Meetup #3: Philadelphia Biotech Makers

Three great Philadelphia Biotech Makers will be presenting at our Meetup in September: Biomeme (http://www.biomeme.com/), Liadiagnostics (http://www.liadiagnostics.com/) and Biobots (https://www.biobots.io/). A showcase of local companies and Makers starts at 5:30 and the panel starts at 6:30pm! Beer and pizza will be provided. In addition to Biomeme and Biobots, showcase participants will include Annee London (http://www.anneelondon.com/) and Loopit (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872377761/loopit) as well as our sponsors.

During the evening, attendees will be given the opportunity to 'shout-out' their networking interests and to opine on how to make Philadelphia a better place for Makers to prosper.

Our major sponsor is Arrow Electronics (https://www.arrow.com/en/products?wm_g_phyloc=9007272&wm_g_intloc=&gclid=CjwKEAjwudW9BRDcrd30kovf8GkSJAB3hTxFcJmWMGvq7IMP8-PPJdgM8ivf3d_BG1_faDW6gTSBEhoCtsHw_wcB&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=arrow+electronics&utm_campaign=us+-+brand+-+core) - underwriting the space and the food - while NextFab (http://www.nextfab.com/) will once again be providing the (great) beer.

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Our lead-off speaker will be Max Perelman, co-founder of Biomeme.

Max heads the business operations at Biomeme, a DreamIt Ventures backed company that has developed a platform transforming a smartphone into a mobile lab for advanced DNA diagnostics and real-time surveillance.

Prior to starting Biomeme, Max spent 15 years in a number of positions and industries, including: environmental consulting and green building technology imports, documentary filmmaking, management consulting, as well as eCommerce and enterprise systems development. After launching his career in San Francisco, Max lived in Asia for almost a decade, leading projects in Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangkok, and Tokyo. He has a BA from Cornell University and an MBA and MAIEP from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

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Next to present will be Bethany Edwards, co-founder of Lia Diagnostics.

Bethany Edwards, along with her team, is developing Lia, the first-ever, eco-friendly, flushable pregnancy test. The Lia pregnancy test uses innovative materials and unique manufacturing techniques to provide women with a discreet, battery-and-plastic-free, flushable alternative.

Bethany co-founded LIA Diagnostics in early 2015 after initially researching and conceptualizing the idea while completing a Master of Integrated Product Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the 2015 winner of the SBA's InnovateHer national competition, a 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit delegate and Youth and Women’s Pitch participant, a 2015 DreamIt Ventures Athena Alumna, and has been named one of PA Bio’s “16 to Watch in ‘16”.

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Rounding off the evening of amazing biotech will be Eza Koch of nationally renowned BioBots.

BioBots, yet another DreamIt Ventures backed enterprise, is developing the tools necessary to design and engineer living things by building a fleet of robots, programming them with powerful software, and loading them with the ingredients of life. Founded by Penn grads, the team is comprised of daring biologists and engineers who strive to cure disease, eliminate the organ waiting list, revert climate change, and support life on other planets. They intend to empower pioneering researchers in the field of bioprinting, tissue engineering, and materials science to bring their ideas to life. Their success has been chronicled in articles by Forbes, Inc, Fortune, FastCo, Business Insider, and TechCrunch.

Eza Koch is the Chief Roboticist of BioBots. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineer and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) from the University of Pennsylvania, later receiving a Master’s Degree in Robotics from the department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS). As a freshman he joined the General Robotics Automation Sensing and Perception (GRASP) lab at Penn, conducting research in robotic surgery and virtual reality for the Haptics Group under Professor Katherine J. Kuchenbecker. Outside the classroom, he led a team of designers within the Penn Electric Racing club to finalize Renegade, the world’s first all-electric drag racer. After interning at Tesla Motors in the bay area, he returned to Philadelphia to join BioBots as their chief Roboticist where he directs all hardware efforts.

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We will also be joined by Philip Christian, M.D., representing Dreamit Ventures (http://www.dreamit.com/dreamit/#welcome). Dr. Christian will participate in the panel discussion following the briefings.

We will be featuring other great companies as part of our Maker Showcase. If you know of a terrific team that would like to display their work during the networking segments of the program, please forward your recommendations ASAP. The opportunity to display is free, but space is limited and participation is on a first-come-first-served basis. We're also scheduling Makers for future Meetups (both to present as well as to show) so please send along your ideas and recommendations.

See you all soon.

Marvin, Katey and Phil