Overview
The decreasing cost of genomic technologies has democratized their use for many biotech and clinical breakthrough applications. Entrepreneurs are playing a key role in advancing these applications by translating scientific breakthroughs and ideas into commercially viable businesses that transcend borders.
Join the Illumina Accelerator and four global genomics startups in the biotech, clinical and agricultural industries to discuss key trends in the entrepreneurship and genomic spaces, how to build a genomics startup from ideation to commercialization, access capital and how to navigate and find opportunity in the current challenging times.
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Dr. Amanda Cashin |
Dr. Amanda Cashin is Global Head of Illumina Accelerator, leading the SF Bay Area site and currently helping launch the Cambridge, UK site. Illumina Accelerator is the world’s first business accelerator focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry. Her scientific expertise and peer-reviewed publications are in the fields of biochemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, pharmacology, electrophysiology, and neuroscience. Previously, Cashin was Senior Vice President of Life Science at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc./Alexandria Venture Investments. |
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Adrian Ferrero |
Adrian Ferrero is the cofounder and CEO of Biome Makers. Economist by training and specialized in innovation, he grew up in an agricultural region in Spain and in 2012 decided to join his childhood friend, Alberto Acedo, to launch innovative businesses to solve major problems in our current society, as cancer diagnosis or soil productivity. Recognized as one of the lead entrepreneurs in the Spains by its government, EU, or the MIT Technology Review, travelled to US in 2015 to build Biome Makers, becoming the first non-American company partnering with the biotech giant Illumina in its Accelerator program. From there, Biome Makers has received many awards worldwide (AgSum in Japan, agripreneur 2019 in Greece, WINnovation in US, or Best innovative startup by AgFunder) and attract over $10M from investors for Biome Makers. He loves mountains, nature and believe in making the world better one step at a time. |
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Hana Janebdar |
Hana Janebdar is Co-founder and CEO of Juno Bio, an Illumina Accelerator backed startup decoding the vaginal microbiome. Hana is an alumni of Imperial College and UCL and founded Juno Bio to raise the bar for women's health in 2018. |
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Dr. Tara deBoer |
Dr. Tara deBoer received her Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2015. She has nearly a decade of experience utilizing synthetic chemistry and biochemistry to overcome technological hurdles, with an emphasis on addressing unmet medical needs. In 2015 she joined the “Consortium for Drug-Resistant Gram-Negative Pathogen Detection” at UC Berkeley, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Bioengineering. She was awarded a supplemental National Institutes of Health (NIAID) fellowship to develop the core technology that inspired the inception of BioAmp Diagnostics – A company dedicated to combatting antimicrobial resistance through the development of non-PCR-based and culture-free biochemical diagnostic tests as a strategy to deliver truly rapid results to medical providers. She now leads business and corporate strategy and technology innovation as the CEO of BioAmp. |
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Kshitij Rishi |
Kshitij Rishi, Co-Founder of 4baseCare has always been passionate towards delivering advanced healthcare solutions to Indian patients at affordable costs. As a COO of the company, he has been successfully building strong collaborations with hospitals and clinicians along with providing continuous support to cancer patients through 4basecare’s solutions. He has developed a functional and independent CARE team which comprises of CARE companions, and representatives from NGO’s and counsellors providing allied care and support to the patients. Prior to 4basecare, Kshitij has had multiple years of experience in healthcare and life sciences in organizations like GE Healthcare, Deloitte and Piramal Life Sciences (Nicholas Piramal Research Centre) where he has taken senior leadership roles in strategy consulting, vaccines research, operations and business development Apart from healthcare, Kshitij has a rich entrepreneurial background which is evident from his involvement as a co-founder in start-ups like Amicus Natural Products( Brand: Salad Days) and GLE food and beverages (brand fruit press) A Biotechnology Engineer by training, Kshitij is also an alumni of XLRI Jamshedpur, where he did his MBA in operations and marketing. |