Dr. Michel Abdel Malek (1986) is a Dutch and the founder and CEO of Delphyr, a clinical AI platform dedicated to enhancing the quality and accessibility of healthcare.

Under his leadership, Delphyr provides an artificial intelligence layer for hospital systems that supports doctors in making better decisions, reducing medical errors, and improving patient outcomes. Seamlessly integrating into clinical workflows, Delphyr ensures that AI enhances medical expertise, prioritizing safety, transparency, and physician trust.

In parallel with leading Delphyr, Dr. Abdel Malek advances clinical research at Leiden University Medical Center, focusing on safety in clinical decision-making, reducing care variability, and enabling personalized treatments. He translates cutting-edge AI into real-world clinical decision support, ensuring its effective implementation in medical practice to enhance patient care.

Dr. Abdel Malek has long been a dedicated advocate for equitable and just healthcare, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to humanitarian causes. He has played a pivotal role in delivering medical care and organizational support, working on the frontlines alongside Doctors Without Borders and UNHCR to serve vulnerable communities in need.

His mission remains clear: to harness technology for the greater good, driving innovation that improves quality of care and creates a fairer, more accessible healthcare system for all.

Ashley Abel, Ph.D., is the co-founder and CEO of Metri Bio, a biotech company developing first-in-class targeted therapeutics for endometriosis, one of the most prevalent and underserved conditions in women’s health. Metri Bio closed an oversubscribed $5M pre-seed round led by Pillar VC and was selected as a founding member of the Milken Institute Women’s Health Network, chaired by Dr. Jill Biden. Ashley was also recognized on the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list for her contributions to advancing women’s health innovation. 

Ashley earned her Ph.D. from Yale School of Medicine in Professor Berna Sozen’s lab, where she graduated with distinction and was supported by an NICHD F31 fellowship. Her doctoral research focused on the signaling pathways governing embryo development at a stage clinically characterized by high rates of early pregnancy loss, and she initiated work that would later form the scientific foundation for Metri Bio. Ashley is passionate about developing transformative therapies for women’s health and bringing long-overdue innovation to patients who have historically been overlooked.

Jumai Abioye, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of PanAccess Innovations and the creator of Itoka, a patient-owned health operating system designed to bring clarity to complex and chronic care journeys. Itoka centralizes fragmented medical data, structures patient-reported experience into clinician-ready insight, and enables patients to arrive at appointments prepared, improving diagnostic continuity and care efficiency.

Trained in biomedical engineering at the University of Glasgow, Jumai began her career in therapeutic vaccine development at Providence Therapeutics before co-founding Northern RNA, one of Canada’s first nucleic-acid manufacturing organizations. There, she helped build the operational and technical infrastructure that supported the company’s growth and large-scale public and private investment.

Her leadership bridges scientific rigor, regulatory discipline, and lived patient experience. After navigating her own multi-country diagnostic journey, she is committed to designing healthcare infrastructure that prioritizes clarity, dignity, and access.

Jumai serves on the Board of BioCanRx and contributes to Canada’s life sciences ecosystem and strategy.

Dr. Frances Lasowski holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering with a specialty in ophthalmic biomaterials and drug delivery. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of 20/20 OptimEyes Technologies, where she leads the development of a mucoadhesive nanoparticle platform designed to improve the efficacy, durability, and real-world performance of medicines delivered to mucosal surfaces. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University, where she mentors students and collaborates on translational biomedical research. Frances is passionate about translating medicines that truly work for patients through innovative drug delivery solutions.

Steve Linderman, MD, PhD is the CEO and co-founder of Absco Therapeutics (AbscoTx), a biotech company enabling image-guided, intratumoral drug delivery starting with cervical cancers and precancers. AbscoTx’s approach simultaneously elicits targeted immune responses against tumors and their underlying oncoviruses to treat the tumor and prevent recurrence. The company was founded based on research from Professor Gio Traverso’s lab at MIT and interventional radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital. Steve is an internal medicine clinician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an engineer with a background in immune modulation and biomaterials, and an entrepreneur and former Harvard Blavatnik Fellow. Steve previously worked at Third Rock Ventures leading company building in cellular engineering, which eventually became Abata Therapeutics. He also founded the nonprofit biotechnology incubator Sling Health during his MD-PhD at  Washington University in St. Louis. Steve holds a masters in drug development from the University of Cambridge and GlaxoSmithKline. He completed his residency training at Emory University and a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Andrés García at Georgia Tech.

Andrew Longenecker is the Co-Founder and CEO of PBD Project, a non-profit research accelerator and biotech incubator for the peroxisome. PBD Project’s mission is to incubate and advance peroxisome science, transforming discovery into treatment by convening leading scientists, funding bold research, and catalyzing the translation of biology into medicines. He was previously Chief Business Officer at Probably Genetic, which discovers, analyzes, and engages patients for rare, genetic, and complex diseases. Prior to that, he led Operations and Finance at Runa, led Business Development at Eagle Creek, and was a Management Consultant at McKinsey’s biopharma practice. Andrew obtained his  MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Master of Science at Stanford University, and BS from Duke in Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Economics.

Dr. Lou is a microbiologist and bioinformatician with over a decade of research experience in microbiology. Her research centers on leveraging large-scale genomic sequencing and computational biology to uncover human-microbe interactions and develop novel therapeutics for immune-related diseases. Dr. Lou obtained her PhD in microbiology from UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Dr. Jill Banfield. In 2023, Dr. Lou was selected as an Entrepreneurial Fellow at UC Berkeley and was subsequently awarded a $1M non-dilutive grant in 2024 to launch Sift Biosciences, a biotech company developing T-cell-targeted, peptide-based immunotherapies informed by microbial immunity. Dr. Lou’s contributions to life sciences have been recognized by Forbes, which named her to its 30 Under 30 list, and by the American Cancer Society, which selected her as a BrightEdge Fellow.

Ángel Lucio Pereira is the CEO of Tetraneuron, a biotechnology company developing disease-modifying gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Ángel began his career in 2008 at Sanofi and brings over 17 years of experience across global pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations, having held senior leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, Takeda, Reckitt Benckiser, and Sanofi, with responsibilities spanning Europe and Asia.

At Tetraneuron, he leads the translation of more than a decade of academic neuroscience into a first-in-human gene therapy program, integrating scientific rigor, regulatory strategy, and long-term value creation. In parallel, Ángel has been deeply involved as an investor and company builder, leading the pre-seed, seed, and pre-Series A financing rounds through Santa Rosa, the private investment vehicle he created to support the company’s development.

Ángel lives in an international family environment; his wife, Céline Talabaza, is CEO of Noble Panacea, and together they have three children. Having lived and worked in multiple countries, he brings a global and deeply human perspective to building biotech companies that aim to make a lasting difference for patients.

Debesh Mandal is CEO and a cofounder of Nanograb, a computational drug discovery company that uses AI to design non-viral vectors for the targeted delivery of genetic medicines. The company designs unique combinations of binders, conjugated onto lipid nanoparticles to enable delivery to unique cells and tissues in vivo.

Debesh completed his PhD at Imperial College London, developing molecular simulation models for studying advanced biodegradable drug delivery systems. This knowledge, along with the foundational multivalent models developed by CSO and co-founder Stefano Angioletti-Uberti form the core of the company’s approach to developing novel vectors for targeted delivery. He spun the company out from Imperial in 2023 before leading the company through YCombinator’s Summer 2023 accelerator program.

He now leads the commercial development of Nanograb through collaborations with biopharma leaders and ensures the fulfillment of Nanograb’s mission to enable the deployment of genetic medicines to novel or underserved patient populations.

Benjamin Naovarat is the CEO and Co-Founder of Enexa Bio, a preclinical biotechnology company developing precision small-molecule therapies for rheumatological diseases, beginning with lupus. He began his career as a physician-scientist under Dr. John Reveille, where his research focused on lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, and HIV. His work has been published in Firestein & Kelley’s Textbook of Rheumatology, RMD Open, The Journal of Rheumatology, and other peer-reviewed journals, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal.

Prior to founding Enexa Bio, Benjamin was an investor at Cybernetix Ventures, where he led their biotech and life sciences investments, and previously invested across therapeutics and medical devices at the Texas Medical Center. He also serves as a mentor with MassBio and as an Expert Therapeutics Reviewer for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

As a Thai American founder, Benjamin is committed to expanding access and representation within the ecosystem and is focused on creating pathways for individuals who have historically been underrepresented in the field. He holds an MD from McGovern Medical School and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and their two cats, Petrie and Poe.

Dr Pahini Pandya is the CEO and Founder of Panakeia, world’s first in silico multi-omics company. Trained as a cancer researcher. Pahini spent the last decade furthering translational research in the field. She pursued a PhD in cancer biophysics at King’s College London, a postdoc at the University of Cambridge and has several publications in top journals. Educated at the Stanford and Cambridge business schools, Pahini has also held several leadership positions across entrepreneurial organisations and helped numerous start-ups commercialise research. She has been recognised as Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, and received multiple awards for entrepreneurship.

Ben Swanson is founder and CEO of Skeletalis, where he leads the company’s efforts to advance next-generation skeletal therapeutics and translate cutting-edge science into medicines for patients. He earned both his DDS and PhD from the University of Michigan and brings deep biomedical research and translational training to building Skeletalis. In July 2025, he led an oversubscribed seed round for the company, led by Pillar VC, and as a Termeer Fellow he is committed to purpose-driven biotech innovation with a patient-first focus.

Cody Tranbarger is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atlas Venture and the Founder, CEO of Mithril Medicine, a seed-stage biotech developing antibody therapeutics for rare genetic disorders. Most recently, Cody was a Co-Founder of Revision Bio, which was acquired in 2025. Previously, he held leadership positions at Prime Medicine and Casdin Capital. Cody also serves as a Board Member of Cure Rare Disease and an Advisor to Accelerating Breakthroughs in EB (ABE), two non-profits focused on drug development for rare diseases. Cody holds a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, a Masters of Science in Biotechnology from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and a B.A. in Biology and Economics from Amherst College.

Johanna Vincze Webb is the President and CEO for RiverWalk Therapeutics, inc., a women-owned and women-led preclinical biotech based in San Antonio, Texas. RiverWalk Therapeutics is developing potent adenosine inverse agonist signaling inhibitors for the treatment of late-stage cancers with current treatment options that are limited, toxic and largely ineffective, such as triple negative breast cancer.

Johanna graduated from Texas A&M in 1986 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry, followed by a Master of Science degree in Biotechnology from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2013. She is an experienced technical project manager with over 30 years of experience in highly technical and regulated industries, focusing on drug development for the last decade. Prior to joining RiverWalk, she was the Director of Drug Development Project Management at AlaMab Therapeutics, where she managed the effort to successfully progress two antibody drugs for acute spinal cord injury and osteosarcoma though preclinical studies and regulatory submissions in preparation for first-in-human trials. She is passionate about bringing new therapeutics from the research environment into the drug development and commercialization process to hopefully benefit patients one day. In 2022, she won the AIM-HI Women’s Venture Competition for female entrepreneurs in oncology and was a member of the American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge Entrepreneur program in 2025.

She grew up in Clear Lake City, Texas but has called Boerne, Texas home for the last 25 years with her husband, children, and Maine Coon cats. When she isn’t working, she is traveling, playing piano, silversmithing, or listening to live music.

Mengdie (Mandy) Wang, Ph.D. is Co-founder and CEO of RedPoint Oncology, developing a novel payload class for targeted cancer therapies. She founded RedPoint from her postdoctoral research at UMass Chan Medical School to address therapy resistance in cancer. Mandy has authored 20+ publications and led innovations in translational cancer research. Under her leadership, RedPoint has secured non-dilutive funding and VC investment, and has been recognized with the 2024 MassChallenge Technology in Space Prize, 2025 MassBioDrive Startup of the Year, and the 2025 Eddies Award. She is committed to translating scientific discoveries into meaningful outcomes for patients with urgent unmet needs.

Arno Bisschop (Dutch, 1987) is an entrepreneur in the health and life sciences. He is trained as a medical doctor at the Amsterdam University Medical Center and hold a PhD in the field of orthopedic- and neurosurgery and a master’s in management and policy in health and life sciences. The last 10 years, Arno co-founded and exited several healthcare related companies. Besides being an advisor to several start-ups, he currently holds the position of CEO at Genewity. This clinical-stage company develops groundbreaking gene therapies to make a difference for thousands of patients around the world and was previously recognized as one of the most promising start-ups in Europe. Arno lives in Amsterdam with his girlfriend and son.

Shana Wang the co-founder and CEO of PathCision Medicine. Shana brings to PathCision a unique blend of analytical rigor, operational excellence, and mission-driven leadership. Prior to founding the company, she was Head of Marketing and Analytics at a femtech company, where she built and led her cross-functional team to launch new products and implemented data-driven strategies to accelerate adoption and market growth. Earlier in her career, she worked in strategy and analytics consulting, advising Fortune 500 companies and developing predictive models to support data-informed decisions. Across industries, her work has consistently focused on turning complex data into meaningful, measurable outcomes. She holds an M.A. in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University and a B.A. in Economics and English from Wellesley College.