Catalyst Award Winners

2021 Winners

Elinne Becket, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences and Faculty Director of Innovation at California State University San Marcos

Chris Bostick, Ph.D.

Partner, OCV Partners

Joshua Britton, Ph.D.

CEO and Founder of Debut Biotechnology

Kathryne Cooper

Investment Advisor, The West Coast Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics

Fabian Gerlinghaus

Co-Founder & CEO of Cellares

JJ Kang, Ph.D.

CEO and Co-Founder of Appia Bio, Venture Partner at The Column Group

Hallie Kuhn, Ph.D.

Vice President – Science & Technology, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. / Alexandria Venture Investments

Benjamin Oakes, Ph.D.

Co-founder, President, and CEO at Scribe Therapeutics

Joshua Yang

Co-founder and CEO, Glyphic Biotechnologies

Alice Zhang

CEO & Co-founder, Verge Genomics

2020 Winners

Sarah Bhagat

Sarah Bhagat, Partner, Sofinnova Investments

Racquel Bracken

Partner, Venrock

Pedro Coelho

Co-founder & CEO, Provivi, Inc.

Jasson Crockett

Director of Community Business and Economic Innovation, Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, City of Los Angeles

Wei Gao

Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

Arthur Kuan

CEO, CG Oncology, Inc.

Trevor Martin

Co-founder and CEO, Mammoth Biosciences

Inanc Ortac

Founder, CSO of DevaCell; Founder, CSO of Sarmal; and Founder, CEO, CSO of Innovasion Labs PINC

Katie Planey

Co-founder and CTO, Mantra Bio

Cameron Turtle

Chief Business Officer, Eidos Therapeutics and SVP, Portfolio Management and Corporate Development, BridgeBio Pharma

2019 Winners – Bay Area

Adam Adler

Head of Laboratory Research Operations, GigaGen

Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D.

Co-founder, President and CEO, Caribou Biosciences

Anitha Jayaprakash, Ph.D.

Co-founder, Girihlet Inc.

Noga Leviner

Co-founder and CEO, PicnicHealth

2019 Winners – Los Angeles

Matt Davidson Ph.D.

CEO and Co-founder, Azora Therapeutics and Founder, Verrica Pharmaceuticals

Shannon Mumenthaler, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California Lab Director, Lawrence J. Ellison Institute of Transformative Medicine, University of Southern California

Patrick Phelps

Sofie Biosciences (Sofie), Co-founder, President & CEO Director Momentum Biosciences, Board Member

2019 Winners – San Diego

Ranjan (Ron) Batra, Ph.D.

Vice President of Research and Development, Locana, Inc.

David Chacko, M.D.

Chief Business Officer, Erasca

Sheng Xu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Nanoengineering, UC San Diego

2018 Winners – Los Angeles

Carolina Amador

President, Biotech Connection Los Angeles (BCLA)

Brian Benson

Director of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization, California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA

Long Cai, Ph.D.

Co-founder, Spatial Genomics; Research Professor, Caltech

Joseph Dunham, Ph.D.

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, SeqOnce Biosciences Inc.

Stephen Fiacco, Ph.D.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, EvoRx Technologies and Canvas Pharma

Leo Petrossian, Ph.D., MBA

Head of Corporate Development, co-founder and CEO of Neural Analytics, Inc

Ryan Witt

Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Immix Biopharma, Inc.

2018 Winners – San Diego

Stephanie Culler, Ph.D.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Persephone Biome

Punit Dhillon

Co-founder and Director, OncoSec Medical Incorporated

Valentino Gantz, Ph.D.

Co-founder and Director, Agragene Inc. and Synbal Inc.

Suman Kanuganti, MBA

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Aira Tech

Tao Long, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Bioinformatics and Structural Biology, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Jose Morachis, Ph.D.

President and co-founder, NanoCellect Biomedical, Inc.

Taylor Moyer

Chief Executive Officer, Managed Lab Services

Chorom Pak, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, Lynx Biosciences

Drew Spaventa, MBA

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Singular Genomics

Arthur Suckow, Ph.D.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, DTx Pharma

2017 Winners – Los Angeles

Thomas Lipkin, Ph.D.

Head of New Ventures, University of California, Los Angeles Technology Development Group

Yan Liu, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California

Aydogan Ozcan, Ph.D.

Chancellor’s Professor at University of California, Los Angeles; Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Tanya Petrossian, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, EndoCyclic Therapeutics; Principal, Building Blocks Advisory Group

Marie Rippen, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, Lab Launch

2017 Winners – San Diego

Francie Barron, Ph.D.

Vice President of Biology and Regulatory Affairs, Nanomedical Diagnostics

Karen Christman, Ph.D.

Professor of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego; Scientific Co-founder, Ventrix Inc.

Brendan Eckelman, Ph.D.

Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Biotherapeutics, Inhibrx LP

Dov Fox, J.D.

Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law

Todd Harris, Ph.D.

Head of Corporate Development

Zachary Hornby, M.S., MBA

Chief Operating Officer, Ignyta Inc.

Patrick Mercier, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego

David Nelles, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer & Co-founder, Locana Inc.

Ryan Taft, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Scientific Research, Illumina Inc.

Matt Tremblay, Ph.D.

Vice President, Business Development, The Scripps Research Institute; Chief Operating Officer, California Institute for Biomedical Research

2016 Winners

Phil Baran, Ph.D.

Darlene Shirley Chemistry Chair & Professor

Martyn Gross

Founder and Vice President of Innovation

Tony Grover

Global Director, Biomarkers and CDx at BD

Susie Harborth

General Partner; Managing Director

Michael Heltzen

President and Chief Executive Officer

Rob Knight, Ph.D.

Faculty Director

Dena Marrinucci, Ph.D.

Vice President, Research

Mike Milligan

Principal, Life Science Department

Edward R. Truitt, III

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lubris BioPharma

Ashley Van Zeeland, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer, Human Longevity, Inc.