Ignition Awards

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 of Krull Enterprise Services

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.

Associate Vice President, Industry Engagement, BU

Marc Scatamacchia joined BU in August 2018 to lead the new office of Industry Engagement, which was formed through the recommendation of the Task Force on University Collaboration with Industry. Tasked with facilitating, streamlining, and encouraging faculty interaction with industry in all forms, Industry Engagement is organized within the Office of Research, incorporates the office formerly known as Corporate Relations, and works closely with Technology Development. Marc brings more than 20 years of experience in strategy and business development to his role at BU, where he oversees institutional efforts to streamline processes, consolidate organizational structures, and support entrepreneurial activities to generate more meaningful research collaborations with industry, technology licensing, and spin-out companies. Marc graduated from BU with a degree in systems engineering before earning master’s degrees from Stanford and MIT.

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.

CEO of nxtec and CTO and board member of Talon and Collaborate Health

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 Berkeley.

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.

CEO and Co-founder, Medicalrecords.com

Ace Bhattacharjya is the CEO and co-founder of Medicalrecords.com, a consumer healthcare and insurance company based in Boston. Before joining the startup world, he worked on some of the world’s greatest brands including Ford, IBM, Mercedes Benz, Starwood, JetBlue and Pfizer. Ace was formerly VP at EXOS / Athletes’ Performance (acquired) and ran Advanced Media for Community Tennis at the USTA / USOpen. He was the first CMO at Amino Apps ($75M+ raised) and is an advisor and early stage investor to a number of companies including: DirectDerm, Playlabs at MIT, Toucan.ai, SocialSign.in, and Sharalike.

Managing Director at Dr. Chips Consulting LLC

Dr. Makarand “Chips” Chipalkatti is recognized as one of the pioneers in LED lighting and as an industry leader in lighting, smart cities, sustainability and energy policy. Makarand specializes in taking technology to business and commercialization. He leads a consulting practice focusing on corporate innovation and entrepreneurship with special emphasis on the commercialization of innovation in the new lighting ecosystem and in industries undergoing disruptive transformation. He serves globally as an industry consultant for product, service, and market strategy. His clients range from early seed stage companies seeking scale, to large global companies launching new businesses. Makarand is a regular speaker at workshops and seminars on innovation, ideation and design thinking in diverse settings including executive training, academic institutions and international conferences. Previously, Makarand was the Senior Director, Solid State Lighting and Emerging Market Initiatives for OSRAM in North America where his primary role was as a corporate entrepreneur and founder of OSRAM’s LED Lighting business. He has been responsible for a series of successful new business and technology launches during his corporate career and beyond. His early work included research on advanced materials and organic light sources (OLEDs). Makarand received a Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Eng. from Univ. of Massachusetts and a B.Tech Chem. Eng. from IIT Bombay.

Director of Curriculum, Innovate@BU Master Lecturer, Strategy & Innovation

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.

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

Andrew Senesi is an Associate in Global Innovation within the TechAtlas division of RA Capital Management. Andrew’s primary responsibility at RA Capital is to identify and assess orthogonal technologies that intersect the healthcare industry. Andrew holds a PhD in Chemistry from Northwestern University, where he focused on the development of DNA scaffold-based nanoparticle superlattices with novel emergent properties. His postdoctoral work at Argonne National Laboratories involved characterization of nanomaterials using X-ray scattering technologies. Andrew worked previously as an associate at the Chicago Innovation Exchange, an incubator and VC fund associated with the University of Chicago.

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).

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

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.

Drug Development Consultant

Andrew has worked in the Boston area pharmaceutical industry since 1996 where he has held leadership positions in start-up to midsize biopharmaceutical companies, including EPIX Pharmaceuticals and Flatley Discovery Lab. He has over 25 years experience in research and development, and contributed to the discovery and development of molecularly targeted MRI contrast agents for diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, thrombosis, and fibrosis, G-Protein coupled receptor agonists and antagonists for treatment of inflammatory diseases, and modulators of CFTR, the protein defective in cystic fibrosis. Andrew received his Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT, and is a board certified toxicologist.

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, Sanofi
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 PhD, Lucie moved to the US to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Hospital (joint appointment) in Boston, MA. Committed to fostering alliances between academia and industry, and to facilitating 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 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 team work 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.