Meet the Presenters: A First Look at the Yale Innovators Announced for the 2025 Yale Life Sciences Pitchfest
Yale Life Science Pitchfest will feature 33 faculty pitches and 16 Yale spinouts
Yale Ventures is pleased to announce the 33 Yale faculty members who have been selected to present at the Yale Life Science Pitchfest on Thursday, December 4, 2025. Powered by The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, the event will showcase groundbreaking research in therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health, with presenters delivering 5-minute pitches followed by 3-minute Q&A sessions to a panel of judges. The event will take place at 101 College Street in New Haven, CT.
The annual event serves as the semifinals for The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, an accelerator fund dedicated to advancing the commercialization of applied research and technology in the life sciences. On-the-day cash prizes will total $6,000 and up to an additional $60,000 in in-kind services. Attendees will also have opportunities to meet the presenters directly after each session.
In addition to 33 live presentations, 16 startups from the Blavatnik Fund and Yale Ventures ecosystem will be highlighted through ePosters. Meet the founders and their teams, hear firsthand about their progress from discovery to venture, and explore how past Pitchfest concepts have evolved into high-potential life science companies.
Following Pitchfest, guests are invited to the BioCT Annual Holiday Party to network and connect with colleagues, and to celebrate the Entrepreneur of the Year—an award honoring imaginative, passionate game-changers in Connecticut’s life sciences community.
MEET THE LIVE PRESENTERS
Andrew Wang
Optimal Diet: A New Approach To Improve Outcomes In Cachectic States
Arya Mani
Developing Catalytically Inactive CELA2A as a First-in-Class Therapy for Diabetes
Christine Ko
Rescuing P53 to Treat Cancer
Dan Wu
Best-in-Class Ferroptosis Inhibitors in Friedrich’s Ataxia
Daniel Wiznia
Foaming Surgical Antiseptic: An Effortless Solution for Infection Prevention
David Braun
AI-Powered, Minimally Invasive Detection and Monitoring for Cancer
David Hesse
Uroplug: A Novel Device for Managing Urinary Incontinence That Is Low-Cost, Patient-Friendly, and Sustainable
David Pitt
AstroScope: A Novel Neurodiagnostic Platform
David Van Dijk
Toward a Cellular Operating System: Foundation Models for Contextual Biology
Elizabeth Jonas and Lawrence Young
A Novel Target for Treatment of Major Heart Attacks
Ellen Foxman
VirusCheck: Rapid Screening for Respiratory Virus Infection
Eric Song
Treating CNS Aging Through Meningeal Lymphatic Rejuvenation
Farren Isaacs
Biosynthesis of Therapeutic GLP-1 Peptides
Janghoo Lim
Novel Mechanism to Treat Neurodegenerative Diseases
Jennifer Kwan
AI-Powered Personalized Heart Health
John Fulkerson
Trivara AMZ Platform
Jorge Sepulcre
Novel Compound for Treating and Imaging Glioblastoma and Other Solid Tumors
Lajos Pusztai
First-in-Class Nectin-2 Targeting ADC for Solid Tumors
Luisa Escobar-Hoyos
Mimetika
Madhav Menon
Shroom3-ROCK Interaction and Kidney Fibrosis: Designing Precision Therapeutics for CKD
Mark Lemmon
Targeting Cancer Stroma to Prevent Metastatic Escape
Richa Sharma
POLARIS: An AI-Powered Tool to Prevent Stroke
Richard Flavell
A Therapeutic Calcium Channel-Blocking Antibody for Cancer
Roel Verhaak
Developing an ADC for Treatment of Glioma
Samuel Katz
Nanobody MET CAR for Solid Tumors
Seth Herzon
New Small Molecules to Treat Homologous Recombination-Deficient Tumors
Silvia Vilarinho
Liver Endothelial Vascular Reprogramming: A Therapeutic Alternative to Liver Transplantation
Sreeganga Chandra
Development of a Novel, Phosphospecific Alpha-Synuclein Antibody as a Therapeutic for MSA
Themis Kyriakides
Genetically Modified Porcine-Derived Decellularized Vascular Grafts
Victor Batista
Closing the AI-to-Human Validation Loop to Accelerate Drug Discovery
Whitney Besse
PKD1 UORF-Blocking ASOs as Therapy for ADPKD
William Damsky
Personalizing Treatment Selection for Inflammatory Skin Disease
Yibing Qyang
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Next-Generation Endothelialized Grafts
STARTUP SHOWCASE
Allyx Therapeutics
Presented by Patrick Simms
Altera
Presented by Zaira Ianniello
Cloverleaf Bio
Presented by Austin Draycott
D2B3
Presented by Anne Eichmann
Ensight AI
Presented by Rohan Khera
Epitet Therapeutics
Presented by Joe Dillon
Ferranyx
Presented by Dan Wu
FerRx
Presented by Mark Fields
RESA
Presented by Antonio Giraldez
Rho Bio
Presented by Jennifer Beecham
qwertyBio
Presented by Daryl Klein
Sarxion Biologics
Presented by Marty Spang
Mayatra
Presented by Mohini Ranganathan
St4te Therapeutics
Presented by Robert Williams
TargetSite Therapeutics
Presented by Jeffrey Bender
Wavelet
Presented by Jose Cortes-Briones