute in Kiev, Russia, and a Ph.D. in Metallurgy from Stevens Institute of Technology.
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About Berkeley Lights, Nutcracker Therapeutics: Berkeley Lights is a provider of research and development services using micro-droplet technology that change the biological processes.
Michel Sadelain
Scientific Co-Founder of Juno Therapeutics
Dr. Michel Sadelain is Head of the Gene Transfer and Gene Expression Laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Dr. Sadelain’s research focuses on novel approaches to enhance T cell costimulation and function. His clinical program focuses on B cell malignancies as well as solid tumors. Dr. Sadelain is the incumbent of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair and the founding director of the Center for Cell Engineering at MSKCC. He previously served on the board of directors of the American Society of Gene Therapy (2004-2007) and continues to serve on the editorial boards of Molecular Therapy, Human Gene Therapy and Gene Therapy.
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About Juno Therapeutics: Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company, develops immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Isabelle Rivière
Scientific & Co-Founder of Juno Therapeutics
Isabelle Rivière received her Ph. D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Paris in 1993. She initiated her graduate studies in the Interferon Research Group at the Institut Curie, Paris and completed her thesis work in the laboratory of Richard Mulligan,Ph.D at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA. During this time, she developed the MFG/SFG-based gamma-retroviral vectors for in vivo long-term expression of transgenes in hematopoietic cells, which are currently used in multiple clinical trials for the treatment of hereditary blood disorders and cancer. She subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dan Littman, MD, Ph.D at New York University, New York, NY. Her studies focused on the regulation of cytokines produce by T helper lymphocytes in vivo, based on a mouse model she developed to track IL-4 secreting T cells using homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells. Dr. Rivière joined the faculty of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in 1999. She is currently the Director of the Cell Therapy and Cell Engineering Facility where she investigates novel strategies for cell therapies and immunotherapies to increase or retarget the immune response against tumors and treat hematological disorders. Her laboratory has developed multiple processes for clinical-grade gamma-retroviral and lentiviral vector production as well as hematopoietic and T cell manufacturing. Dr. Rivière serves on the editorial board of Molecular Therapy: Methods and Clinical Development and on multiple committees of the Association of Academic Biologics Manufacturers (AABM), the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT).
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About Juno Therapeutics: Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company, develops immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Stan Riddell
Scientific Co-Founder of Juno Therapeutics
Stan Riddell is a member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Professor of Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Riddell is a leader in developing therapies that harness the immune system to fight cancer and infectious diseases. His research led to patented technologies that rapidly expand the number of disease fighting T cells used in adoptive immunotherapy. He also isolated a rare subset of disease-fighting T cells that survive in patients for an extraordinary amount of time. In 2010, Dr. Riddell received the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer’s first Team Science Award for major contributions to research and the clinical translation of cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Riddell received his M.D. from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. He joined FHCRC Faculty in 1991 after training in medical oncology and immunology. Dr. Riddell was recently elected to the Association of American Physicians, an organization honoring those who have achieved excellence in biomedical science.
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About Juno Therapeutics, University of Washington: Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company, develops immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Nick Davis
Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Theonys
Nick Davis is the Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Theonys — a therapeutics company developing new small-molecule medicines to selectively stop the translation of disease-causing proteins in cancer, chronic inflammation and other serious human diseases.
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Theonys: Theonys is harnessing the power of tRNA to pioneer an entirely new class of genomic medicines.
Landy Toth
CEO, Founder & CTO of LifeLens Technology
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About Autonomix Medical, DavosPharma, LifeLens Technology: LifeLens Technology is a biotechnology company that leads in innovative next generation treatment devices for personal health monitoring.
