This start-up challenge will provide me with the opportunity to lead a team of PhDs, lawyers, and other highly accomplished individuals to create a product that will improve people's lives.  My initial decision to pursue invention #8 was because it has the potential to reach emerging markets due multiplexing.  Personally, I believe I can successfully compete in this challenge. I've always been interested in this field and I have good science, business, and management background in clinical diagnostics. Furthermore, I've always been passionate about entrepreneurship (I am currently applying to MBA programs to pivot into entrepreneurship) and this is an exciting opportunity to participate in. to make an impact Personally, I believe that discovery of new tools in cancer treatment and diagnosis/prognosis is a key step towards improvement of breast cancer treatment and improvement of patient survival. The present Challenge offers a unique opportunity to students to participate in the process of commercialization of an invention aiming to improve prognosis of a patient. Thus, in addition to contributing to an effort aiming to develop an invention into a clinical application, I will have an amazing learning experience, which could not be acquired in the context of my current degree. Most importantly, I am entirely conscious of the threat that breast cancer represents and I am very enthusiastic towards an opportunity that would allow me to contribute to the fight against breast cancer. This is an important experiential learning opportunity with significant potential impact on public health as a physician scientist, trained in cardiology  I would familiarize with the process that can help research to move towards application. The understanding of the process would guide also my scientific thinking in the field of cardiology and would help me designing better research with more translational capabilities. As a student of the Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship I am glad to familiarize with the business side of science. 44. When I saw the project outlines I was trilled by the incredible opportunity this research has first in terms of saving lives, but also of building a sustainable business based on the proper commercialization of this technology. I have been working for more than half of my life in biological research, I loved it and I still love it but I think is time to better employ human and economical energies to make the whole biomedical research system more efficient. My goal now is to learn how to develop a business-centric approach for biomedical technologies and to apply this methodology for technologies   developed by me as well as technology created by others. I am interested in business development of biotechnology (medical devices, research tools, and therapeutic drugs).  This Challenge will provide me invaluable experience in this aspect. Interested in supplementing my medical coursework with practical experience in translating medical technology. I see this challenge as a unique opportunity to turn a great scientific discovery into a product that can improve the life of patients suffering breast cancer. I have focused my research on translational medicine, always with the goal of contributing with a new product to improve human health. In the last few years, I have come to realize that developing pharmaceutical products requires more than just scientific knowledge. This challenge offers a great opportunity to learn and apply the other components that are needed to fulfill my goals. I'm seeking to continue my surgery training with a special interest in breast diseases, minimally invasive treatment and new approaches to treatment. I want to continue my research projects and start new ones leading to more discoveries. I want to change the world. To help our students learn what is involved in this type of endeavor and the challenges entrepreneurs face To gain entrepreneurship experience My long term interest lies in life science entrepreneurship, especially translating novel therapeutics to the clinic. This challenge will be a learning experience for me. with this Challenge, is my chance to show what and how much I know about start-ups in medical world.  What is more, during all my University years I wanted to enter any competition to represent my University, however I never had a chance to do so, until now.  I always think BIG, so if we win this competition it will be a huge step forward into pharmaceutical enterprise, because of money and license for the invention.  Furthermore, it is a personal challenge too, as I believe my friend Maria Velkova from University of Cambridge have entered this competition, therefore I want to beat her (even though we are going for different inventions). I have always had a strong interest in the medical field having begun my career in Medical Technology in various Kansas City hospitals. Unfortunately, I have had many relatives including my mother die of cancer at a young age. To be a part of an initiative like this is very important to me. I am passionate about innovation in healthcare, this is truly what energizes me.  Further, this particular cause is near and dear to my heart, as I have had family members suffer and ultimately pass from complications related to breast cancer.  This opportunity will be very fulfilling for me on many levels. Invention 8 fits with our research and platform technology, YouGene Connect. I am passionate about cancer research, but also possess broad interests in business and regulatory affairs. Following graduation, I hope to work for a start up and am excited to gain hands-on business planning experience through the Breast Cancer Start Up Challenge. I also enjoy leadership roles and am interested in gaining the experience of managing the team. I believe it will be a terrific experience for my students. After completing my PhD I took an entrepreneurial focus for my post doctoral research. I have been the lead process developer on two SBIR grants to date and have been accepted into the NSF I-corps entrepreneurship program. I plan on using this opportunity as a launching pad to start my own company in the biomedical field. I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for years.  There are many such bootcamps and challenges in the tech sector, but such educational opportunities in biotech entrepreneurship are few and far between.  This is also a great opportunity to make a real and immediate impact in biotech and patient health. My passion is enabling people to solve complex business problems for social impact. The Challenge also offers me an opportunity to grow as a leader, team member, and entrepreneur. I would like to apply my knowledge in strategy and innovation to actively contribute to multi-discplinary collaboration for innovation. Education I think it is a great opportunity for my students and a an opportunity for the University to participate in a great program. I chose to participate in the Challenge to get a real life experience in how to take a scientific innovation further, may it be by putting a start-up together or by facilitating licensing agreements with an existing start-up. This challenge will allow me to apply both my scientific and business skills, developed during my scientific education and my strategy consulting years in the life science sector, respectively, in the context of a new venture. I have always had a passion for new ventures and their roles in fostering innovation. Being a team leader of a rather large team, the challenge is also a great opportunity for me to apply and develop further some leadership skills. The challenge is also an opportunity for me to expand my network outside my L.E.K. consulting network, by meeting and interacting with VCs, entrepreneurs, lawyers and tech transfer managers. I look forward to contributing to the development of a potential new drug for breast cancer patients. As a cancer researcher, I'm interested in developing improved anti-cancer agents; as a student I love the opportunity to collaborate across my university; as an entrepreneur I enjoy the challenge of building and working with a great team of people, I have been conceptualising business models since the age of sixteen. It is actually a hobby of mine. I spend almost every free minute thinking about and working on new business ideas and opportunities. I have already worked on a couple of ideas and tried to put them into practice. I created business plans and spoke to lawyers as well as venture capitalists in order to test my ideas. I am already experienced in project management and leadership. For instance, I successfully developed a software tool (leading a team of six programmers) for one of the worldwide leading construction companies. The tool got rolled out globally. I worked for a global player in the construction industry and also for one the most successful E-Commerce start-ups in Switzerland. I am absolutely passionate about starting my own business, not just because I want to be my own boss. While working for the aforementioned start-up, I enjoyed a high degree of flexibility and freedom in almost all projects in which I participated. Moreover, it was very exciting to experience how young companies approach demanding and novel tasks. I would be keen to share my experience and enthusiasm with my team! Working at Novartis, I learned that the laboratory workflow is very fascinating, but rather slow and my experience led to the realization that I would like to undertake a more accelerated pace career, which incorporates a greater diversity of challenges. In order to gain more business understanding and knowledge, I decided to start my own business venture, at which point I became very enthusiastic about entrepreneurship. Because the field of biomedical sciences has always been my passion, I decided to pursue a multidisciplinary entrepreneurial program, which revolves around this industry. This is when I came across the MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise (MBE) at the University of Cambridge; a multidisciplinary biotechnology and business degree course. When I came across the Breast Cancer Start-up Challenge, I identified this as the ideal opportunity in order to gain practical skills in setting up and starting a company in this realm. The Start-up Challenge will allow me to apply all of the knowledge I gain through the MBE program and to put it into practice through the business plan writing and through pitching the business. Furthermore, I will have the opportunity to potentially incorporate a biotech start-up, which will allow me to be directly involved in working with highly talented individuals and experts to develop and commercialize an innovative biotechnology, which has the potential to improve the quality of cancer patients’ lives. As a medical student, I hope to help people by treating disease. As a clinician, I can change the disease-course of handfuls of people. I hope that this Challenge will help me be part of a platform which can change how breast cancer is treated in thousands of women. I have seen women with breast cancer in the operating room, and after assisting lumpectomy and total mastectomies, I witnessed firsthand the emotional and mental stress breast cancer patients experience. Their disease truly alters every aspect of their life, and how early their cancer is detected can make an enormous difference in the outcomes of their treatment. I hope that I can help promote earlier, more accurate detection of breast cancer by helping developing a diagnostic assay. In this way, I hope to impact the lives of thousands of women across the world. I want to start a company. The Challenge provides the unique opportunity of having a technology more or less "ready to go." With a great team assembled, I hope not only to win the challenge, but to maintain momentum and become incorporated. I have come to understand that the path from idea to product is far from straightforward. I want to learn how to walk that path, while still providing real benefit to people in the world. The Breast Cancer Startup Challenge seems like a perfect place to start. Education I am excited to translate what I am doing in the laboratory to a clinical setting with the potential to save lives. I have always been motivated to create things.  As part of my undergraduate research, in lieu of researching on paper or theory, I built a small, cheap device to assist individuals navigate hallways.  Unfortunately, most of my experience has been on the building side, and not what happens afterwards.      I want to learn what comes next - how to take a great idea and bring it to the people, because if you cannot do that, the idea is pointless.  I want to be able to market and sell a product, to make the public aware of it while refining my own idea.    But that is only half of the story- I have always been immersed in medicine (as evident by my current status as a medical student).  In the summer of 2011, I spent time doing research and building an experimental tool to see whether we could diagnose triple-negative breast cancer by their heterogeneity.  Now, as a sophomore in college, I had very little knowledge of both breast cancer and computer science, but I learned fast and grew to love how my two worlds interacted.  I was able to build an analysis tool to cluster and analyze DCE-MRI images to determine a few parameters that we could use to indicate heterogeneity.  Although I am no longer involved in that project, it left me with a desire to do more, and this project is almost too perfectly in line with my interests.  In my past, I had the chance to see how ideas come about and are implemented.  Now, I want to see how these ideas can help the public, especially with cancer screenings and breast cancer diagnostics. I always have passion for entrepreneurship that can contribute to the community, and this is a great opportunity for me to utilize my  technical background as a cornerstone to support me learning the business side of the entrepreneurship from business planning to  launch the startup company. I have had two family members and one great friend diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully all three women defeated the cancer and are living healthy lives in remission. This Challenge provides me the opportunity to make an impact on breast cancer health so that others will be able to share a similar story. I recognize that the advancements in cancer research and technology provided my family members and friend with the best chance of overcoming this terrible disease. I want to honor each of them by participating in this Challenge and contribute to improving breast cancer health. Learn the fundamentals of business planning for biomedical start-ups.  Collaborate with experts from law, investment firms, entrepreneurs to learn about working with a team towards a common goal. To gain experience in developing a start up and to help bring a scientific tool to market that could benefit the population. Basic science is fascinating, however at  the same time translational research that leads to inventions and innovations is limited. A lot of therapeutic approaches fail due to variety of reasons hence a lot more therapeutic approaches deserve chance for being considered as a viable option that may lead to improvement in patient outcome. My interest lies in facilitating this process. I want to be able to create a start-up Biotech company as well as impact peoples lives. This is a great opportunity to learn for other while doing something worthwhile in my career. I don't see this a competition I see it as an opportunity to create a future career and a new path while working and learning with others.  At the business school we don't get to work with other like minded individuals. This competition helps bring great minds together, I could not say no to such a wonderful opportunity. To help others become as enthusiastic as I am about entrepreneurship in biotech. I have received extensive training in technology commercialization and innovation as demonstrated by my three advanced degrees in business and biomedical field. In addition, I have over 23 years of experience in biopharma and medical field. Moving technology from bench side to bedside to benefit patients, doctor and health care industry has been my passion for many years. I appreciate greatly the opportunity the Challenge program provides for me and my team. I would work together with my team with the aim to win the competition and to potentially start up a new venture based on the technology we choose. I am also expecting a rich commercialization experience and networking opportunity during the whole process. I have always been interested in translating bench research into clinical advancements to improve the delivery of healthcare.  This will give me real life experience and provide an opportunity to make a major impact in cancer diagnostics. My talented team represents many, diverse backgrounds, but we all share a commitment to health and a profound understanding of people and their diseases. This competition is truly a rare and exceptional opportunity for us to use our unique talents to make a meaningful impact on breast cancer health all over the world. I have nine years of breast cancer research expertise, with a specific focus on the breast tumor microenvironment that is directly applicable to this Challenge. There is tremendous need and market potential for the invention selected as it can be applied across the spectrum of breast cancer heterogeneity. I am interested in developing a successful hypothesis driven business plan that will secure funding and develop a start-up company capable of taking this platform technology to market. This challenge gives me an opportunity to leverage my expertise in oncology, motivation for alleviating human suffering and passion for starting my own bio-medical company. I also look at this as an excellent opportunity for personal, professional and network enhancement.