Merantix & Illumina Accelerator: Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Virtual Meetup

Are you interested in life sciences entrepreneurship?

Join Merantix, Illumina Accelerator, and other entrepreneurs for a virtual meetup to discuss what it takes to build an innovative biotech startup. We will take your questions and discuss topics on building your team, accessing finance, and developing your technology. There will also be an open networking session to close our event.

Speakers:

- Anya Roy, Head of Illumina Accelerator Cambridge, UK

Before joining Illumina, Anya was the founder and CEO of Syrona, a digital health start-up that develops low-cost, non-invasive screening kits for women’s health issues. She worked at Goldman Sachs and in life science venture capital at IP Group prior to founding her own company.
She earned an MPhil with a focus in Bioscience from the University of Cambridge in Cambridge and currently completing her Executive MBA from Said business school at Oxford University.

- Bobby Kaura, Seed Investments & International Development, Illumina Accelerator

Bobby joined Illumina Accelerator to support the set-up and ongoing success of Illumina Accelerator Cambridge. Previously, he was responsible for heading the commercial market and business development for EMEA.
Prior to joining Illumina, he has worked in the NHS to deliver sustainable transformation programs and spent several years working in the pharma industry across early research & development, global informatics, strategic finance planning, strategy for the CFO/CIO office, and leading the UK pricing and innovation stream.

- Mitchell Duffy, Co-Founder and CEO at Cambrium

Dr. Mitchell Duffy is co-founder of Cambrium, a protein materials design company.
Having studied both Computer Science and Biology, he was fascinated by the possibility of programming cells, prompting research in Systems and Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London.
He later worked on understanding collagen and its role in extracellular matrix pathologies before pursuing entrepreneurship at Entrepreneur First and Merantix.

- Sona Chandra, Founder & CEO at Terra Lumina

Sona is the Founder & CEO of Terra Lumina, where she is harnessing the power of data and AI to drive early-stage drug discovery by harnessing the therapeutic potential of nature’s small molecules. Sona has a background in Biomedical Engineering and has years of experience driving advancements in healthcare technology at large pharmaceutical & medical device companies. She previously founded Oshi Health, a digital health & virtual care platform for patients with digestive health conditions. She was awarded recognition as one of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2020 for her achievements and contributions in the world of healthcare and life sciences.