Team Blog Contact - Name
Hirak Biswas

Team Blog Contact's Email
[email protected]

TED Talk About Your Team
We are an enthusiastic team of students having life science, business and law expertise, dedicated to develop and translate novel cancer therapeutics from the bed to bedside

Tell us about your core team members 
Our core team consists of 5 students with expertise in cancer biology, cancer drug development, business and law. 

Hirak Biswas is a PhD students at Washington University in St. Louis. Hirak is conducting his doctoral thesis research in Dr. Greg Longmore's lab where he studies cell movement (metastasis) and the process of fibrosis in cancer and in heart disease. Hirak is part of the Cancer Biology Pathway at Washington University where he attends cancer clinic to understand the clinical aspects of treating cancer patients. He attended Johns Hopkins University for his masters degree in Biotechnology (High Throughput Screening and Drug Discovery). At Johns Hopkins University he conducted research on pancreatic cancer stem cells and cancer immunology which is the basis of the technology #2. Hirak takes a keen interest in technology commercialization and has previously won a business model competition and does scientific consulting for SCIMALS.

Anurag Agarwal is the in the lab of Dr. Helen Piwnica-Worms and his research focuses on cell cycle checkpoints in cancer. Anurag obtained his B.Tech degree in Biotechnology from Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). Anurag is the founder of SCIMALS, a company that provides scientific and market due diligence for early stage life science investments. Anurag has experience writing business plans for seed stage biotech companies to help them attract investment. Anurag has prior consulting experience with BALSA group and is an active member within the St. Louis Life Science Entrepreneur community.

Whitney Grither graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A in Chemistry and Public Health. She is currently pursuing her MD/PhD degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She joined Dr. Greg Longmore's lab for her thesis work. Whitney is a expert chemist and uses her skills to develop targeted therapies for cancer metastasis and aspires to translate her discoveries to the clinic. Her experience with patients and chemical synthesis are valuable to understand the clinical challenges for our technology adoption and also chemical synthesis of CpG-ODN which is a critical component of our chosen technology.

Gurudatta Begur Nadiger is a an Executive MBA student at Kellogg School of Management. He is a business and Technology leader with extensive management experience and proven record of accomplishment in strategic planning, customer engagement, product development and implementation in start-up and corporate environment. He has outstanding skills in leadership, collaboration, global delivery,
problem solving, and managing cross functional teams. His ambition is improving global healthcare. He is the Practice Director of Client Services at MeKesson Health Solutions and is responsible for managing client service engagements for top tier health insurance companies and stakeholders of the engagement and collectively helps generate a revenue of $45M. He also mentors and supervises a team of managers, engineers, developers and testers in America and Asia. He also engages in Breast Cancer Awareness Program in rural India. 

Erik Nyre graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a BS in genetics. He is currently a MS/JD student at the University of Minnesota graduate and law schools. He also works as a Research Assistant at the Office of Technology Commercialization at University of Minnesota where he is in charge of assessing the commercial viability of new scientific inventions, reviewing patent literature for existing technologies, developing marketing materials for new technologies and identifying potential licensees. He has previously interned with the Missouri Biotechnology Association. Erik works in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy Starr, primarily investigating cancer gene discovery and therapy development. 

Please tell us about your advisors/mentors
Our science mentors and advisors are experts in the field of cancer immunology, breast cancer vaccine development and breast cancer vaccine clinical trials. They have the expertise and experience to help the core team develop the technology and carry it to clinical trials.

Our business advisors and mentors have extensive experience in life science and biotechnology start-ups. They are experienced in licensing technologies, raising seed funding, biotechnology regulatory affairs, clinical trials and exiting companies. All of them have science backgrounds (including immunology) and have experience leading large research teams. They are leaders in the biotechnology start-up revolution in the St. Louis Cortex Innovation Community and Business District. 

Why are your team members in the challenge
There is no dearth of innovating scientific discoveries being made in research labs there is a large opportunity to harvest the promising inventions. Our team members feel passionately about driving technology commercialization and this competition is an excellent platform for the same. Drawing from our collective previous experiences of drug discovery and immunology research, interacting with cancer patients, working with technology commercialization and healthcare technology implementation, we feel confident of our abilities as a team to take technology #2 from the clinic to the patients. We also found excellent mentors who could guide us through the entire process.

Team Blog Contact - Name
Frank Glaser

Team Blog Contact's Email
[email protected]

TED Talk About Your Team
Our team is truly a combination of all areas of expertise – from business, entrepreneurship, biomedical science, and medicine, we have junior and senior team members spanning a variety of specialties, including team members with experience in scientific product development from conception to monetization events including public offerings.

Tell us about your core team members 
Parastoo is currently a PhD student in biomedical engineering at Tulane who specializes in biomaterial synthesis and characterization, cell culture and animal models. She has multiple peer-reviewed publications, along with a number of oral and poster presentations in international conferences. In addition, she holds a US patent around which she formed Tympanogen; the company is developing a gel patch for the non-surgical repair of chronic perforations in the tympanic membrane. On her free time, Parastoo enjoys dancing (especially tango and traditional Persian dances), racquetball, tennis, poetry, reading, fashion, cooking and art.

After 3 years on Wall Street, Brian brings a solid financial and analytical foundation. In addition, he has been part of dozens of financing and capital markets transactions, as well as M&A transactions, both large and small – all of which required building a pitch from scratch. Outside of his current Tulane medical school requirements, he serves as VP of Strategy for a local healthcare IT startup which has raised ~$250,000 in the last year, and has commitments for additional financing in process. At this company, he worked with the CEO and co-founders to take their product from early R&D to end-customer roll-out. Finally, as a third year medical student, Brian has a basic underlying understanding of the disease processes that are intertwined with the patents up for use in the Challenge. Brian enjoys golf, tennis, and watching St. Louis Cardinals baseball.

Frank is currently pursuing an MD/MBA dual degree at the Tulane School of Medicine and Columbia Business School. Prior to this, he spent 3 years in healthcare strategy consulting. In this capacity, Frank advised pharmaceutical, biotech, and device companies on projects ranging from disease-level prioritizations to strategic L,M&A decisions. Frank has also conducted clinical research, resulting in the publication of six posters and articles in peer-reviewed publications. On his spare time, Frank takes on real estate investment and renovation projects, and enjoys Crossfit, racquet sports, and a range of outdoor activities.

Why are your team members in the challenge
Parastoo: I think this is a great opportunity for me to use my abilities towards the development of a novel treatment strategy. The public health implications of this project are enormous. This is also a fantastic learning experience as well, as I envision myself continuing to work on the innovation of biotechnology and medical devices throughout my career.

Brian: I see a unique opportunity to bring a multidisciplinary team to connect with established research to help move projects forward where the more traditional, unilateral approach has failed. There is a vast wasteland of concepts that could have (and should have) gone on to help patients, but didn’t – we have the opportunity to be a part of a patient solution with major impact. 

Frank: I am passionate about innovation. And during my time working with industry and beyond, I too discovered that there remains a large body of IP on the "back-burner" with the potential to have a major impact in the world. The opportunity provided by CAI to revitalize some of these products really excited me, particularly in the context of breast cancer (a disease process with high unmet need which has affected a number of my close family members).

Team Blog Contact - Name
Steven Ma

TED Talk About Your Team
We are energetic and enthusiastic. Our team of 5 students come from medical, scientific, entrepreneurship, and legal backgrounds. Our advisory board is strong and engaged. We are fortunate to be able to leverage biomedical resources at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and RTP.


Tell us about your core team members 
Fabio Goncalves has an MD degree from Fundação Técnico Educacional Souza Marques, and a MPH degree from Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro State University. He’s currently a second year MBA student at Duke University Fuqua School of Business, completing a summer internship at Eli Lilly. Prior to business school, Fabio was the CEO of a Casa de Saúde Santa Lúcia, a 130-bed hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Roger song has an MD degree from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He’s currently a first year MBA student at Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Prior to business school, Roger was a sales and marketing manager at Medtronic China for 7 years. He was in charge of their East China business. 

Steven Ma has a BS in Biology from Oregon State University. He spent 3 years studying the immune system at the Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health (NIH). He’s currently a first year MBA student at Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Steven also has consulted for the NIH Office of Tech Transfer and was the founder of a web technology startup.

Zachary Finn has a BS in Biology and a BA in Spanish from Emory University. He’s currently a first-year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine. Prior to medical school, Zach was a research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Office of Tech Commercialization and was a market analyst for Dymedex Consulting.

James Whittle has an AB in Chemistry from Harvard and a PhD in Biology from MIT. He did postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and the Vaccine Research Center, NIH. He interned at the NIAID’s technology transfer office before commencing the JD program at George Washington University Law School. 


Why are your team members in the challenge
Our team members are in the challenge to help drive technology commercialization. All five of our team members have scientific backgrounds and have developed a strong affinity toward medical science. However, we’re also motivated to help translate scientific breakthroughs into commercially successful products. 
Three out of five team members (Steven, Zach, and James) have experience in life sciences technology commercialization and have interned at tech transfer offices. We are driven to bridge the gap between basic research in the lab and commercial utility in the marketplace. 

Our drive for technology commercialization is ultimately to make a direct impact on patients. By choosing an education in health care, our team is dedicated to medical innovation. Two of five team members have gotten their MD degrees (Fabio, Roger) and one is currently in medical training (Zach). By having experience caring for patients in the clinic, our team is compassionate and have a deep understanding in the need for medical innovations. 
We also view the challenge as a fantastic opportunity to gain practical commercialization experience. As students, we are hungry for real-world experiential opportunities and for the chance to grow as future business, legal, and medical leaders. Our team saw the challenge as a unique opportunity to challenge ourselves and expand our skillsets. 

In sum, the competition represents the perfect combination of personal growth, working with cutting-edge biomedical breakthroughs, and helping to deliver impactful treatments to patients.