BioTools Innovator Live 2023
The goal of the BioTools Innovator webinar series is to provide the life science tools ecosystem and our portfolio companies with guidance from experts in areas that are specific to the strategic needs outlined in our discussions and surveys.
Our virtual webinars consist of panelists addressing key questions supplied in advance by the BioTools Innovator Accelerator, as well as a general discussion on the topic within the context of the evolving life sciences tools ecosystem. Our webinars are live-streamed on our YouTube Channel and LinkedIn, and are available for viewing on this page.
Webinar Library
2023 Webinars
Creating an Effective Company Video
Charlie is passionate about using really small things to solve big problems. This fascination began in school; during undergrad, he helped build a microfluidic pump for an implantable therapeutic for glaucoma. During his master’s, he helped form a team that developed micro solutions, which led to the formation of three companies (MY01, Stathera and Nxtsens), all of which are growing today.
Along with co-founder Brandon Kao, Rui Jing Jiang started Avisi Technologies in 2017, developing VisiPlate, a nanotechnology-enabled ocular implant to treat glaucoma. The University of Pennsylvania spinout has raised more than $3 million from groups like Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Quaker Capital and Life Science Angels. Avisi also recently snagged the Glaucoma Foundation’s H. Dunbar Hoskins International Innovation Award and the Octane Ophthalmology Technology Summit People’s Choice Award.
Gerry is passionate about impacting people’s lives and exploring the possibilities that biological engineering and technology can create. Combining this drive with the leadership and analytical skills he honed as a reconnaissance pilot, he now quarterbacks cross-functional teams to build biology-based solutions based on customer research and data analytics. His ability to identify priorities and opportunities that he developed as a military officer allows him to align product strategy with an effective road map to keep the product and team coordinated.
Term Sheets & Deal Structure: An Investor Perspective
Along with his responsibilities as CFO, Martin is President, Medical Devices, treasurer and a director of the RCT board of directors. He leads the RCT team focused on medical device investments. Martin holds an M.B.A. in finance/strategy from The Anderson School, UCLA, an M.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in biology/biochemistry from the University of Michigan.
Partnering with Strategics
Solutions-oriented digital leader bringing 8 years experience in biotech and pharma, and almost 15 years in science/research. In his current role he drives both scientific innovation internally by leading research as a principal computational biologist, as well as drives external digital innovation as lead for the Merck Digital Sciences Studio startup accelerator. His scientific expertise is in computational biology, systems biology, data science, drug discovery, precision medicine, microbiology, and immunology. He has led many successful programs and teams in these areas while leveraging both his technical and business acumen. He has broad experience across business value streams including drug discovery, drug development and manufacturing, business development, and organizational leadership.
Dynamic and strategic medical device, life sciences, and diagnostics executive specializing in driving end-to-end transactions, investments, and partnering in highly regulated segments of the healthcare industry. Adept at building and maintaining innovation networks, growing and leading teams, and guiding executive decision-makers in making informed decisions.
Tari Suprapto is part of a team that is responsible for identifying, evaluating and coordinating potential partners in academia, biotech, and pharma for potential collaborations, assets and/or technologies to in-license that strongly align with Novo Nordisk’s global pharma strategy and mission to cure chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, NASH, CVD, and CKD. She works closely with Novo’s research teams and other key internal stakeholders to ensure that the entire search and evaluation process of new leads runs optimally for all parties.
Advancing Biotech Product Development & Manufacturing
Daniel’s passion is science and its potential for improving quality of life. His goal is to see quality therapeutics developed, protected, and marketed through strategic commercialization. To achieve this, he is always searching for opportunities to build relationships with thought leaders and professionals engaged in tackling important health concerns.
His greatest asset is experience encompassing the pre-approval stages of drug and device development, from basic research, translational research, clinical research, to commercialization. He understands what both small and large companies experience in assimilating new tech or initiating a new venture. Given this breadth and depth of experience, he enjoys serving as a valuable resource to inventors who are traversing the path from ideation through commercialization.
• Proven people leader who delivers results while managing budgets and timelines
• Successful relationship manager and developer of new products from ideation to launch
• Innovative problem solver with deep knowledge of chemistry, engineering, and immunology
Ryan was trained in genetics and cell biology at the University of California at Davis. Since 1988 he has worked in several biotechnology companies and as an independent biotech consultant focused on adding value to early stage therapeutic and technology efforts. Early in his career Ryan worked in teams that applied cutting edge genetic engineering technologies to advance the development of gene therapy and cellular therapeutics.
In 2002 Ryan transitioned to research and product development for biopharmaceutical instrumentation, where he held customer-facing positions related to the introduction of novel technologies. In this role, Ryan grew to be a recognized expert in label-free biosensors, presented at numerous international scientific conferences, and was invited to chair several scientific symposia. Ryan is co-inventor of five US patents, has published multiple scientific communications, developed many applications for the drug discovery market, and lead collaborations worldwide with well-known pharmaceutical research teams from companies like Merck, Amgen, J&J, Novartis and AstraZeneca.
Fundraising for Biotools Startups
Corporate development leader focused on mergers and acquisitions, investments, partnerships, and intellectual property strategy with expertise in genomics, life sciences, immunotherapy, and diagnostics
Kelly is Director of Life Science Tools & Diagnostics Investments at General Inception.
Based in San Diego, California, Charles brings 15 years of a wide range of experience in the life-science and genomics sector.
Most recently, Charles was Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Element Biosciences, a venture-backed startup developing new sequencing technology and solutions. He helped Element raise $80M in Series B financing and lay down significant groundwork for its critical supplier relationships, go-to-market and partnering strategy.
From 2007 to 2019, Charles served in several R&D and business roles at Illumina, Inc. He led cross-functional teams to develop microarray and sequencing applications for research or clinical purposes including genetic testing, oncology, transplant medicine, pharmacogenomics, microbiology, single-cell analysis, etc. In 2017, Charles transitioned to Corporate Development to focus on M&A, emerging business areas, and corporate investment opportunities. He led the $100M acquisition of Edico Genome and played a key role in the proposed acquisition of Pacific Biosciences (later blocked by the FTC).
Charles graduated from National Taiwan University with a B.Sc. in Chemistry. In graduate school, Charles studied gene regulation in the antiviral innate immune response with Tom Maniatis and received his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University. During his postdoctoral training with Scott Emr at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Charles discovered a new family of arrestin-related ubiquitin-ligase adapters that regulate endocytosis and protein turnover at the cell surface.Founder entrepreneur with a demonstrated record of leading multi-disciplinary teams and fostering external collaborations within the biotech industry.
Founder entrepreneur with a demonstrated record of leading multi-disciplinary teams and fostering external collaborations within the biotech industry.
Building an Impactful Board of Directors
Over the past 10 years, Ken has led commercial efforts for disruptive technologies in the digital health, wearables, and cardiac remote patient monitoring industries, playing a significant role in building the teams and cultures for 3 of the top 4 market share players, including #1 (BioTelemetry), #2 (iRhythm), and #4 (Bardy Diagnostics).
Overall, he is a 20 year digital health, medical device, and remote monitoring innovator with successful senior leadership experience ranging from a Fortune 500 company (Boston Scientific) to a medium sized #1 market share (Biotelemetry, acquisition by Philips for $2.8 Billion in December ’20) to 3 start-ups, 1 of which eventually led to an extremely successful IPO (iRhythm) and another which was acquired by HillRom (Bardy Diagnostics) in August ’21 for what will end up being $400M+ after milestone payments.
With a passion for growing and sustaining strong organizations, Henderson has developed a niche helping private equity- and venture-backed companies scale using innovative executive talent strategies. Prior to joining DHR, Henderson served as Director, Partner Solutions & Executive Search at a career acceleration and talent-sourcing platform for underrepresented healthcare and life sciences leaders. Before that, Henderson worked in impactful roles for various healthcare and life science organizations including, Trinity Health, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Genentech, and Pfizer.
John founded Lemnos Advisory, LLC and currently serves as CEO. Lemnos Advisory provides strategy, business development and corporate development services to a global customer base including financial / investment firms and operating companies.
He serves on commercial boards and advisory boards, primarily on Pacific Coast or Southwest USA. He also serves on three non-profit boards in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. Prior to these activities, he served as a board member in other small, technology centric commercial enterprises and local nonprofits. He is a member of NACD and holds the Director Certification credential from NACD. John is an experienced “angel” investor and is a member of Tech Coast Angels (Los Angeles), Gopher Angels (Minneapolis), and Chemical Angel Network (Orange County) and additionally he is an LP in MEDA (Washington, DC), Groove Capital (Minneapolis) and Modern Venture Partners (Menlo Park, CA). He is also an LP and on the Investment Committee at Purple Arch Ventures (Chicago).
Developing Talent & Company Culture
Matt Gardner leads CBRE’s Advisory Life Sciences practice in the U.S., including occupier and investor leasing as well as sales. A veteran of more than 30 years in the technology and life sciences sectors, Mr. Gardner works with CBRE professionals across U.S. life sciences hubs and emerging markets to advise clients on their real estate needs. He is based in Northern California.
Before joining CBRE in March 2022, Mr. Gardner served as CEO and co-founder of the California Biomanufacturing Center. Mr. Gardner previously served as CEO of the life sciences cluster organizations BayBio and MarylandBio, supporting hundreds of growing life sciences companies in the process.
In addition, Mr. Gardner has served as chair and a member of boards including Seeding Labs, a Boston nonprofit dedicated to building science capacity around the world; the Exploratorium, a science museum in Northern California; and at Johns Hopkins University. For more than a decade, Mr. Gardner produced the NPR show Biotech Nation. He has contributed to publications including the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, Startup Magazine, and Medtech Insight.
Mr. Gardner previously served as a founding team member and mentor to life sciences startups including SageLegion, Cancer Commons, Cornerstone, and the Patent & License Exchange, among others. He is the author of numerous publications on the life sciences ecosystem, including “California Tool Works” and the award-winning series of BayBioIMPACT annual reports.
Anne has been running the in-house MedTech accelerator, MD Start, since she started at Sofinnova Partners as a partner in 2015.
She embodies the MD Start team’s hands-on approach: Anne is the founding and current CEO of both Gradient Denervation Technologies and Moon Surgical. She is a Board member of both SafeHeal and May Health — two companies where she was also founding CEO.
Prior to joining Sofinnova, Anne held several key positions at Mauna Kea Technologies, a Paris-based medical technology company with global presence, developing a disruptive “optical biopsy” technology. She was closely involved in multiple financing rounds, including the company’s initial public offering on the Paris Euronext, a highly successful operation and the largest public listing for the sector that year.
Anne is an active angel investor and an independent board member of FeetMe and Cardiologs Technologies, two Paris-based e-health startups. Cardiologs was purchased by Philips in 2021.
Navigating Non-Dilutive Fundraising for Life Science Startups
Kathrin Adllkofer is the founder and COO of Cellbox Solutions GmbH, a company for professional cell logistic worldwide.
She has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Federal Institute of technology, Zurich. Following her university career at the universities of Berlin, Harvard and Zurich she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute, San Diego, USA. In 2000 she moved to the industry space working in Business and Corporate Development of Evotec AG closing several service deals and strategic alliances with Pharma and Biotech companies. Before leading mei:do concepts GmbH, a health company , for two years she was CEO of Norgenta North German Life Science Agency GmbH, the cluster agency for Life Science of the states Free and Hanseatic town of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein . And before Norgenta she was leading MediGate GmbH, a Tec-transfer subsidiary of the University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg.
Martis is a developmental neuroscientist with a strong background in neuronal development and regeneration. He earned his Bachelor of Science from San Diego State University and began his industry career at Illumina as a research associate in the high-throughput genomics services laboratory. Martis then earned his PhD from the University of California San Diego, studying transcriptional networks that control adult neurogenesis and brain patterning using flatworms as the model organism. Prior to joining EpiCypher in 2015, Dr. Cowles was a Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Eva Anton’s laboratory at UNC Chapel Hill where he studied developmental signaling pathways that underlie cortical stem cell function in the developing mouse brain.
BioTools Marketing and Sales Strategies
Entrepreneurial minded scientist with interests in life science tools, platforms, and AI for genomics, cell and gene therapy, and synthetic bio.
Growth architect with 15 years of commercial experience and an unrelenting dedication to innovating, marketing, and selling solutions in the life science and diagnostics sectors. Unwavering commitment to delivering concrete results through translating strategies into tangible outcomes, leading successful change initiatives, and cultivating exceptional teams. Highly skilled at communication across all levels of the organization, building consensus, and inspiring strong followership aligned with the company’s goals.
Navigating Non-Dilutive Fundraising for Life Science Startups
Kathrin Adllkofer is the founder and COO of Cellbox Solutions GmbH, a company for professional cell logistic worldwide.
She has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Federal Institute of technology, Zurich. Following her university career at the universities of Berlin, Harvard and Zurich she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute, San Diego, USA. In 2000 she moved to the industry space working in Business and Corporate Development of Evotec AG closing several service deals and strategic alliances with Pharma and Biotech companies. Before leading mei:do concepts GmbH, a health company , for two years she was CEO of Norgenta North German Life Science Agency GmbH, the cluster agency for Life Science of the states Free and Hanseatic town of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein . And before Norgenta she was leading MediGate GmbH, a Tec-transfer subsidiary of the University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg.
Martis is a developmental neuroscientist with a strong background in neuronal development and regeneration. He earned his Bachelor of Science from San Diego State University and began his industry career at Illumina as a research associate in the high-throughput genomics services laboratory. Martis then earned his PhD from the University of California San Diego, studying transcriptional networks that control adult neurogenesis and brain patterning using flatworms as the model organism. Prior to joining EpiCypher in 2015, Dr. Cowles was a Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Eva Anton’s laboratory at UNC Chapel Hill where he studied developmental signaling pathways that underlie cortical stem cell function in the developing mouse brain.