Biodefense Commercialization Fund
Mentor Bios
Who We Are
Adam Shoen, JD
Round I
Adam Schoen is a partner and co-practice group leader of the Brown Rudnick Firm's Global Life Sciences Group with an emphasis on intellectual property. Adam has been in the life sciences industry for over twenty years and has fifteen years of experience advising life sciences and medical device funds, companies, and academic institutions. Adam helps his clients build, grow, invest in, buy, and sell companies of all sizes all over the world. Adam’s practice is multidisciplinary, encompassing all aspects of patent preparation and prosecution, portfolio development, product clearance, freedom to operate analysis, intellectual property due diligence, licensing, and other agreement work. Adam has experience developing and implementing worldwide patent strategies across the life sciences industry.
Akhila Kosaraju, MD
Round I & III
Dr. Akhila Kosaraju is the CEO and President of Phare Bio. Dr. Kosaraju has spent her career building companies and driving innovation in infectious disease and computational biology. She was most recently Co-Founder & CEO of Variant Bio, a venture-backed company specializing in genomics for therapeutic development, and an executive with SIGA Technologies, an antiviral drug developer that successfully advanced antiviral drug candidates to market. During her tenure, SIGA achieved FDA approval for a novel smallpox antiviral and worked in partnership with the CDC, BARDA and DoD to deliver 2 million courses to the US Strategic National Stockpile. Dr. Kosaraju was a White House appointee in the Pentagon, serving as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. In this capacity, she provided executive leadership in the management of a $50 billion Military Health System that included healthcare for military service members, biodefense, and international humanitarian assistance. She received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service, the highest non-career civilian honor given within the Department of Defense. She has been a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Materials Technical Advisory Committee for the Department of Commerce, co-founded the Alliance to End Biological Threats, and is a Lecturer at Stanford's Center for Biosecurity and Pandemic Resilience. She received her M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and her B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.
Alexander Kagen, MD
Round I
Dr. Alexander Kagen is the Site Chair of Radiology at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, a position he has held since 2015. Dr. Kagen is a recognized authority in the field of Body MRI and has been named annually as one of New York's Top Doctors since 2019 by New York Magazine. He has served on many committees and has lectured on imaging of the abdomen, pelvis, and lymphatic system. He has multiple peer-reviewed publications and research interests in MRI and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, Dr. Kagen is a co-founder and former Chief Medical Officer of Nines, an AI-powered startup, recently acquired by Sirona Medical. Dr. Kagen received his medical degree from the College of Medicine at SUNY Downstate where he also completed his residency, after a medicine internship at Lenox Hill Hospital. He completed a clinical fellowship in Body MRI at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Antonio Alvarez-Pinto, MA
Round I
Antonio Alvarez-Pinto is a Pharmaceutical Regulator with a track record meeting aggressive deadlines. Specialties: US and EU regulations (INDs, CTAs, BLAs, NDAs), biologicals, orphan drug designation (ODD/OMP), clinical development, project management and planning.
Sally Bowden, MBA
Round II
Sally founded New Precedents, and previously, The Bowden Consulting Group, to provide consulting for companies interested in developing quality, regulatory and operational systems that meet FDA and global regulatory requirements and re-engineer them for efficient, effective compliance in the medical device field. Leadership in operations, partner connections, and swift execution results in high value creation for clients. In addition, Sally has helped to pioneer the Companion Diagnostic process in collaboration with pharmaceutical and diagnostic firms while building strong relationships with the applicable regulatory agencies. Sally champions unique approaches to improving the regulatory process with FDA. She has been involved in a pilot program between FDA and New York State for 3rd party review of IVD submission to enable more efficient review times. Additionally, she is helping to define the single site IVD submission process which voluntarily submits Laboratory developed tests to FDA for clearance or approval, facilitating reimbursement and commercialization opportunities. She is also a leader in breakthrough device designation.
Ariella Trotsenko, BS
Round I & II
Ariella Trotsenko is the Executive Manager for the NYC Regional Innovation Network (NYCRIN) where she creates and executes new entrepreneurship programs. In her day-job, she is the Lead Instructor for the Gotham Innovation Gambit Regional I-Corps course series where she guides high tech researchers, and soon-to-be startup companies, through the Lean LaunchPad Methodology and customer discovery journey. She is frequently called upon to Adjunct in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Teaching Team. Ariella has also been an Industry Mentor (IM) on two NSF I-Corps Teams exploring the commercial potential of a non-invasive continuous pulmonary function monitor from University of Rochester and of a virtual reality educational platform from CUNY Medgar Evers. In addition to teaching and mentoring, Ariella is always looking to provide innovators with structured opportunities for accessing the NYC region’s unique combination of world-class universities, high-technology business incubators, and venture capital investment resources in the nation’s fastest growing technology startup cultures.
Avi Rosenbaum, PhD
Round I & II
Avi Rosenbaum is a biotech operator, consultant, scientist, and investor. He advises companies and investment firms on business and technical strategy in the biotech, pharma, medical and food-tech industries. Additionally, he serves as COO of a synthetic biology company, startup mentor at both Endless Frontier Labs and Silicon Catalyst, and advises startups incubating at numerous academic institutions. Previously, Avi led an R&D team and launched more than ten commercial products for the Ion Torrent Systems platform. This company democratized DNA sequencing through low-cost instrumentation, was acquired by Life Technologies for $725M, and is now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Avi has a Ph.D. from Harvard University where he developed technologies for sequencing and interpreting human genomes. This research was published in Science, The Lancet, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and helped develop the field of Next Generation DNA Sequencing.
Bethany Hills, MPH, JD
Round II
As Vice Chair of the firm’s FDA practice, Bethany Hills advises life sciences and health tech industry clients on complex pre- and post-market product and distribution issues. Her clients span the full range of FDA regulated companies, including medical device and digital health, drug, combination product, diagnostic and biologic, as well as regenerative medicine, cosmetic, dietary supplement and food industry businesses. She also represents investor groups that focus on innovation in these industries.
​
Bethany helps companies manage strategic and critical FDA regulation issues including product development and classification, governmental inspections and investigations, and complex regulatory challenges such as product approvals and labeling and collaborative research, supply and distribution agreements.
​
In addition, Bethany has deep expertise in healthcare delivery systems, referral relationships, clinical trial compliance, licensure and security and privacy issues, as well as the intricacies of government and third-party reimbursement. Bethany’s practical guidance helps clients invest and collaborate strategically by identifying technologies that are likely to thrive within the healthcare delivery system, clear FDA regulatory hurdles and realize long term commercial success.
Cira Cardaci, MS
Round I & II
Cira Cardaci is an entrepreneur, passionate about building thoughtful health-tech startups. Previously, she co-founded a women’s digital health company MenoPal, Inc. after co-creating a patented technology in graduate school. She is currently an assistant manager at NYC Regional Innovation Network where she teaches and mentors university scientists interested in commercializing their technologies. She recently completed a fellowship in the Master’s of Translational Medicine Program at CCNY. In this role, she mentored graduate students on their biodesign technologies and startup-style presentations. She also co-taught a course in the program on Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Business Leadership. Cira has taught the Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship methodology on several NYCRIN Innovation Corps courses and recently served as an adjunct for the NSF National I-Corps Program. Cira has a B.S. in biopsychology from Wagner College and an M.S. in Translational Medicine from the City College of New York.
Danielle Lewensohn, MSc, PhD
Round I
Danielle has international work experience in the life sciences, medtech, software and legal services. In her current role as Director of IPR Management at RaySearch Laboratories, she is responsible for developing and executing the IPR strategy. Specifically, she supports all R&D teams in their ideation and patenting processes. In 2009, she started her own firm DALEA, where she consulted SMEs, universities and other organizations on how to build and manage their R&D project and patent portfolios. In addition to her industry experience, she has worked in technology transfer at the University of Chicago and completed doctoral studies in innovation and entrepreneurship at Karolinska Institute. Her thesis is entitled Beyond Bean Counting: Beyond Bean Counting – using patent information to investigate inventive productivity in academia (2017).
David Bieber, BS, BA
Round I
David Bieber is an entrepreneur, advisor and investor. David is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rehabilitation Health, a health experts fund and network. David received a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Duke University and has served as a Duke University Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee Interviewer since graduation.
Dennis Purcell, MBA
Round I
Mr. Purcell is the original Founder of Aisling Capital LLC. Previously, he served as the Senior Managing Partner. Prior to Aisling Capital, Mr. Purcell served as Managing Director of the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Chase H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist, “H&Q”) for over five years. While at H&Q, 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. Prior to joining H&Q, Mr. Purcell was a Managing Director in the Healthcare Group at PaineWebber, Inc.
Mr. Purcell is a frequent commentator on the industry and has been honored in the “Biotech Hall of Fame” by Genetic Engineering News, named to the Biotechnology All-Stars list by Forbes ASAP, honored as one of the top 50 Irish-American businessmen and cited as one of the top 100 contributors to the biotechnology industry.
Derek Brand, MBA
Round I
Derek is an entrepreneur, executive, and network builder with nearly 20 years of experience at the intersection of groundbreaking science and commercial development; he is the Chief Operating Officer of NewYorkBIO, which represents nearly 200 members and includes the state’s leading bioscience companies, universities, research institutions and others dedicated to advancing life science research and commercialization. He is also the founder and leader behind ECHO NYC, an organization fostering connectivity between key stakeholders in the NYC biomedical ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, capital providers, clinicians, and healthcare operators. ECHO NYC has run monthly “Bio-entrepreneurship in NYC” events since 2009. Derek has a deep background in startup biomedical companies and has been a founder, executive, and board member across multiple ventures. His previous experience also includes a commercial role at GE, and business development at the NY Academy of Sciences. Derek lives in Manhattan with his wife and two sons, and it serves as the HQ and home base for their adventures.
Gunter Wessels, MBA, PhD
Round I & II
Dr. Wessels is a persuasion expert and a leader in healthcare innovation commercialization. He helps large companies and startups as a consultant, adviser, investor, and service provider. He has trained over 10,000 people directly, and his frameworks and solutions have been implemented around the globe. His 30 years of experience in industry provides a strong background for problem solving, strategic analysis, and solution-making. He has a Ph.D. in Management, Marketing and Psychology from the University of Arizona, a M.B.A. in Marketing, and a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of California.
Hanah Tran, MS
Round I, II & III
As a strategic thought-leader, founder and venture builder, with a solid background in Finance & Investment Bank, Hanah is an expert in Value Creation and Risk Minimization, specialized in Lab-to-Market Commercialization in venture building business. Her verticals are Consumer Fintech and Consumer Health, with the deep dive into the Total Beauty concept “Health is the new Beauty”. She is currently managing FHH Ventures, a venture studio, based in Tokyo, Japan with footprints in USA and Vietnam. Before that, she worked for almost 13 years in finance sector, including Goldman Sachs and others.
Harrison Seidner, PhD
Round I & II
Dr. Harrison Seidner is a Biomedical Engineer from New York and is currently Director of Business Development at Fortress Biotech. He worked in Tech Transfer at Stony Brook University after his Post-Doctoral Fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). Prior to CSHL he was a visiting postdoc at the Cyprus University of Technology in Limassol, Cyprus in the lab of Dr. Efstathios Kaliviotis. He earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University in the laboratory of Dr. Mary D. Frame (his PhD advisor). At Stony Brook University he also earned his Bachelors of Engineering and Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering while performing microfluidic research (see “Research” page). In addition to his academic research contributions, he has maintained a presence in several industries. Through collaborations with companies in the medical and environmental fields, Dr. Seidner participated in several projects that successfully led to the development of commercial interventional and diagnostic medical devices. Dr. Seidner’s expertise in Medical Physics, Medical Imaging, Biotechnology, Physiology, and interest in Lab-On-A-Chip technology fuels his research that is mostly related to physical factors that affect blood flow in the body, and in microchannels.
Jason Dictenberg, MBA, PhD
Round I & III
As a strategic thought-leader, founder and venture builder, with a solid background in Finance & Investment Bank, Hanah is an expert in Value Creation and Risk Minimization, specialized in Lab-to-Market Commercialization in venture building business. Her verticals are Consumer Fintech and Consumer Health, with the deep dive into the Total Beauty concept “Health is the new Beauty”. She is currently managing FHH Ventures, a venture studio, based in Tokyo, Japan with footprints in USA and Vietnam. Before that, she worked for almost 13 years in finance sector, including Goldman Sachs and others.
Jason Novak, JD
Round I & II
Jason runs an IP and data rights practice, specifically created to focus on advising entities, both large and small, on the various legal issues that can arise with emerging technologies in the healthcare, food and life sciences industries, with a particular and targeted focus on "convergence" technologies (e.g., digital health, personalized/precision medicine, alternative protein) that operate at the intersection of multiple industries.
​Jeff Southerton, MBA, PhD
Round I & II
Jeff Southerton is a dedicated Business Development Consultant with extensive business development experience, scientific knowledge and understanding of the biopharmaceutical industry. He is adept at creating and managing collaborations and of both in-licensing and out-licensing of assets at all stages of development. His key areas of expertise include: Negotiation, Relationship Management, Collaborative Research, Strategic Planning, Portfolio Management, Search & Evaluation, Financial Analysis & IP Licensing. He is currently the founder and owner of Azenova (www.azenova.com), a life sciences and biopharmaceutical consulting company.
John Blaho, PhD
Round I & II
John A. Blaho, Ph.D. has over 25 years experience as a successful and well-funded professor at the University of Chicago and in the Department of Microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is recognized internationally for his research on human viruses and was appointed to the Doctoral Faculty of the City University of New York in 1995. Dr. Blaho was trained as a Chemical Engineer and performed NSF-supported research on biomass conversion. His graduate research on nucleic acid biochemistry utilized large scale (500 liter) microbial fermentation of recombinant organisms, a process which served as the nadir of the blossoming biotechnology industry. Prior to joining CUNY, Dr. Blaho served a full time CSO function at a Biotech company in Princeton, NJ. In this Executive Industrial position, he was also responsible for expanding the business through development of key partnerships and creating new investment opportunities. During his tenure in the Biotech sector, Dr. Blaho held a Full Member (Professor) position at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, was a Visiting Scholar in Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and he remains an Adjunct Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Jonathan Weiss, MBA, PhD
Round I
Jonathan completed his PhD in Immunology & Oncology. As a scientist at Kadmon he developed the drug Rezurock (belumosudil) for cGVHD, received breakthrough therapy designation and FDA allowed drug to bypass a Phase III clinical trial. Rezurock was approved by the FDA in July and the company was purchased by Sanofi in September for $2B. Received MBA from NYU Stern Stern and consulted for Pfizer. Jon joined Stellate, a gut-brain-axis company, to run all external facing operations.
Matthew Weinberg, MBA
Round I
Matthew (Matt) Weinberg is a Principal at Max Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in New York City that primarily invests in digital commerce and digital healthcare startups across the United States and Scandinavia. Prior to joining Max Ventures, Matt was a White House appointee in the U.S. Small Business Administration and served as Senior Advisor in the Office of Investment and Innovation. He helped drive federal programs that directed over $6 billion in capital to investment funds, early-stage technology companies, and accelerators and incubators across the country. Before joining the Obama Administration, Matt worked for the New York City Economic Development Corporation and managed city-wide programs aimed at developing and supporting the City’s technology and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Matt is an op-ed contributor for Forbes, TechCrunch, Huffington Post, and several other publications. He holds a B.A. in History and Political Science from the University of Washington and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Melissa Kim, PhD
Round I
Melissa has a passion for emerging technology in healthcare. She has 20 years in healthcare strategy & operations across drugs, devices, and digital health. In Silicon Valley where she resides, she led marketing & market development at two digital health startups that had successful exits (Propeller Health acquired by ResMed, and Physera acquired by Omada Health). Prior to this at global BioPharma (Roche/Genentech & Gilead Sciences), Melissa led commercial planning and advised R&D & BD teams across disease areas. Early in her career, she was a sell side equity research analyst at UBS & JP Morgan covering small & mid cap healthcare technology, and today she maintains a part-time position at Turret Capital, a healthcare-focused venture studio. Melissa has a PhD in Biology from Columbia University, a BA Biology & double major in International Studies from Washington University in St Louis. She spent 2021 encouraging female entrepreneurs in Femtech through an advisory platform she founded called Piggyback Health & is now focused on launching her biotech startup called Lavaage.
Michael Mentesana, MA
Round II
Michael is a dynamic executive, innovator, and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the Biopharmaceutical industry. He has worked with startup biotechnology companies, 18 out of the top 25 pharmaceutical organizations, the top five contract research organizations (CROs), many global public health organizations, leading provider networks, and FDA. He is an innovative thinker and serves as a catalyst to organizations seeking to transform, grow and improve business performance from incubation through maturity. As a co-founder and the CEO of NexTec Neuroscience, Michael is focused on driving innovation in the pharmaceutical industry by pioneering the next evolution in neuroscience by advancing Neuro-degenerative and Neuro-oncology therapeutics utilizing LoFUS to safely traverse the Blood-Brain-Barrier (BBB).
Roman Tsibulevskiy, JD
Round II & III
Roman Tsibulevskiy is a patent strategist and registered patent attorney focusing on utility and design patent matters that involve software/electronics, medical devices and industrial technologies. His patent practice includes patent analysis, domestic and international patent portfolio development, patent monetization (both sides), corporate transactions involving patents (both sides) and patent disputes (both sides). Roman has extensive experience in innovation harvesting, patent drafting/prosecution/portfolio management and strategy, patent clearance/landscape studies, patent opinions, patent due diligence in corporate transactions, patent monetization value/risk counseling, patent licensing, patent assertion activity, patent design-arounds and supporting patent litigation and adversarial patent office proceedings.
Rory Curtis, PhD
Round I & II
Rory Curtis earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and B.Sc. in Zoology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (University of London, UK). Rory has 25 years’ experience in drug discovery in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies (working at Regeneron, Millennium, Elixir and Cubist Pharmaceuticals) and another 6 years at contract research organizations (AMRI/Curia Global, Hauptman-Woodward Institute and Metrion Biosciences). He is also currently an EIR in the University at Buffalo's Business and Entrepreneurship Partnership since 2020. Dr. Curtis has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers and is the holder of 27 issued US Patents. Dr. Curtis serves on the External Advisory Board of D’Youville College School of Pharmacy.
Sumit Chanda, PhD
Round I
Dr. Chanda is a Professor at the Scripps Research, where he runs a lab focused on elucidating host-pathogen interactions using a series of systems-level approaches. With demonstrated history of working in research and drug development within industry, his research is poised to bridge the gap between fundamental discovery-based science and therapeutic development. He has expertise in high-throughput assay development, host-pathogen interactions, and innate immunity to the development of ‘next generation’ antivirals.
Thanos Papaioannou, PhD
Round I, II & III
Thanos is a Principal at Roivant Sciences, where he leads investment in and incubation of technology companies that sit at the intersection of computational methods, drug discovery, and clinical development. Before joining Roivant, Thanos worked in quantitative strategy portfolio management at Ellington Management Group, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund. He holds a PhD in Algebraic Geometry from U. Chicago and a BA in Mathematics from Harvard University. Founded in 2014, Roivant Sciences is a biopharma and technology company that has raised over $5 billion in aggregate capital from investors including Viking Global Investors and SoftBank Vision Fund to support a pipeline of 45+ investigational drugs across 14 therapeutic areas.
Tom Brennan, MS, MS, MBA
Round II
Extensive expertise and experience in technology, entrepreneurship, startups, investment, venture capital, corporate interactions and alliances, and government policy. Self-motivated, action oriented, team builder, leader. Overall goal and objective is to make efficient use of this expertise to own and significantly impact early-stage advanced technology and life science commercialization.
Published more than 120 articles and holds twelve patents issued and pending
Recipient of two R&D 100 Awards
120+ technical publications and 80+ technical presentations
Cat Donaldson, MBA, PhD
Round II
Cat is Executive Director of Alexandria Real Estate’s flagship LaunchLabs incubator at the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences in NYC. In this role, Cat is focused on running NYC’s premier life sciences incubator, shepherding and supporting new company creation and growth. Previously, Cat was Chief Development Officer at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, developing scientific programs and leading resourcing strategy for the world-renowned life sciences research institute on Long Island, NY. Cat received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in the UK, and has an MBA in Healthcare Management from Stony Brook University. She is co-author on several peer-reviewed publications and patents.
Alisa Dong, PhD
Round II
Alisa Dong is currently part of the Roivant family of companies working in commercial strategy. There, she enables both early and late-stage pipeline programs to plan for successful launches. Prior to this, she led corporate strategy, business development, and program management for Roivant's cell and gene therapy subsidiary. Alisa previously has been a management consultant at L.E.K., where she focused on strategy and partnering engagements. She holds a PhD in Cell and Gene Therapy and Hematology, with work at Weill Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Gautham Pasupuleti, JD
Round II & III
Gautham Pasupuleti is the CEO & Managing Director, Chairman of Biodesign Innovation Labs. Biodesign Innovation Labs is a medical device and healthcare company based in Bangalore supported by the BIRAC - Department of Biotechnology - Government of India, ITBT Dept - Government of Karnataka, Qualcomm India, CAMTech Global Health - Mass General Hospital and Nidhi Prayas, IKP, IIT Bombay and CCAMP. Gautham leads a team of Engineers, Researchers, Doctors, Designers, Domain experts and public health professionals as part of development of innovative and affordable intensive care/critical care medical devices that save lives for patients with respiratory illnesses. He was instrumental in successfully translating their company's research and development of intensive care and respiratory care medical device innovations into successful commercialization.
Previously, he was a researcher at MIT Media Lab Initiatives in developing Ophthalmology devices in collaboration with LVPEI Eye hospital and publishing their work in AI based technologies for eye care and early cancer detection.During this period of time, he also founded a startup called CornealX, an AI based eye care startup which is now part of Biodesign Innovation Labs for developing AI based tech for healthcare applications. He also worked with Corporate companies and startups in SaaS based technologies at Chennai and Bangalore as a Product Manager. He studied Instrumentation and Control Engineering at Anna University in Chennai. He has been awarded by Forbes India "Ultimate Pioneers of Change" in 2020 for his role in Innovation, leadership and impact in healthcare.
Jack Smilovitz, BS
Round II & III
Jack is an entrepreneur with 39 years experience in healthcare operations, establishing global strategic partnerships, as well as business and management consulting. Jack advises companies globally on improving ongoing business strategies, processes, marketing, & M&A activities.
Andrew Kabatchnick, CPA
Round II & III
Andrew is a CPA that specializes in small businesses and individuals with all of their compliance and planning needs. He is also an expert in estate planning needs including income protection, retirement planning, and group benefits for your business.
Dennis Klinman, MD, PhD
Round II
Dennis is an MD/PhD with subspecialty training in Rheumatology. He spent the first half of his career as Section Chief at the Center for Biologics of the FDA where he supervised a research lab while conducting medical and scientific reviews of INDs and BLAs. Dennis finished his academic career as a Section Chief at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. His research expertise involves the development of novel vaccines and vaccine adjuvants for the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer. Dennis also has considerable expertise involving TLR agonists.
Phuong Nguyen, PhD
Round II
Phuong currently serves as technology commercialization fellow at Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University leading the program of BARDA DRIVe Accelerator in NY. In this role, Phuong sources, evaluates, advises and consults a portfolio of early-stage companies (from ideation to series A) and translational biotech development projects. Phuong consults companies in a wide range of advanced development and commercialization activities, including competitive intelligence, market landscaping, product development prioritization, pitching to investors, government grant priorities.
Richard Giersch, BS
Round II
Richard has over 20 years entrepreneurial experience in life science and high technology businesses. Richard develops innovative non-dilutive funding strategies with over $45M in international, federal, state, and foundation grant awards and $85M in tax incentive packages and loan guarantees. His background includes cradle to grave grants development; technology development; licensing, and intellectual property management in cell biology, regenerative medicine, renewable energy, and pharmaceuticals.
Richard has Director level experience with venture capital firms helping evaluate, value and launch new products and businesses as well as set up grant writing programs and intellectual property management for portfolio companies. He has worked in various leadership capacities across the US and is now helping build the start-up life science ecosystem in Washington state.
Billie Jo (BJ) Kerns, BS
Round II
Proven marketing, sales, and operations executive leader in the life science and molecular diagnostic industries with a strong technical foundation the areas of qPCR and NGS. Extensive experience in assessing and developing business plans and growth strategies that include business analysis, industry thesis, competitive landscape, product/pricing models, and financial modeling. Assisted in private & public capital fund raises and provided leadership to execute deliverables to achieve a successful IPO filing and 50-70% YoY revenue growth performance for the first three years of post-IPO.
Experienced with US and international regulatory submissions, inspections, and product life-cycle management and support. Developed highly successful global marketing programs and advertising campaigns to maximize the penetration and profitability for a HER-2/neu antibody companion diagnostics product launch which achieved $10M in annual revenue after 2 years.
Mariana Berenstein, MBA, PhD
Round II
Biochemist, PhD and MBA with more than 25 years experience in innovation at public and private institutions, including technology transfer, startups, accelerators, incubators and venture funds. Founded Berenstein Consulting in 2022, focused in technology transfer and deep tech business creation with clients from Latam and US. Was CEO of Knowhub Chile, a government´s funded company focused in globally commercializing technologies from Chilean Universities. Occupied C-level management positions at other leader innovation institutions in Argentina establishing the first private technology transfer company and first Biotech incubator. Proven experience working with investment funds, investment banking companies and venture builders in US, UK, Brazil and Argentina. Founded Poblar, Argentina´s Genomic & Data Biobank for Precision Medicine, in 2014 and managed a Stem Cell consortia in 2010. Academic director and professor of programs in Biotechnology, business and innovation.
Harold Kleanthous, PhD
Round II
Dr. Kleanthous has 30 years industry experience in the research & development of recombinant live attenuated and subunit-based vaccines against viral and bacterial pathogens. He is currently EVP Vaccines R&D strategy & External Innovation for SK Bioscience. Previously he held a position in Discovery & Translational Sciences at the Bill & Melinda GATES Foundation.
Prior to joining the Foundation he was the North American Head of Discovery Research at Sanofi Pasteur with responsibility for evaluating and developing novel viral vaccine platforms and delivering novel targets to the Development pipeline. Previously, Dr. Kleanthous was Vice President of Research at Acambis Inc. (formerly OraVax) with responsibility for developing a new exploratory portfolio.
Joe Turner, MS
Round II & III
Joe Turner is the CFO and CBO at Karma Biotechnologies, an in vivo immune engineering company developing tolerogenic vaccines. At Karma, Joe presides over all business, commercial and financial functions. Joe also holds two deep-tech Venture Partner roles. At Hemisphere Ventures Joe provides execution expertise across the firm’s investments, particularly in biotech, AI and space-tech.
Second, at SOSV/IndieBio, Joe provides multi-stage mentoring to companies prior to, during and beyond the accelerator program. Joe was previously a Managing Director in Blackstone/PJT's New York Special Situations Group, focused on biopharma, following several years at HSBC, Citi and Blackstone in London.
Fernando Gómez-Baquero, PhD
Round III
Fernando holds a PhD in Nanoscale Engineering with 20 years of experience having built +10 companies in the spaces of nanomaterials, semiconductors, medical devices, energy storage, and AI tools.
​
As the Director of Runway and Spinouts at Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, Fernando leads a unique program that transforms recent PhDs in digital technology fields into entrepreneurs. In this role, he manages a portfolio of 104 companies.
Bisrat Woldenmichael, PhD
Round III
Bisrat is a healthcare strategy leader with expertise in market development, marketing, and sales strategies for implantable medical devices as well as pharmaceuticals. Prior experiences include management consulting at McKinsey & Co., and postdoctoral research in Neuroscience and epigenetics at Mount Sinai Medical School.
Bisrat holds a Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and is a global citizen with substantial work and life experiences in 3 continents and 4 countries.
Adam LaPrad, PhD
Round III
Adam LaPrad is an innovative MedTech and health-tech leader with 12+ years in R&D and leadership roles at healthcare startups and corporations including Boston Scientific and BTG plc. He has led strategy and execution in company formation, fundraising, product development, clinical trials, FDA clearances, and commercialization.
With his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, he is a top-down analytical problem solver with a strong technical skillset across engineering and healthcare. He thrives in cross-functional, fast-paced, and complex business environments.
Alexander Schubert, PhD
Round III
Alex received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge for his work on alternative causes of Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Before starting SciFounders, Alex was a research scientist in the Research & Early Development group at Genentech focusing on protein degradation for therapeutic applications.
Roy Katzenelson, MBA
Round III
Roy is a Principal at Lool, Israel's leading seed fund. In his role, Roy is in charge of sourcing and executing investments and supporting portfolio companies. Before lool Roy worked at aMoon, Israel's leading healthcare-focused fund managing over $1.2bn investing in early and late-stage startups in IL and Boston.
Roy has deep experience in Healthcare investments as well as practical healthcare experience, coming from a field medic background and leading field volunteering medical missions in Ethiopia
Joseph Borrello, PhD
Round III
Joe is an Instructor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai and Head of Engineering for Mount Sinai BioDesign, a medical device incubator and prototyping center housed within the Mount Sinai Health System. Previously, Joe has worked at 3D Systems on technical development in the consumer marketing department and as a liaison with engineering project management teams, in addition to an earlier stint at experiential marketing firm Affinitive.
He has also been involved in several startup ventures in the hardware and biotech spaces. Several years ago, Joe took Proto-Sauce, through NYCEDC’s Futureworks Incubator, intending to develop new materials for resin-based 3D printing. More recently, he served as the founding CTO of Biosapien, using advanced manufacturing to create new devices for the treatment of cancer.
Nicole McKnight, PhD
Round III
Nicole McKnight PhD is President and COO of Anergent Pharmaceuticals, a drug delivery platform for fast, effective uptake of urgently needed medicines. Dr. McKnight was CEO of Stellate Therapeutics, developing microbiome-derived treatments for neurodegeneration.
Nicole was the founding Director of BioLabs@NYULangone and co-founded the non-profit KiiLN. She has been instrumental in promoting life science start-ups in NYC. She completed her neuroscience postdoc at Mount Sinai and obtained her PhD from University College London. Nicole researched at HMS, Gene Logic, and the University of Chicago (AB, honors). She holds a certificate from Harvard Business School Online and is a Crain’s New York 40Under40.
Glennis Mehra, PhD
Round III
Glennis Mehra is the Director of BioLabs@NYULangone, an incubator that supports over 35 life science startups. Before her current role, she served as an innovation strategy consultant focused on innovation acquisition, development, and market positioning for multinationals in the Pharma, Medical Device, and Consumer Products sectors. Before her consulting work, she was the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of a drug discovery platform in India.
Glennis has mentored numerous founders, contributing to a meaningful and positive impact on the NYC life science ecosystem. Her goal is to help ensure the success of the next generation of innovators and startup founders. Glennis also relishes the opportunity to engage with innovative founders, learning from their unique perspectives and approaches.
Robert S. King, M.A.
Round III
Robert King is a life sciences and medical technology investor and advisor. He holds a 30-year career on the buy- and sell-side engaged in transactional and analytical work at the intersection of strategy, investment, and M&A.
His expertise is in the development and execution of strategy concerning the monetization of intellectual property underlying medical devices and therapeutic innovation.
Michael Dempsey
Round III
Michael Dempsey is the Managing Partner at Compound, a thesis-driven, research-centric investment firm focused on deep tech investing.
Paul Tumpowsky, MBA
Round III
Paul is the Chairman of the InSITE Fellowship (501c3), founded in 1999, a two-year Fellowship program composed of top graduate students, who are interested in entrepreneurship, technology, and venture capital.
The Fellowship’s core programming is a combination of education led by industry leaders, working on projects with founders and venture capitalists, and pursuing startup ideas. The program also includes a high level of interaction with a large network of advisors nationwide and a powerful network of over 1,500+ alumni.
Nidhi Chadda, MBA
Round III
Nidhi Chadda is a generalist growth investor and advisor across public and private markets. She is the CEO of Enzo Advisors, a female and minority-led sustainability consulting practice she founded that focuses on helping private, small, and mid-cap companies build best-in-class sustainable business models and works closely with institutional investors to integrate ESG policies and frameworks across their investment processes. Enzo Advisors is at the nexus of finance, strategy, and technology, taking a holistic qualitative and quantitative approach advising corporate and investor clients on how to integrate sustainability initiatives to mitigate risk and unlock value creation.
Before launching Enzo Advisors, Nidhi was a portfolio manager at RBC Global Asset Management where she spearheaded the initiative to drive ESG integration across investment processes for her team managing $3 billion in assets under management in aggregate across 3 funds. Nidhi also serves on several advisory boards and investment committees at angel associations and venture funds. She works closely with Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP) as a mentor to entrepreneurs, is on the Executive Committee for i3 PRISM (an early-stage technology commercialization fund from MSIP supporting women and BIPOC healthcare entrepreneurs that focuses on patient-centric innovation), on the Investment Advisory Council for Alumni Ventures Group, and co-sector head for digital health for Harvard Alumni Angels.
Nidhi has 20+ years of experience as an investment banker, strategic consultant, and investor. She earned her MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
TBD
Round III
TBD