Ignition Award Review Committee

Fluidics and Materials Engineering Professional

Bruce Carvalho is currently a principal at Aixtek, a fluidics consultancy practice, and contributes to the technical leadership of LivOnyx, a Lowell-based hand sanitization start-up. Past roles include positions at DxTech, Living Microsystems (now Illumina), Tecan and Gamera Bioscience, leading groups in the design, fabrication and testing of blood-based microfluidic devices and instruments. Bruce graduated from Haverford College and earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Senior Manager Business Development at PerkinElmer

Nina Dinjaski is currently the Senior Manager Business Development at PerkinElmer where she manages strategic investments and partnerships. Prior to this role, she worked at MassGeneralBrigham Innovation Office as a Licensing Manager II, where she was responsible for the evaluation, strategy, and commercialization of research, discoveries, and IP arising from the Pulmonary, OBGYN, Reproductive Endocrine, Anesthesia, Sleep Medicine, Urology, Emergency Medicine, and Pediatrics departments for Brigham Women’s Hospital and Radiation Oncology, OB/GYN, Reproductive Endocrinology and Urology departments at Mass General Hospital. Before joining MGB she worked at Tufts University, Office for Technology Transfer and Industry Collaboration where she managed engineering school portfolios. Earlier in her career, Nina held a joint postdoctoral scholar appointment at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts. Nina holds a PhD in molecular microbiology from Complutense University in Spain. Her research focused on genetic and metabolic engineering strategies to functionalize biomaterials for medical applications.

Founder and Managing Partner at Kull Enterprise Services, LLC

Wolfgang Krull is the founder and managing partner of Krull Enterprise Services, LLC (KESSCO) providing executive management support for medical companies. He has had entrepreneurial success in both large and small (start-up) companies by driving strategic development, product development, and operations/supply chain to meet worldwide business requirements. He also works with the Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation and Technology (CIMIT) as an Accelerator Executive helping emerging companies/technologies develop and execute strategies for getting innovative solutions into practice. Previously, Wolfgang was COO for Medtronic’s Navigation and Imaging Business responsible for O-arm Imaging system and VP of Manufacturing at GE Medical Systems (Image Guidance). He also spent many years with Hewlett Packard Medical (now Philips Medical) including senior executive roles as head of R&D and WW Operations for the Patient Monitoring Business.

Assistant Director for Clinical Microbiology, Boston Medical Center; Assistant Professor for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Marisa C. Nielsen received her BS in Microbiology, her MS in Environmental Microbiology from the University of Arizona, and her PhD from the University of California, Irvine. She completed a Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Fellowship at the University of Texas, Medical Branch. She is a board-certified medical microbiologist (American Board of Medical Microbiology) with 15 years of clinical microbiology experience. Her interests range from microbiome research to infectious diseases diagnostics and microscopy, with a specific focus on pathogens acquired from environmental exposures and the protective role of commensal organisms in the infection process. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, the Assistant Director for Clinical Microbiology at Boston Medical Center, and holds a BU-BMC Cancer Center Faculty Appointment.

Advisory Board | Strategic Advisor | Healthcare Technology

Ashok’s professional career started at Hewlett Packard, when he was still an engineering and chemistry post-graduate student at Stanford University/USF. Since then, he has held global healthcare executive roles at Hewlett Packard, Agilent, and Philips Healthcare.

While in these roles he guided the development and commercialization of significant patentable breakthroughs, including the first-ever 3D transesophageal probe (which generates a 360° view of heart), a 2-in-1 broadband transducer, Single Crystal (Pure Wave) transducers, and more. His experience in general management, establishing and expanding a business in China, and with acquisitions in Germany, Canada, and Israel provides a well-rounded international perspective. Ashok also created an incubator ecosystem to accelerate AI development.

Most recently, Ashok is an active member of advisory boards for three different medical imaging and device companies. He also guides start-up initiatives to develop customer insights and drive differentiating solutions for scalable growth.

Director of Business Development and Alliance Management, eGenesis

Lee W. Tien is currently the Director of Business Development and Alliance Management at eGenesis, a gene editing company working to develop safe and effective xenotransplants to end the global human organ shortage. Prior to this role, he managed strategic investments and partnerships as part of the Technology & Innovation team at PerkinElmer, a research tools and diagnostics company. Earlier in his career, Lee worked in technology transfer, protecting and commercializing inventions made at Boston University and Tufts University. Lee holds a BSE in electrical engineering from Princeton, a PhD in biomedical engineering from Tufts, and an MBA from Boston University.

Founder of collaborate.center

Osama is founder of collaborate.center (Intelligent Data Collaboration Platform) used in telecommunications and construction (Talon.io) and healthcare (Collaboratehealth.com). He is the CEO of nxtec and CTO and board member of Talon and Collaborate Health. Osama is also a faculty member in the electrical and computer engineering department at Boston University. He served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on CSVT and an area Editor for Signal Processing: Image Communication, Theory, Techniques & Applications Journal. He was part of the founding team of PacketVideo Corporation and was its CTO. He served as a research scientist in Rockwell Science Center and Visiting Researcher at University of California Berkley. Osama has a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech (advisor Russell Mersereau), MSc. from Iowa State University (advisor John Doherty) and BSc. in Electrical Engineering from University of Jordan. Osama received the BU ECE Award of Excellence in Teaching, 2015, the BU ECE Best Class Award, 2016 and Fulbright Scholarship, 1991. Osama served on technology and development boards including AT&T, Verizon, Orange, Android, Euclid, Talon and LogicBlox.

Co-founder, CEO at AppliedQ

Steve is a technologist and serial entrepreneur deeply connected to the technical ecosystem. He has been an internet pioneer since its commercial inception in the mid 80’s, serving as Internet Architect at BBN and Wellfleet Communications and CTO of International Wireless and Prodigy International. He assisted AsiaInfo in the development of ChinaNet, China’s national internet backbone. He is an expert in many facets of IT development – invention, standardization, commercial development of networking infrastructure, equipment, protocols, web and mobile services and applications. Steve is an EIR/Advisor at SUN Technology Incubator, Rock Maple Ventures, Masthead Ventures and Avalon Ventures. He has co-founded several venture backed startups and holds patents in Interactive Media & Networking.

Professor, Mechanical Engineering, BU College of Engineering

Professor Andersson believes the potential of scanning probe microscopy has not yet been realized. His current work in this area focuses on bringing systems and control theory to bear in atomic force and confocal laser scanning microscopies with the goal of extending the domain of applicability of these technologies deeper into the realm of dynamic processes. In symbolic control and robotics, his research is aimed at developing methods for handling the complexity of robots operating in real-world environments. Ongoing work includes the use of symbols to tokenize both the environment and the controls as well as efforts to handle the stochastic nature of actuators and sensors. He is also interested in cooperative approaches based on a symbolic framework of control.

Co-founder and CEO of Yobe Inc

Ken is a seasoned entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of strategy and corporate business management experience in the technology, marketing, and finance industries. In addition to his role as CEO, Ken manages the company’s product vision, corporate development, team building, brand management, and investor relationships. Ken’s formal entrepreneurial experience started directly after university with the creation of The Tampa Marketing Group, a multi-state marketing firm, focused on product development, market research and brand strategy. By the time TMG was acquired, it had grown to an 11 office 6 state organization with both domestic and international clients. Following TMG, Ken spent a few years as a Capital Markets professional working on critical projects for hedge fund and private equity firms focused on Pre-IPO investments in the technology and real estate arenas. Ken entered the technology arena first as an advisor, then as a board member, and eventually as an entrepreneur. Leveraging IP he co-created related to Voice Isolation and Biometric Identification Ken founded his current venture Yobe Inc., a VC-backed software company with a focus on Voice. Ken, attended the University of Connecticut and has served as a proud member of the US Armed Forces (US Army Ranger).

Director of Curriculum, Innovate@BU and Master Lecturer, Strategy & Innovation, BU Questrom School of Business

Ian Mashiter is currently the director of curriculum at Innovate@BU where oversees the Innovation & Entrepreneurship minor. He previously served as the inaugural managing director of Innovate@BU’s physical home, the BUild Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center. Ian is a senior lecturer at Boston University where he teaches entrepreneurship and strategy to MBA and undergraduate students in the Questrom School of Business. Previously, Ian was an entrepreneurial executive with more than 28 years of high-technology experience. Ian has raised $100 million in venture funding since 1996. Over his career, Ian has served as a board member, chief executive officer, and cofounder of such innovative telecommunications companies as Quarry Technologies, Ennovate Networks, Dymec, BMS, Nimbit, and Kenetic. As an experienced operational executive and active angel investor, Ian provides advisory services to a number of high-tech start-ups. He is a member of the Hub Angel Group and the Launchpad Venture Group, as well as a Mass Challenge mentor and judge. Ian is also on the board of the Capital Network. The Capital Network is a nonprofit (501c3) organization that provides extensive financial education to help early-stage entrepreneurs in Boston.

Technology Executive & Executive Coach

Imran is a technologist and entrepreneur. Currently active in Climate Action, he was recently a Market Development Fellow at NECEC where one of his activities was to enhance the adoption of Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) in Northeast US.

Imran has management and technology leadership experience at large & small companies and startups where he produced many successful revenue generating products and led large multidisciplinary teams. He played key technical role at public companies in building innovative industry transformative products for cloud services, financial trading, 2-way wireless messaging and industrial control systems. He co-founded MessageMachines, a mobile messaging startup, where he was VP of Engineering and which had a successful exit. He has worked at several startups in full-time or interim executive roles, and helped entrepreneurship initiatives in Egypt, Kosovo, Pakistan, and Serbia on USAID funded projects. His past employers include Intel, Aepona (acquired by Intel), L1-ID (Idemia), NMS Communications (acquired MessageMachines), SoftLinx, Lotus/IBM, Digital Equipment, Philips and International Computers Ltd (UK).

Imran holds a MS in Computer, Information & Control Engineering from University of Michigan; Electronic Design Engineer diploma from Philips International Institute, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; and, a BS EE from Peshawar University. He completed NECEC’s Clean Energy Fellowship, an innovative entrepreneurial development program designed to rapidly transition entrepreneurs into the region’s clean energy sector.

Associate Provost, Translational Research | Gordon and Ruth Snider Professor of Pulmonary Medicine

David Center is the Associate Provost of Translational Research and Gordon and Ruth Snider Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, and he has served as Chief of Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep, and Critical Care Medicine since 1986. David has directed and served as PI for BU’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) since 2008, focusing on facilitating translational research and advancing team science on the Boston University Medical Campus, which occupies half my time. His individual research focuses on the biological effects of Interleukin 16, which he co-discovered, as an immunomodulatory cytokine in inflammation. David also defined all the functional properties of the IL-16 precursor protein, Pro-IL-16, as a PDZ containing nuclear scaffold that coordinates a multiple protein complex that acts as a transcriptional suppressor. Mutations in the scaffold predispose to T cell malignancies, while the secreted cytokine acts a necessary growth factor for myeloma cells. This work has been funded by NIH-sponsored R, P, and U grants beginning in 1978. In the past several years he has shifted from a lifetime of traditional NIH P01, P50 and R01 research to concentrate my efforts on developing the intellectual property (in collaboration with industry) on inhibitors of IL-16 function, in particular human and humanized monoclonal antibodies to IL-16, as treatments for neuro-inflammatory diseases and multiple myeloma. Since 1996, David has directed this T32, the largest at Boston University. They train PhD pre- and post- doctoral fellows and MD postdoctoral fellows in multiple fields of lung health and disease from clinical outcomes to traditional lab science, from genetic epidemiology to developmental biology. Since 2015, he has chaired the NHLBI Division of Lung Diseases Pulmonary Trials Cooperative, which oversees 4 simultaneous overlapping pragmatic trials. David’s personal commitment to leading multidisciplinary research and research training and mentorship will continue as he will continue to Chair the T32 executive committee with oversight of career development and mentorship quality.

Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Ranok Therapeutics, Boston Massachusetts

Dr. Foley has a long-standing research interest in protein homeostasis and the ubiquitin-proteasome system, which he has continued as co-founder and CSO of Ranok Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is pioneering a novel approached to targeted protein degradation, Chaperone-mediated protein degradation (CHAMP™). In prior roles at FORMA Therapeutics, GlaxoSmithKline, Synta Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ZymoGenetics he has had a successful track record of advancing innovative therapies into the clinic. He conducted his post-doctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Owner & Consultant, Ripple Biotech, LLC.

John Ripple served as CEO of 5 venture-backed biotech companies, including Exonics Therapeutics (acquired by Vertex), Virdante Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Momenta), and Syntonix Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Biogen). John previously held positions in business development, entrepreneur-in-residence, medical device marketing, and management consulting. He started his career as an aerospace engineer at NASA. John founded Ripple Biotech LLC to advise biopharmaceutical companies on strategy, business development and capital fundraising activities. He currently serves as a member on the Board of Overseers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, MA), on the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the Children’s Melanoma Prevention Foundation, and as an advisor to the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. John received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

External Engagement Program Lead, Scientific Relations & Initiatives (SRI), Sanofi R&D North America

Lucie has over ten years of experience in conducting biomedical research. She trained in Rennes, France, at the National Center for Research (CNRS) and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM). After graduating with her Ph.D., Lucie moved to the US to complete a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Hospital (joint appointment) in Boston, MA. Committed to foster alliances between Academia and Industry, to facilitate the transfer of technology for the benefit of patients, Lucie joined the largest trade association for the life Sciences, MassBio Innovation Services in 2017. In this role, Lucie created a series of programs and initiatives, Academic Outreach and Engagement, to leverage MassBio’s community of members and experts to accelerate company creation and facilitate strategic alliances within academic institutions. In this role, Lucie has built several working groups convening leaders from academia and industry, as well as mentoring programs for academic scientists and joined several advisory boards to foster entrepreneurship beyond the Boston region. In 2021, Lucie joined Boston University Industry Engagement team, to help BU scientists to partner with Life Sciences industry, supporting legal teamwork in contracting and working with Research Centers to enhance their visibility and make of BU a partner of choice in area like Infectious Diseases, Neuroscience, Public Health and SynBio. More recently, Lucie has joined Sanofi Scientific and Relation initiatives team, a group focusing on solving R&D challenging by working with academic scientists and entrepreneurs. In this new group, Lucie is focusing on leveraging Sanofi experience and expertise to connect and engage with Innovators and Talents of the Life Sciences Ecosystem.

Professor of Medicine and Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Medicine, Boston University Medical Center

David Salant is Professor of Medicine and Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine at Boston University Medical Center. He graduated from the Witwatersrand University Medical School in 1969 and completed clinical training at the Johannesburg General Hospital. He received research training at Boston University with Dr. William Couser and joined the faculty in 1979. He was appointed Chief of Nephrology and Director of the Nephrology Training Program in 1987.

Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, David conducted extensive research on immune disorders of the kidneys, and he has authored over 200 scientific publications, reviews and book chapters. His work has focused on mechanisms of immune deposition and the role of complement in diseases of the kidney glomerulus, and on the structural biology of the podocyte. He was one of the earliest proponents of the notion that podocyte injury forms the basis of most, if not all, proteinuric kidney diseases. In a landmark New England Journal of Medicine paper in 2009, David and his colleagues described their discovery that a high proportion of patients with membranous nephropathy have circulating autoantibodies to the M-type phospholipase A2 receptor on human podocytes. This discovery was awarded international patents and was licensed by EuroImmun, a German company that has marketed an FDA approved diagnostic immunoassay for membranous nephropathy with world-wide distribution and sales. In collaboration with his colleague, Dr. Weining Lu, David has also been engaged in a cooperative program with Pfizer CTI that developed a potential therapeutic agent for proteinuric kidney diseases currently undergoing a phase II clinical trial.

Dr. Salant has received several awards and honors, including an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association, the Jean Hamburger Award from the International Society of Nephrology, the John P. Peters Award from the American Society of Nephrology, the Donald W. Seldin Award from the National Kidney Foundation, the Marilyn Farquhar Award at the 11th Annual Podocyte Conference and the Edward N. Gibbs Award from the New York Academy of Sciences. In 2015, he was the Boston University Innovator of the Year and he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on several NIH advisory panels and on the editorial boards of several major journals.

Associate in Global Innovation, TechAtlas division, RA Capital Management.

Andrew Senesi is a Principal with Tencent Exploration team, a corporate venture arm of tech giant Tencent, that seeks to tackle problems of global scale focusing on healthcare, sustainability, and breakthrough technologies. As biotech increasingly becomes an information science, Andrew’s interests have broadly expanded to include both biotech and tech, with an emphasis on platform and product led companies. Since joining the team in 2021, Andrew has led multiple investments in biotech companies across therapeutics, diagnostics, and tools. The Tencent Exploration Team portfolio can be found on their website, https://tenx.tc/. Andrew began his career at RA Capital after spending a decade in academia, where he received his PhD in chemistry and bionanomaterials at Northwestern University and worked as a postdoc at Argonne National Lab and University of Chicago.