Jazmin received her kidney transplant in late 2020. Six month later in March 2021 she is currently awaiting pancreas transplant. Her motto is “Drink too much coffee and love to laugh”.
Finalists will compete for a $25,000 award
NEW YORK, NY and KING OF PRUSSIA, PA, USA – March 24, 2021 – Lyfebulb, a patient-empowerment innovation accelerator that bridges the gap between patient communities and the healthcare industry, and CSL Behring, a global biotherapeutics leader driven by its promise to save and improve lives, announce the eleven patient entrepreneurs selected as finalists for the 2021 Innovation Challenge: Thriving with Transplantation.
- Dr. Nick Housby, Co-Founder & CEO of Accunea
- Dra. Isabel Portero, Founder & CEO of Biohope Scientific Solutions
- Patrick Sullivan, Co-Founder of HeartBrothers Foundation
- Alon Magal, Co-Founder & CEO of HeroKi
- Tim Fitzpatrick, Co-Founder & CEO of IKONA Health
- Dr. Ann Chokas, Founder of Life4ward
- Uwe Diegel, CEO of Lifeina
- Dr. Minnie Sarwal, Founder and CEO of Nephrosant
- Jack O’Meara, Co-Founder and CEO of Ochre Bio
- Scott Alpard, Co-Founder & COO of RealTime Clinic
- Dr. Petter Björquist, CEO of VERIGRAFT
Lyfebulb and CSL Behring’s mission within the Challenge is to identify new ways and meaningful solutions to help organ transplant recipients, donors, and family members better manage their numerous daily challenges and improve overall quality of life. The eleven finalists selected to compete at the Challenge were chosen based on the potential of their innovative ventures to address these issues, as well as their personal story sparking the launch of their company.
“Improving the transplantation process and empowering patients and their family members to succeed in their complex journeys is our ultimate goal within this initiative and partnership with CSL Behring,” said Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD, Founder & CEO, Lyfebulb. “We see great potential in the solutions put forth by this diverse set of finalists to make a lasting impact on the transplant community and look forward to accelerating their development through this initiative and beyond.”
The finalists will pitch their companies’ solutions to an expert panel of judges comprised of healthcare industry, medical, and patient leaders on May 13, 2021. The jury will ultimately select one winner to be awarded a $25,000 monetary grant to further the growth of their company. The judging panel will include:
- Lloyd Ratner, MD, MPH, FACS, Professor of Surgery, Director, Renal and Pancreatic Transplantation at Columbia University Medical Center
- Jeff Hoffman, Partner, Chief Development Officer at Havas Health & You
- Lara Abounayan, Heart Transplant Patient Ambassador, Marriage and Family Therapist Associate at Healing the Hurt Consulting
- Stephen Squinto, PHD, Executive Partner at OrbiMed Advisors
- Alex Tulchinsky, Chief Technology Officer at United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
“The range of ideas represented by these finalists is inspiring and demonstrates exactly why we partnered with Lyfebulb on this unique initiative,” said Kevin Kovaleski, Vice President, Global Commercial Development, Transplant, CSL Behring. “We look forward to these great concepts evolving into meaningful innovation for the transplant community and are proud to support this challenge that so closely aligns with CSL Behring’s longstanding commitment to innovation.”
Beyond the pitch competition, the Challenge will provide opportunities for the finalists and participating guests to exchange ideas and insights about how to further advance patient innovation in the transplant community and impact change. To learn more about the Challenge, please visit:
About Lyfebulb
Lyfebulb is an innovation accelerator that bridges the gap between patient communities and the healthcare industry by working directly with patients and care partners to generate insights and build new solutions to reduce the burden of living with chronic disease. Lyfebulb operates across 11 disease states and counting. See Lyfebulb.com, TransplantLyfe.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Karin Hehenberger LinkedIn.
About CSL Behring
CSL Behring is a global biotherapeutics leader driven by its promise to save lives. Focused on serving patients’ needs by using the latest technologies, we develop and deliver innovative therapies that are used to treat coagulation disorders, primary immune deficiencies, hereditary angioedema, respiratory disease, and neurological disorders. The company’s products are also used in cardiac surgery, burn treatment and to prevent hemolytic disease of the newborn.
CSL Behring operates one of the world’s largest plasma collection networks, CSL Plasma. The parent company, CSL Limited (ASX:CSL;USOTC:CSLLY), headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, employs more than 27,000 people, and delivers its life-saving therapies to people in more than 100 countries. For inspiring stories about the promise of biotechnology, visit Vita CSLBehring.com/vita and follow us on Twitter.com/CSLBehring.
For more information:
Lyfebulb Contact:
Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD
CEO & Founder, Lyfebulb
Phone: + 1 917-575-0210
Email: karin@lyfebulb.com
CSL Behring Contact:
Jennifer Purdue
External Communications Manager, CSL Behring
Phone: +1 610-306-9355
Email: jennifer.purdue@cslbehring.com
Dr. Petter Björquist holds a PhD in Biology/Biochemistry from Gothenburg University, 50+ publications in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters, and patents. He spent 10 years within AstraZeneca R&D in Cardiovascular Diseases, 12 years at Cellartis/Cellectis as VP for Regenerative Medicine, responsible for the major collaboration with Novo Nordisk on the development of a human embryonic stem cell derived beta cell treatment for diabetes. As of February 2014, Petter has been the CEO of VERIGRAFT AB, a pioneering company within advanced tissue engineering, transplantation, and regenerative medicine.
With a background as a scientist in biology, Petter is very experienced in cells, how they can be mastered, and how they can be used directly and indirectly to cure diseases. On top of that, Petter has 15 years of experience specifically in stem cells, tissue engineering, cell therapy, transplantation, and advanced regenerative medicine from three different companies. In leading positions in each of these corporations, he has been able to bring products to the market, to bring stem cell therapies to a GMP setting, and to advance projects in this area to an industrial level. As VP for Regenerative Medicine at Cellartis/Cellectis, he was appointed alliance manager for the multimillion USD collaboration with Novo Nordisk and Lund University, a three-party project that he initiated and managed for nearly ten years.
Scott Alpard is an experienced innovator and entrepreneur with a successful track record evaluating emerging scientific discoveries and start-up and new venture development. He has over thirty years of experience in executive healthcare management and operations, medical device/product development and testing, research (basic science, translational, and clinical research) in academic medical centers, and healthcare and life science management consulting. Scott has also directed numerous medical device development and testing initiatives including creating and directing the artificial organ development program at the University of Texas Medical Branch where he published more than 125 scientific articles, abstracts, and book chapters, and has given more than 60 presentations. He has also co-founded four healthcare technology companies with two successful exits. He is currently the Chief Business Officer/Administrator for the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center where he developed and directs surgical device and health IT innovation.
Scott has a BA from Emory University, a Master’s in Medical Science (MMSc) from the UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, an MBA from the University of Houston, has completed the Life Science Entrepreneurship Executive Education Program at Rice University – Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, and is a current PhD candidate at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health. Scott also founded and is President of The Cade R. Alpard Foundation for Pediatric Liver Disease, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is a Board Member for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Jack O’Meara is co-founder and CEO of Ochre Bio. Ochre develops genomic medicines that rejuvenate transplanted livers, and ultimately hopes to treat fatty liver disease (NASH/NAFL) and other metabolic diseases. Ochre employs spatial sequencing, advanced genomics, and high-throughput screening to identify disease-causing genes and develops combination therapies which are tested in donor livers kept alive outside of the body. Jack is a biomedical engineer by training, with a background in bringing new healthcare innovations to market. His career spans management consulting, company creation, health technology and biopharma market launches. He has a BEng from National University of Ireland, Galway, and MSc from the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Minnie Sarwal is a key opinion leader in clinical and translational research that focuses on native organ diseases and organ transplantation. She was Principal Investigator of the parent R01 grant (R01DK109720) entitled “CD40 Autoantibody and FSGS Recurrence.” Her training and decades-long contribution to clinical and basic science stemmed from her career both at Stanford University, where she was Medical Director of the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program, and at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where she is Co-Director of the Kidney-Pancreas Transplant Program and Director of the Precision Transplant Medicine program.
Minnie is also Co-Director of the T32 training grant in Transplant Surgery. Her research has focused on mechanisms and biomarkers for understanding renal transplant injury, and on improving diagnosis and therapies for renal diseases such as diabetes, IgA, and FSGS, with a primary focus on improving diagnostics for solid organ and bone marrow transplantation. To interrogate biological systems, her lab is using multi-omic assays and bioinformatics. Her lab has published in high impact journals such as the NEJM, PNAS, Nature Medicine, Nature Methods, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Experimental Methods, PLOS Medicine, and Science Translational Medicine.
Uwe Diegel was a concert pianist until the age of 26. Following an accident that partially restricted movement in his right arm, he started a new career in medical diagnostics, quickly developing a particular interest in chronic diseases such as hypertension, asthma, and diabetes. His intense scientific curiosity has led him not only to develop new technologies in these fields, but also to become interested in medical manufacturing, industrial design, and problems in Asian manufacturing.
Uwe lives in Paris, where he is CEO of HealthWorks Global, CEO of Lifeina, and conducts fundamental research in medical diagnostics. Today, he is considered to be a foremost expert in the fields of blood pressure management, diabetes, asthma, and the manufacturing of medical diagnostics devices.
In 2009, Uwe developed an interest in connected health as a means of providing better patient management. He became involved in iHealth, a platform that takes all the signals of the body and translates them into a meaningful format using smartphones and tablets. iHealth is today the world leader in the field of connected health. Uwe served as CEO of iHealthLabs Europe until 2016. He left iHealth in 2016 to work on the Lifeina project.
Uwe Diegel has been at the forefront of international changes in healthcare technology for the last 30 years. His drive and passion for innovative technology have spurred major changes in perception about healthcare. He has driven the manufacturing of medical devices to new horizons by forcing new practices in manufacturing and innovation. An internationally recognized expert in the management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, he is continuously looking for better solutions to improve outcomes for patients. For the last few years, he has spearheaded the dissemination and acceptance of connected health as a tool for providing better solutions for patients.
Dr. Ann Chokas is the founder of Life4ward. Her mission is to inspire people living with chronic kidney disease and transitioning to dialysis, on dialysis, or have had a kidney transplant to lead the healthiest and happiest life possible. Ann is a trained scientist and business professional. She received her master’s degree in Neuroscience from New York University and her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Florida and was awarded an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship for her research at the University of Pennsylvania. For the past decade, she has held leadership positions in the biotechnology and healthcare diagnostics industries.
Her desire to help people with chronic kidney disease and their caregivers came from her own personal experience. Her father, a respected physician, professor, and director of critical care developed chronic kidney disease and transitioned to dialysis later in life. Once on dialysis, he continued his passion for knowledge and continually collaborated with Ann to keep abreast of the latest information on the disease and regularly monitor his blood test results. The CKD Insider Newsletter and the One Track Health mobile application were born out of this desire to share knowledge and help save patients and their caregivers time by enabling quick access to relevant information on disease management. Ann received a Kidney X Patient Innovator Challenge award jointly run by NKF, ASN, HHS, and funded by NKF for the development of the One Track Health mobile application.
Tim Fitzpatrick is a co-founder and CEO of IKONA Health, a company applying neuroscience, storytelling, and immersive technologies to deliver personalized patient education in kidney care. Tim’s interest in healthcare originated from his own experiences as a patient while serving in the US Navy. After eighteen months filled with several back surgeries and hundreds of painful wound care treatments, Tim became deeply aware of the role uncertainty plays in affecting a patient’s quality of life and overall health outcomes.
Following his recovery, Tim spent two years working as an institutional equities trader for a bank in New York, where he covered publicly traded technology and media companies. It was through this role that he began to see the potential of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality in shaping the future of data visualization and information delivery. Building on his co-founders’ research on clinical applications of virtual reality, Tim launched IKONA Health in early 2017 to help tackle the universal uncertainties faced by patients across the globe.
Tim has served as Principal Investigator for federally funded research grants from the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense, as a member of the Global Leadership Panel for Fight Cancer Global, and as a Venture Partner for New York-based venture capital firm FundRx. He continues to play an active role as a mentor for early-stage digital health entrepreneurs and public health initiatives across the globe.
Alon underwent a kidney transplant in 2016 and immediately started searching for a solution to improve the lives of kidney transplant recipients worldwide. Together with his team, Alon won a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority. In 2019, he was part of The Hive’s start-up Accelerator, and later on participated in the Google for Startups Bootcamp as well as the Yeshiva University Innovation Lab. Alon graduated with a degree in Practical Civil Engineering from the Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Israel. He led many projects in the real estate field before he co-founded HeroKi in 2019. Today, Alon is leading HeroKi as the CEO with a mission to deliver the Kidney Shield to every kidney recipient in the world.