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episode 12

In e.013, Dr. Omer Inan shares insight on academia and entrepreneurship –– for example, how do they interact…and can a person pursue both? 

Omer earned his B.S., M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. During his studies, he worked at ALZA Corporation in the Drug Device Research and Development Group, then Countryman Associates, Inc. as the chief engineer.  Post-graduation, he stuck close to Stanford’s Electrical Engineering program as a visiting scholar. 

Omer is now a tenured associate professor and the Smith Chair in Bioscience and Bioengineering at Georgia Tech’s School of ECE. He is also a scientific advisor for Cardiosense –– a medtech startup leveraging non-invasive sensors and AI to build the next generation of cardiac monitoring. 

This episode will highlight the medical devices and systems research that has  been the focus of Omer’s research; in that process it should offer further insight into the boundaries, barriers and collaborations between academia and entrepreneurship as well as research and funding. 

e.014: Dr. Lishan Aklog's journey to entrepreneurial and professional success was not an easy road. As a teenager Dr. Aklog fled political violence in Ethiopia, which led him to become especially active in philanthropic organizations later in life. Dr. Aklog is a member of the NY Executive Committee, the Africa Advisory Committee, and the Human Rights Watch serving on its Board of Directors. In addition, he is Board Chairman of the Boston ECG Project Charitable Foundation Inc., a non-profit corporation whose purpose is to save the lives of children and adolescents by preventing sudden cardiac death and identifying occult underlying cardiac abnormalities and conditions. Previously, Dr. Aklog served on Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee in 2008.

Dr. Aklog has been a heart surgeon for more than 20 years and received his degree from Harvard University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in Physics, and his M.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Medical School. He completed his surgical training at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, Harefield Hospital, London and L’Hôpital Broussais, Paris. 

He is also a prolific entrepreneur and innovator having started many impactful companies including PAVmed and Lucid Diagnostics that he took public on NASDAQ. 

e.015 thinks Sree Kant is pretty phenomenal. Sree is an experienced biotech executive, and company builder. Over a 20-year career in life sciences and healthcare, he has worked across investing, operational, advisory, and entrepreneurial roles and functions. He is passionate about translating cutting edge science into therapies that significantly change health outcomes for patients.

Before founding BAKX, Sree headed the Investments and Partnerships function at Life Biosciences, where he built platform focused companies in the areas of age-related diseases. He also took on operational roles in the portfolio companies driving the corporate development agenda. Prior to Life bio, Sree led early partnering strategy for Pfizer, driving strategic partnerships across different therapeutic areas/technologies and geographies. He also built Pfizer’s early target partnering vehicle and drove academic partnerships and spinouts to advance novel target platforms.

Sree was also Principal at the Boston Consulting Group advising large pharma, biotech, and medical device companies in areas of Corporate development, R&D strategy, M&A, etc.  Sree started his career with Ranbaxy labs in New Delhi and London, and also was a founding member of India’s first preventative, managed health company.

e.012: Dr. Derrell Porter is a physician-entrepreneur with years of experience in the business of medicine, and one of the few experts with dual capabilities in developing and commercializing rapidly evolving cell therapies. Before founding his first startup, Cellevolve, Dr. Porter was the Head of Commercial at Atara Bio, a leader in off-the-shelf T-cell immunotherapy. Dr. Porter has held roles of increasing responsibility at three leading biopharmaceutical companies: Gilead, AbbVie, and Amgen.

Dr. Porter earned his MD from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine (where he was a Gamble Scholar) and an MBA from The Wharton School. He earned his BS in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Additionally, he is on the boards of NASDAQ listed Passage Bio, a Philadelphia-based genetics medicine company, and a board member at Portal Innovations; he also serves as an Advisory Committee Member for the Penn School of Medicine. 

Dr. Porter has such a unique background and set of experiences ranging from medical training and experience in commercializing drugs at large biopharma companies to the application of that knowledge in start-up settings.