Meet the AthenaDAO Entrepreneur-In-Residence Pitch Competition Finalists! 🪩
Learn more about them and our expert judges; renowned researchers, founders, and VCs in biotech and DeSci.
The Finalists for our EIR Pitch Competition 💁♀️
Laura Camurri, Ph.D.
With over 15 years in life science entrepreneurship, Laura excels in bringing scientific innovations to market and transforming early ventures into profitable businesses. She has a deep understanding of the intersection between R&D, business, academia, and intellectual property. She is focused on developing science-based innovations that tangibly improve people’s lives.
Q: What brings Laura to women’s health?
A: Laura is intrinsically motivated to make an impact in the realm of women’s health. She understands that women face unique health challenges and has unwavering motivation to continue adding value to the space.
Stefania excels in tech innovation with a career in Big Data, AI/ML, and venture. Her venture capital insights and product development skills are actively shaping the future of women's health technology. She understands the value and power of using cutting-edge technology to solve problems. Stefania holds an MS in Big Data and AI from Barcelona Technology School and a BSc in Information Management for Business from UCL.
Q: What brings Stefania to women’s health?
A: Through personal experiences and natural curiosity Stefania has deeply considered what women’s health means. She is excited to apply her tech background and experience developing projects in the space.
Maria Suciu, Ph.D.
Maria is an accomplished senior scientist with 10+ years of expertise in leveraging genetic data to inform drug discovery in academia, biotech & pharma. Through her leadership, Maria gained support from key stakeholders and inspired her team to tackle pressing challenges in women’s health. From authoring many prestigious papers, being an inventor, successes in fundraising, and leading plenary talks on women’s health, Maria is undoubtedly making an impact in the women’s health space.
Q: What interests you the most in the landscape of women’s health research?
A: I am very interested in understanding the science behind the diseases affecting us, specifically genetics. I want to understand what in our DNA makes us predisposed to various women's health conditions. My focus has been mainly been on Endometriosis and related conditions.
Neha is a multifaceted biotech professional with expertise across R&D and scientific communications. She has a particular interest in cancer research and CRISPR and hopes to push these critical areas forward. With experience as a founder of a diagnostics startup in the women’s health space, Neha has experience in developing much-needed products.
Q: What brings Neha to women’s health?
A: Neha’s passion for improving women’s health emanates from seeing loved ones, friends, and broader communities suffer from conditions with minimal solutions tailored to female physiology. She plans to dedicate her career to advancing diagnostic tools, individualized therapies and equitable access to quality care.
Lucia is a data-driven strategist shaping AWS's go-to-market strategy in APAC, as well as actively contributing to FemTech Association Asia. From business, to finance, to marketing, Lucia has rich experience across many countries and sectors. She has previously developed a Cycle Syncing app through AWS, exemplifying her deep understanding of product-market fit. She is ready to support scientific research with her cross-functional expertise.
Q: What interests you the most in the landscape of women’s health research?
A: My biggest interest is in fertility as an overall measure of health. Whilst ensuring women who want to have kids can do so is important, fertility decline is a bigger issue as it relates to overall wellness and aging. There is an enormous potential to bring innovations for women in the longevity space, which has gained a lot of traction in recent years and I believe will be a focus in the future.
⭐️ Join us LIVE this week for the official Pitch Competition! ⭐️
The live final Pitch Competition is open to all. Come see our finalists go head to head for their career leap into women’s health.
LIVE STREAM this on Thursday, January 25th at noon ET / 6 pm CET / 9 am PST!
Meet the Judges for our EIR Pitch Competition 🥇
The AthenaDAO Pitch Competition presents the unique opportunity to become our first entrepreneur-in-residence and build AthenaDAO’s first spin-out on ovarian aging.
Our expert panel of judges are renowned researchers, founders, and VCs in biotech and deep tech. Let's meet those who will help us choose the winner!
Lynae Brayboy, MD, Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder, OVŌM Care.
Lynae M. Brayboy, MD, is an obstetrician-gynecologist specialized in reproductive endocrinology. A graduate of Florida A&M University and a Fulbright Grantee to the Republic of Mali for her previous work in placental malaria, Dr. Brayboy received her M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine in 2007. She matched into a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Abington Memorial Hospital and subsequently a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Brayboy’s research primarily focuses on the role of multidrug resistance transporters (MDRs) in oocyte (egg) mitochondria.
Dr. Brayboy is an Associate Professor at the Bedford Research Foundation and formerly the Chief Medical Officer at Clue. She is a reproductive scientist at the Charité Hospital in the Department of Neuropediatrics. She is currently the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Ovom Care GmbH, a VC-backed hybrid IVF clinic on AI tools and reproductive longevity research based on her work on oocyte mitochondria.
Q: What interests you the most in the landscape of women’s health research?
A: Innovation in the space of oocyte quality and mitochondrial bioenergetics.
James Brodie, Chief Investment Officer, ID Theory
Before co-founding ID Theory, James earned an MSc in Systems Biology Research, followed by a 10-year career in biotech as Director of Discovery Research at GW Pharmaceuticals. He’s also a board member at Molecule.
Q: What interests you the most in the landscape of women’s health research?
A: AthenaDAO, duh.
Alok Tayi, Ph.D. Founder & CEO, VibeBio.
Alok has 15 years of experience as a scientist and 12 as a serial entrepreneur. After completing postdoctoral work at Harvard University with George Whitesides, Alok started two pharma SaaS companies, PreScouter and TetraScience, which employ several hundred people combined and have more than four hundred customers. He also launched and led the life sciences division of Egnyte, a cloud content governance company based in California, and grew the business to a 60-person team and eight-figure run rate.
Alok founded Vibe Bio after his daughter was hospitalized at birth and he learned first-hand that the biggest obstacle to developing treatments isn’t finding potential therapies — it’s funding them. Vibe Bio is helping patients in similar situations overcome that obstacle by scaling the development of treatments for rare disorders sustainably for the first time. He holds a B.S. from Cornell and a Ph.D. from Northwestern, both in Materials Science & Engineering.
Q: What interests you the most in the landscape of women’s health research?
A: At Vibe Bio, we believe there's a huge opportunity to develop new medicines for women's health. The #1 challenge? Closing the significant funding gap in this space, especially fertility. We're excited to use AI to navigate the complexities efficiently and deploy capital to support the best programs to reach patients. Our recent investment in Granata Bio is a demonstration of our commitment to overlooked diseases.
Dr. Mario Cordero, Ph.D. - who is our very first funded IP-NFT (learn more in the video above) - is the Principal Investigator at Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla (UPO) in the Inflammation and Metabolism during Aging Research Group.
Dr. Cordero is a passionate and accomplished researcher with a strong focus on inflammation and metabolism throughout the aging process, he holds a Ph.D. in Health Science and a Bachelor's in Human Nutrition.
Dr. Cordero's dedication to the field is fueled by personal experience, as he and his wife faced challenges of ovarian aging and utilized fertility techniques to conceive their daughter Martina. With an impressive publication record, including numerous articles and patents, Dr. Cordero is recognized as an expert on aging and fertility, delivering presentations at international conferences and earning several awards.
👉 REMINDER: FILL OUT OUR FERTILITY SURVEY
We want to learn more about what you know about your fertility journey. This is a pilot qualitative survey to understand more of the current knowledge women have about their fertility. It should take 10 minutes of your time!