biomedical + engineering entrepreneurship academy ... · biomedical + engineering ....

Biomedical + Engineering

Entrepreneurship Academy

Participant Biographies

July 11-13, 2016• University of California, Davis • Buehler Alumni Center

Biomedical + Engineering Entrepreneurship Academy PARTICIPANT BIOGRAPHIES

Yasser Abdelhafez, UC Davis School of Medicine Yasser Abdelhafez is a nuclear medicine physician with wide

academic and clinical knowledge. He was graduated from Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Egypt (MBBCh 2002) and finished his specialty training and master degree (MSc) in nuclear medicine from Cairo University (2007).

His doctoral degree (MD), which was part of sandwich program with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan (2008-2012), focused on risk stratification of oral cavity cancer patients using semi-quantitative parameters from FDG-PET/CT images. He has multiple conference publications in WMIC, EANM and SNMMI in addition to some journal papers. Part of his work received Young Professional Committee (SNMMI 2014) and International Best Abstracts (SNMMI 2015 & 2016) awards. He is currently interested in deriving objective parameters from PET images for diagnosis, prognosis and follow-up of oncological and inflammatory conditions. He works in close collaboration with medical physicists and engineers to develop software solutions for that purpose.

Mehrdad Afshari, UC Davis College of Engineering Mehrdad Afshari, Ph.D., is the founder and CEO of Vivibe, a technology company focused on building tools and services to improve software development. Prior to founding Vivibe, Mehrdad was a PhD student and researcher in Computer Science at the University of California, Davis where he conceived new ideas to reimagine the programming experience. He also had a brief stint in validating and improving the reliability of critical system software. His work on validating C compilers has led to uncovering and fixing of hundreds of high-priority defects in two of the most widely-used C compilers, GCC and LLVM, heavily used by the likes of Apple, Facebook, and Google to build important projects including iOS, Android, Linux, and safety-critical embedded systems.

Mehrdad has more than a decade of experience as a consultant writing code and leading software projects. Besides consulting, he has software engineering experience at a variety of firms, from large ones like Google to tiny startups.


Juliet Aristizabal, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso Reinhard Bethke, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso

Peter Burkard, UC Davis College of Engineering Peter Burkard is a recent UC Davis college graduate. This past June he received his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering with high honors. During his studies, he performed research in a molecular biology lab and completed several internships at the UC Davis Medical Center. He’s excited to further develop his senior design project, the metronome ventilation device (MVD), at the Biomedical and Engineering Entrepreneurship Academy and hopes to learn if potential business opportunities are available for this project. The MVD is designed to reduce the incidence of bag-valve-mask induced hyperventilation during CPR procedures with its guidance signals. In operation, the user would wear the MVD like a wristwatch, select their desired ventilation rate, and deliver oxygen to their patient in synchrony with the MVD’s guidance signals.

Chun-Lung Chiu, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Chun-Lung Chiu is a PhD candidate in Integrative Pathobiology Graduate Group at UC Davis. He obtained his DVM and MS at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. He also served as a veterinarian in Animal Protection and Health Inspection Department in Taiwan. In 2012, he was awarded a competitive scholarship for an oversea graduate study sponsored by Ministry of Education, Taiwan. His research interests involve the development of a comprehensive understanding of key molecular pathways and molecular mechanisms of cancer in both human and animals. At present, his research focuses on molecular mechanisms of cancer stem/initiating cells in cancer development and develops novel peptides to prevent cancer progression and recurrence. Chun-Lung has received multiple awards, including American Thoracic Society 2015 International Conference Scholarship, UC Davis 6th Annual Lung Research Symposium Award (2015), UC Davis Graduate Student Travel Award (2015) and Graduate Fellowship (2013-2016).


Derek Cissell, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Cissell joined the faculty of the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in January 2016 as an Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Imaging. He earned a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Connecticut where he played intercollegiate polo and developed an interest in equine musculoskeletal injuries. That interest led Dr. Cissell to become a veterinarian, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. Following veterinary school, he worked for two years in a private, mixed-animal practice in northern Utah before returning to academia to complete a residency in veterinary radiology and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Cissell’s clinical and research interests include large animal diagnostic imaging, early diagnosis of cartilage injuries, and non-invasive evaluation of musculoskeletal tissue function.

Eduardo Escalona, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso Eduardo is a PhD candidate in Biotechnology and Bachelor of Biochemistry at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV), Valparaiso, Chile. He is also associate professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad de Las Américas and Universidad de Viña del Mar. He has worked as a researcher in projects related to: generation of genetically modified organisms and purification of triterpenoids of high commercial value (saponins). He is currently developing his doctoral thesis which aims at genetic modification of microalgae Tetraselmis suecica. The purpose of this thesis is to generate a microalga capable of producing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), to enhance their current use in the aquaculture industry.

Catherine Fassbender, UC Davis School of Medicine Dr. Fassbender received her Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland in 2005. Her research interests involve understanding the neural mechanisms of cognitive control through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Her research has primarily revolved around investigating cognition in children and adults with clinical disorders such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and substance abuse. In addition to fMRI Dr. Fassbender utilizes behavioral and electrophysiological methods to better understand the brain and clinical disorders. Her goal is to better


understand cognitive impairment in order to inform targeted treatments. She also aims to identify patterns of brain and behavior function that will inform the early identification of individuals vulnerable to substance dependence with the goal of prevention.

Carrie Finno, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Carrie Finno is an equine internist that received her DVM from the University of Minnesota (UMN) in 2004. She completed an internship in large animal medicine and surgery at UMN in 2005 and then went on to complete a 3-year residency in large animal internal medicine at the University of California, Davis (UCD), culminating in board-certification in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Dr. Finno elected to pursue a career in equine genetic research, with a strong focus on neuromuscular disease, and obtained her PhD in 2012 from UCD. Dr. Finno is currently an assistant professor at UMN. Dr. Finno's research is focused on equine genetic diseases, including equine neuroaxonal dystrophy/equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy (NAD/EDM), equine shivers, myofibrillar myopathy and immune-mediated myositis. In conjunction with the equine studies, she is researching the interaction of vitamin E and neural development, using a well-established mouse model.

Arshia Firouzi, UC Davis College of Engineering Arshia Firouzi is an Electrical Engineering student at the University of California, Davis, set to graduate June of 2016. His undergraduate research consists of gravitational lensing analysis for the Department of Physics at UC Davis, geothermal and evaporative cooling techniques for increased efficiency of HVAC systems at the Western Cooling Efficiency Center, and his current project- the development of an in-vivo MEMS medical device. Arshia is interested in electrical-biological interfaces, electronic system performance in extreme environments, and EM wave interactions in ionic media. Originally from Southern Illinois, he developed a passion for backpacking and hiking which he continues to enjoy after having moved to Northern California. He also plays soccer and chess at both a competitive and recreational level. To relax, Arshia reads a variety of nonfiction, science fiction, and fantasy novels.


Juan Carlos Forero Oliveros, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso Juan Carlos received his BS in Biology at Universidad del Atlántico in Barranquilla-Colombia in 2008 and is pursuing an PhD in Biotechnology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Valparaíso-Chile. He has varied interdisciplinary research experience in molecular biology, cellular biology, regenerative medicine, as well as biopolymer extraction from natural sources. His doctoral research is focused on nanocomposite scaffold synthesis for Bone Tissue Engineering applications. Juan Carlos likes to know novel approaches of Innovation and entrepreneurship in Medical Biotechnology. Currently, Juan has been working on the development of startups based on the production of chitosan and nanotechnological products for biomedical and industrial applications.

Titus Garrett, UC Davis College of Engineering

Alex Godbout, UC Davis College of Engineering Alex Godbout recently graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering. He is an aspiring bioinformatician, and currently conducts research on improving proteomic annotations using machine learning at the UC Davis Genome Center. Additionally he serves as COO and web developer for Chromatiscope, a VentureWell-funded startup that seeks to develop a smartphone spectrophotometer/colorimeter/fluorometer for high school students. Lately he has been working on a patent for a mobile app idea that has been described as "like Yelp, but with proteins." The idea has won several honors and awards, including the CITRIS Mobile App Competition Award, the Engineering Student Startup Center Microgrant, and a semifinalist standing at the Big Bang Business Competition. He also hopes to explore the potential commercialization of his senior design project: a point-of-care coagulation-monitoring device that won the 2016 Sandia Engineering Design Award.


Anne Haudenschild, UC Davis College of Engineering David Hurtado, UC Davis Extension David is well versed in International Patent Law, Startups, and Technology Transfer. He currently holds three patents and has licensed two technologies for his own startup called Sencon, from Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Colombia and the University of Pittsburgh. The technologies invented are related to ergonomics design for wheelchair users. While studying in Israel, he learned how startups evolve and function in the High-Tech Industry and the entrepreneurship ecosystems sustainability in developed and developing countries. Currently, he is the Coordinator of Innovation of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, a private university in Columbia. His role is to manage the technology transfer and startup creations based on research activities.

David holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering and holds a Masters in Law with specialization in Patent Law.

Vicki Hwang, UC Davis School of Medicine Vicki Hwang is a postdoc at UC Davis studying the metabolic similarities between cancer and Polycystic Kidney Disease. She loves learning about exciting technologies and is interested in helping them move from innovation to enterprise. She currently works with Sierra Energy on developing the Area52 accelerator and as an analyst for an angel investor. Vicki is also passionate about promoting women in STEM and is a board member of the Sacramento Valley AWIS chapter. In her free time, Vicki loves to travel and snuggle with her dachshund. Vicki has a B.A. in Genetics from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Integrative Genomics and Genetics from UC Davis.

Aaron Illathu, UC Davis School of Medicine

Rouzbeh Kananizadeh, UC Davis College of Engineering Rouzbeh Kananizadeh Received the BSc degree from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2012. He came to University of California, Davis in the same year and is currently working toward his PhD degree in electrical engineering at UC Davis. His research interests include hardware electronics with emphasis on integrated circuits for wireless communication. Mr. Kananizadeh is the recipient of UC Davis graduate fellowship in 2012. He has also won the 2015-2016 best


paper award of the department of electrical and computer engineering in UC Davis. He is currently working toward solutions in kitchen based on the platform of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Danielle Kassatly, UC Davis College of Biological Sciences

Jeffrey Lu, UC Davis College of Engineering Jeffrey Lu received his Bachelors from UC Davis, Masters from Cornell, and is now finishing his PhD this summer at UC Davis in Biomedical Engineering. He has mentored undergraduate engineering teams for the past three years, and personally instructed hundreds of students. His teams successfully produced five provisional patents, one research paper, and received awards at the Big Bang and Sandia National Laboratory competitions. He served as the project lead to redesign the Biomedical Engineering machining qualification project from the ground up, integrate multiple campus laboratories and prototype a digital microscope to incorporate the latest machining techniques and biomedical concepts. Jeff was recognized with a UC Davis campus-wide Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award (OGTA) for his work as the project lead. He is now setting his sights on industry with the hopes of founding a medical device start-up.

Jane Mantey, UC Davis FUTURE Program Jane Ama Mantey, Ph.D. is the coordinator for the Frontiers of University Training to Unlock the Research Enterprise (FUTURE) program, which is a NIH-funded alternative academic career exploration service for STEM Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars. She advises students and scholars on their own self-exploration and assessment, career research strategies, experiential learning opportunities, review of application materials, interview preparation, and negotiating a position.

Jane received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN and her B.S. in Biology from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Her previous research examined the link between smoke-based chemicals found on foods and colon cancer. Jane lives in Sacramento with her partner and two dogs. She is a civically-active member of the Sacramento community as a board member for the New Leaders Council Sacramento, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and a number of other organizations in the city.


Beatriz Martinez Lopez, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Martínez López research is focused on the development and application of epidemiological tools for supporting more cost-effective and risk-based surveillance and control strategies. She has been primarily working on epidemiological modeling and risk assessment of the evolution/spread of infectious diseases affecting domestic and/or wild animal populations such as Foot-and-mouth disease, African Swine Fever, avian influenza, Rift Valley Fever or bovine tuberculosis, among others. Many of those diseases are considered to be emerging or re-emerging due to globalization, climate and land use changes. Currently she is also working in diseases affecting aquatic animals, mainly those related with shrimp and salmon farming industry. Since 2014 when she assumed the direction of CADMS, she is leading the continuing development of the Disease BioPortal, an operational, secure web-based platform system intended for real time routing, sharing, analyzing and modeling of Big Data related with infectious diseases

Benjamin Moeller, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Benjamin Moeller received his BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Davis in 2004 and a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 2010. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology. Following completion of his doctoral research, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina focusing on biomarkers of exposure and effect to environmental chemicals. In 2013, he joined Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico and managed its GLP analytical and bioanalytical chemistry laboratories primarily supporting IND enabling safety studies in pre-clinical species. In 2016, he served as the technical supervisor for a new business venture focused on human clinical diagnostics in oral fluid. Ben joined UC Davis in June of 2016 as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Equine Analytical Chemistry.


Charles Mordaunt, UC Davis School of Medicine

Charles is a 3rd year PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Janine LaSalle, in the UC Davis School of Medicine. His research project investigates the role of DNA methylation in regulatory T cell function and risk for autism spectrum disorder. He uses both targeted and genome-wide approaches to identify unique differentially-methylated regions and uncover how they are affected by environmental exposures and gene expression. Preliminary work has identified global hypomethylation in umbilical cord blood from autism subjects and epigenetic dysregulation in pathways relevant to brain development. He has also identified demethylated regions in cord blood regulatory T cells near genes known to be important for Treg function, as well as novel genes. Besides research, Charles volunteers with Equity in STEM and Entrepreneurship (ESTEME) and is part of the Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology. After graduate school, he plans to work as a research scientist in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Pramond Pandey, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Pramod Pandey finished his PhD at Iowa State University in hydrological modeling and fate and transport of pathogens in water resources. His expertise is waste management, water pollution control, and sustainability. He did work as a mathematical modeler at Texas A&M University System, and holds two master degrees from Washington State University and Indian Institute of Technology. He joined UC Davis in 2013 as an extension specialist. He develops mathematical models supported by lab and field observations to predict public health risk and bacterial contamination in environment.


Tommaso Patriarchi, UC Davis College of Engineering Dr. Tommaso Patriarchi received his Ph.D. in Genetics, Oncology and Clinical Medicine at the University of Siena, Italy. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine of UC Davis. His multidisciplinary research experience includes stem cell biology, biochemistry and molecular neurobiology. His doctoral research focused on understanding protein signaling dynamics and how they help to shape synaptic connections and memory formation in the mammalian brain. Tommaso’s current postdoctoral project involves the development of novel genetically encoded fluorescent sensors for monitoring neural activity and the release of neurotransmitter molecules in living animals. This project employs a variety of techniques, including molecular cloning and evolution, computational modeling, confocal and two-photon deep-tissue imaging in living animals. Tommaso is motivated to seek novel approaches to screen the biological effects of drugs in living systems using biotechnological tools.

Nazia Podana, UC Davis College of Engineering Nazia Podana has recently graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Technology Management. She has a versatile skill set ranging within both Biology and Engineering, where she wishes to apply this skill set through developing wearable technology. For example, for Nazia's senior design project she has helped developed a wearable pressure ulcer prevention device that uses Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to detect the onset of tissue damage.

Tony Simon, UC Davis School of Medicine Tony J. Simon Ph.D. is a pediatric cognitive neuroscientist whose research focuses on neural, cognitive, affective and stress biology interactions in young people with genetic disorders that produce learning difficulties, behavioral dysregulation and psychopathology. Focused on developing treatments, he has used 15+ years of NIH funding to investigate how dysfunctional neurocognitive processing, such as attention, and spatial or temporal processing generate impairments in thinking about space, time, numbers and everyday challenges like math, using money and navigation. He used findings from those studies to develop a digital neurotherapeutic intervention (in the form a video game) to improve functioning in children with one of several neurogenetic disorders, the healthy aging and patients with certain types


of brain damage. A prototype of his patent-pending technology is in very early stage trials with several indicated populations and is showing exciting early signs of efficacy. Tony is about to start his very first company!

Zeljka Smit-McBride, UC Davis School of Medicine Dr. Zeljka Smit-McBride has received BS in Molecular Biology and Physiology (1979), and MS in Genetics (1983) from University of Belgrade, and PhD in Genetics from UC Davis (1990). Dr. Smit-McBride currently holds Associate Project Scientist position in the Dept. of Ophthalmology, UCDMS. Dr. Smit-McBride has had a sustained interest in the underlying molecular mechanisms governing life and how their disturbance can lead to disease. In particular, she would like to determine why aging is such a dominant risk factor. Currently, her research focuses on a prominent ocular age-related disease, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. To determine the underlying defects associated with this disease Dr. Smit-McBride has chosen to explore the genomics and epigenetics of the affected eye tissue.

Esteban Soto, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Esteban Soto received his veterinary degree from Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica in 2005. He then completed a Master’s degree program in Veterinary Science/Aquatic Pathobiology at Mississippi State University in 2007, and a PhD in Pathobiological Sciences from Louisiana State University in 2010. He served as an assistant and later as an associate professor of Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology at Ross University-School of Veterinary Medicine from 2010-2015, when he joined UC Davis. Dr. Soto became a certified fish pathologist by the American Fisheries Society-Fish Health Section in 2010, board certified by the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists with subspecialties in Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology and Veterinary Immunology in 2013, and certified as an Aquatic Veterinarian by the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association in 2015. His main research interests are to understand the pathogenesis of important infectious diseases of wild and aquatic animals, and to develop strategies to protect animals from these diseases.


Gurkern Sufi, UC Davis College of Engineering Gurkern grew up locally in Sacramento and initially came to Davis with the intention of pursuing medicine after graduation. While attending school he was highly interested in research focused towards manipulating biology and served as president of the Synthetic Biology Club for two years. In 2015 he graduated from the University of California Davis with a B.S. in Biotechnology and an emphasis in Bioinformatics. As an undergraduate Gurkern participated in research projects with the Plant Sciences Department, California National Primate Research Center, and the UCDMC Cardiology Electrophysiology Lab and wanted to continue working as a researcher. Following graduation he has been actively involved with a partner in researching and developing a micromedical device. His primary involvement with this project is integrating the biological components into the manufacturing process and understanding issues the device could face with bio-compatibility and applications.

Vu Trinh, UC Davis School of Medicine Dr. Vu Trinh is a biochemist and molecular biologist working toward launching a biotech start-up to develop a therapeutic treatment for the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis. He earned both his BS and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Davis, where he completed his graduate work in Professor Robert Fairclough’s lab studying the acetylcholine receptor and its role in myasthenia gravis. Dr. Trinh is a former University of California, Davis Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology Training Program Fellow and previously worked at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals researching prostate and breast cancer. He believes that a better understanding of both the immune system and the molecular basis of diseases will aid in the development of antigen-specific therapeutic strategies, and hopes to apply his research toward the treatment of myasthenia gravis and other autoimmune diseases.

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