The MIT Startup Exchange Lightning Talks and Startup Exhibit listed below are part of the full agenda for 2024 MIT Health Science Technology Conference.
The 2024 MIT Health Science Technology Conference will highlight broad and transformative trends in biology and healthcare, including early-stage discovery, immune cell responses, diagnostics, clinical capabilities, process development, rapid and continuous manufacturing, robotics and automation, and sustainability, all enhanced by artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. Leading MIT researchers and MIT-connected startups will showcase these advances and discuss their implications for improving human health.
Program Manager, MIT Startup Exchange
Ariadna Rodenstein is a Program Manager at MIT Startup Exchange. She joined MIT Corporate Relations as an Events Leader in September 2019 and is responsible for designing and executing startup events, including content development, coaching and hosting, and logistics. Ms. Rodenstein works closely with the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) in promoting collaboration and partnerships between MIT-connected startups and industry, as well as with other areas around the MIT innovation ecosystem and beyond. Prior to working for MIT Corporate Relations, she worked for over a decade at Credit Suisse Group in New York and London, in a few different roles in event management and as Director of Client Strategy. Ms. Rodenstein has combined her experience in the private sector with work at non-profits as a Consultant and Development Director at New York Immigration Coalition, Immigrant Defense Project, and Americas Society/Council of the Americas. She also served as an Officer on the Board of Directors of the Riverside Clay Tennis Association in New York for several years. Additionally, she earned her B.A. in Political Science and Communications from New York University, with coursework at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico City, and her M.A. in Sociology from the City University of New York.
Director of Operations, Zeta Surgical
Hieu Le is the Director of Operations of Zeta Surgical, where he oversees regulatory, quality and supply chain operations. He is a graduate of the National University of Singapore, and previously held positions at GlaxoSmithKline and PASCALL Systems.
Founder and CEO, juli Health
Bettina Hein is a serial software entrepreneur who has built two $100M+ AI-driven technology companies and is now founder and CEO of juli, a chronic condition management platform. Bettina has received numerous awards such as the Massachusetts Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the L’Oréal Next Generation Award. She was also named a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum. Bettina is a well versed speaker and shares her experience and knowledge on entrepreneurship at various events.
Co-Founder & COO, General Prognostics
Sean (Shunsuke) Matsuoka has experience in marketing at Sony, management consulting at McKinsey & Company, and business development at M3 Inc. and caresyntax. Sean brings a wealth of experience in business development across diverse sectors, including notable companies like Mitsubishi Corporation (MC Healthcare), Takeda Pharmaceutical (Whiz Partners), and Fujifilm. His ability to foster collaborations, especially within pharmaceuticals and medical devices, is highlighted by his track record of managing deals with industry leaders. Holding degrees from Keio University and Harvard Business School, he is a versatile leader poised to drive impactful growth and innovation.
Co-Founder & CEO, Honeycomb Biotechnologies
Dr. James Flanigon is the co-founder and CEO of Honeycomb Biotechnologies, focused on moving the field of single cell genomics from research into clinical applications. Dr. Flanigon brings over 20 years of experience to the intersection of genomics, information technology, and business development across both academia and the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to Honeycomb, Jim was the CTO of Cancer Clinics of Excellence, an organization of over 200 oncologists focused on bringing cutting edge clinical trials, diagnostics, and information technologies to the edges of cancer treatment. He also led molecular diagnostics at Genzyme (now part of Sanofi), using genomic approaches to accelerate clinical diagnostics. Dr. Flanigon received his PhD in bioengineering and informatics from Boston University, as well as an MBA from MIT, and an Engineering degree from Stanford.
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Gensaic
Dr. Uyanga Tsedev is a biomaterials engineer with broad interest in protein assemblies and manipulation of genetically encoded materials. As co-founder and CSO of Gensaic, Dr. Tsedev drives the discovery of functional sequences and the AI-guided evolution of protein structures for therapeutics delivery. She received her PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT, building genetically modified phage-like particles for localized delivery of DNA and small molecules in cancer models at the Koch Institute. Her MS in Mechanical Engineering was also completed at MIT, researching biological scaffolds for nanoscale materials templating. Before coming to MIT, Dr. Tsedev obtained her BS at Harvard University, where she worked on bioresponsive drug delivery and tissue engineering technologies with groups at the Wyss Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Co-Founder & CEO, Externa Biosciences
Helena received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and completed her postdoctoral training in synthetic biology in the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (Harvard). She has experience in nanotechnology, synthetic biology, diagnostics, and high throughput antibody screening and development. Her work has resulted in 15 patents and 27 publications (2000+ citations).
Co-Founder & President, OneCyte Biotechnologies
Dr. Konstantinos Tsioris has spearheaded OneCyte Biotechnologies since its inception, serving as President and driving innovation in the biotech industry. At OneCyte, we're revolutionizing single-cell technology for live-cell discovery, enabling us to uncover ideal cells with unparalleled scale, resolution, and speed. Our mission is to empower biotechnology companies to create the next generation of medicines. By addressing the toughest challenges in cell line development, OneCyte delivers highest quality manufacturing cell lines in industry leading timelines. Join Dr. Tsioris as he shares insights into our groundbreaking work at OneCyte, to help drive the next generation of medicines forward.
Chief Revenue Officer, Epicore Biosystems
Jim Ryan is the Chief Revenue Officer of Epicore Biosystems. After graduating from Harvard University in 1993, he moved to Japan where he earned his Masters Degree at Osaka University, then joined Octel Communications, a Silicon Valley startup, to help rebuild their Tokyo office and Japan business. He successfully built their Japan revenue to nearly $50M, He is an experienced global commercialization leader who has built new markets, sales teams and revenue for seven growth-stage startups, leading to 5 acquisitions and 2 IPOs. In his 30-year career to date, Jim has done business in over 40 countries on all six continents, and has negotiated and signed hundreds of licensing, OEM, channel sales, distribution and framework agreements with companies around the world. He has been responsible for generating over $1B in revenues.In 2013, he co-founded and funded Medstro, a digital health startup. As Medstro's COO/CRO, he was responsible for bringing in business and delivering revenue, as well as managing the financial operations of the company. After Medstro launched in April 2014, he secured large contracts with Google, Philips Healthcare, Anthem, Boston Scientific, the NewEngland Journal of Medicine and the American Medical Association, which resulted in Medstro becoming cash-flow positive in only 14 months, and profitable in only the second year of operations. He grew Medstro's revenue at a CAGR of 267%, and successfully sold Medstro for 10x invested capital in 2018.Since then, Jim advised nearly a dozen academic startup teams on go-to-market and commercialization strategy, before joining Epicore as CRO in December 2023.
Co-Founder & CEO, Leuko Labs
Carlos Castro-Gonzalez is an engineer and entrepreneur driven by translational research in healthcare. Carlos received an MSc in Electrical Engineering from KTH (Stockholm, Sweden) and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from UPM (Madrid, Spain). After his PhD, Carlos was selected for the prestigious M+Vision fellowship at MIT, where he led international, multi-disciplinary projects to translate medical imaging technologies into clinically applicable products at the crossroads of engineering, business and medicine. His work includes award-winning AI algorithms to diagnose cardiac CT images and an ultrasound product for early diagnosis of infant meningitis. Recently, he co-founded and is the CEO of Leuko, an MIT spinoff focused on commercializing PointCheck™ the first medical device to noninvasively monitor white blood cells with the goal to improve cancer chemotherapy outcomes. Carlos was named Innovator Under 35 by MIT Technology Review and has won multiple awards including the Rice Business Plan Competition, MassChallenge HealthTech, Startup World Cup and a prestigious SBIR award by the National Institutes of Health.
Co-Founder & CEO, Pyte
Dr. Sadegh Riazi is a technology enthusiast, co-founder and CEO of Pyte. He received his PhD in secure computation from UC San Diego where he was awarded the best PhD thesis award. Sadegh founded Project HEAX at Microsoft Research (a new computing platformfor Homomorphic Encryption). Prior to that, he studied Electrical Engineering and designed a new system for Brain-Computer Interfaces. Sadegh is a fellow of the Institute for Global Entrepreneur and has received multiple prestigious awards including Richard Newton Young Fellow Award, Jacobs Graduate Student Award, and Silver Medal in International Student Olympiad.
Disclaimer: MIT Startup Exchange can make introductions that ideally provide open ended discussions in order to share mutual interests and potentially create common ground that incite the parties to collaborate. MIT Startup Exchange introductions may eventually lead to mutual partnerships, but that is not in any way guaranteed by MIT, MIT Corporate Relations, MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) or MIT Startup Exchange, which takes no responsibility for these outcomes and no formal part in such discussions following our introduction. MIT Startup Exchange and its activities and events are not for purposes of soliciting investment or offering securities.