Sandip Agarwala

AI and Med Tech in Focus   AI System Developed to Identify Pathology in Tissues Engineers at Washington State University have developed an AI tool that uses images of human and animal tissue to detect abnormalities faster and more accurately than people. The AI algorithm was trained using images from past studies that involved kidney, testes, ovarian, prostate, breast and lymph node abnormalities. The new model detected disease in minutes—current processes take humans several hours and require specialized teams to check each other’s work. It was also found to be more accurate, sometimes detecting instances that humans had missed. The engineers designed the system to handle the processing load of the high-resolution gigapixel images by breaking them down into smaller tiles but still retaining the overall context of the tissue sample—akin to the zoom feature on a microscope or phone camera. Aside from getting diagnostic results more accurately and quickly, the new system also shows promise in epigenetics (the study of molecular processes that change gene behavior without changing underlying DNA). Epigenetic researchers can perform analyses and get results that used to take a year or more in just a couple of weeks. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Join us tomorrow for a panel discussion on the complex relationship many FirstGens have to money and how that affects founders, investors, operators and others. See you tomorrow! https://lu.ma/9rixyzgs

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There is a lot of advancement happening globally using the tools of AI. In drug discovery, using AI in an appropriate way to build a pipeline of effective solutions for patient health - therapeutics and diagnostics - that is where the rubber meets the road. Pipeline is key.

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Investor Deck -> Trial Protocol -> Trial Results   Clinical trials are tough Compromises must be made in design and results often fall short of the vision. That’s where Clerkenwell Health comes in. Our Catalyst program helps bridge the gap with tailored support, expert strategy, and access to a network of researchers and investors—all designed to keep your clinical development on track. https://lnkd.in/eJdhMa-F   #makeclinicaltrialsgreatagain

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I'm so excited to continue supporting Prolific Machines, Inc., and the incredible Deniz Kent, PhD ,Max Huisman, and Declan Jones. Today's cellular biology processes are incredibly expensive, inefficient, imprecise, and sometimes purely ineffective. These processes are used from everything from making antibodies to treat diseases, to fermentation used to make high-value nutritional proteins in baby formula, to whole cuts of cultured meat. Prolific has developed a biology platform that leverages light to guide cell behavior and optimize performance over time using AI. By combining light, bioengineering, hardware, and AI in fundamentally new ways, Prolific can help pharmaceutical, nutritional, and therapeutics companies get to market faster, less expensively, and more efficiently — ultimately in hopes of helping improve outcomes — a mission any of us can get behind. Mark Cuban Peter T. Frederick Blackford Cooper Rinzler David Adelman Darco Capital Breakthrough Energy Michael Schulson Kevin Love Tobias Harris Breyer Capital Charles Besser Brennan Besser Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants https://lnkd.in/ea2TqdQk

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Our partner Eddie Eltoukhy has identified these opportunities in Biotech. Eddie has a PhD in bioengineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and over a decade experience as an operator. Reach out to him if you are working on these areas of biotech. Pear VC - Technology-Driven Therapeutic Platforms Companies developing therapeutic assets with a core product engine Proprietary tool, workflow, or samples leading to novel biological data sets Preference for omics platforms or high throughput screening / engineering workflows First-in-class or best-in-class drugs - Next-Generation Therapeutic Modalities Technologies to improve the efficacy, safety, access, or reach of next-gen modalities including the following: Genomic medicines (gene tx & gene editing) Cell therapies Targeted protein degraders Antibody-drug conjugates Radiopharma - Precision Medicine New technologies supporting the discovery of novel biomarkers and the generation of proprietary data sets for applications in: Disease screening Therapy selection Recurrence monitoring - Life Sciences + AI Software Platforms Software & AI-driven platforms to improve all aspects of life sciences R&D, including: Target discovery and validation Drug design and optimization Manufacturing Regulatory Clinical development

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MassBio CEO & President Kendalle Burlin O'Connell, Esq. recently spoke with Adil Ali, MD and Onyx about representing the world's most consequential life sciences ecosystem, MassBio's Vision 2030 strategic roadmap, programs like #MassBioDrive and BioversityMA, and more. Onyx's in-depth report, Vital Signs: Future of Healthcare, will appear in Fortune magazine in December ahead of JPM Week. 🔗: https://lnkd.in/eVkggiwv

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TLDR - if you’re a early-stage investor, builder or health care provider that believes the below facts... we at Conduit Venture Labs have a stealth venture in the oven w/ Krisna Bhargava, PhD (let's connect). 🦠 Environmental factors are responsible for ~90% of chronic disease. https://lnkd.in/gSJPGXVs 🥺 Primary care does not have the time nor education to screen environmental exposure. https://lnkd.in/gJ5GtHMV 🚀 Functional/integrative care is growing at ~23% CAGR but is unaffordable to most people. https://lnkd.in/gWwuChYk

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🚨 The #FDA's latest draft guidance on accelerated approvals takes aim at "dangling" approvals—products still marketed despite failed confirmatory trials. The agency is now mandating tighter timelines (2-4 years for oncology), more transparency in withdrawal processes, and public involvement. 🕵️‍♂️ This marks a shift from flexibility to rigor, signaling that the accelerated pathway is no longer a free pass. For #biopharma, it's both a challenge and an opportunity to align trial strategies earlier. Is this the FDA tightening the reins—or just evolution in regulatory science? FDA website: https://lnkd.in/gqc-z-5e #pharmanews #breakingnews

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Fabulous to be on the investor panel for Mintz’s Life Sciences Pitch Event today, on yet another glorious fall day in Boston. ☀️🍁 Key feedback shared by our panel: 🔹 Ensure your target market is clear - especially when the population for your relevant indication is highly heterogenous 🔹 Share your current assumptions about how your product may be used (e.g., chronically vs. episodically) and open questions 🔹 If you're exploring a range of commercial use cases, share how you anticipate prioritizing across them over time 🔹 If your GTM strategy requires you to displace heavily entrenched solutions and/or processes, share how you will enable these transitions 🔹 Note the specific set of milestones to be achieved with investment 🔹 Always include target timelines and potential paths to exit Thank you to the incredible lineup of entrepreneurs who pitched today, and please stay in touch! Thank you to Dean Farmer and Charlie C. for facilitating today's event. Thank you to panelists David Fogel, CPA, Ben Littauer (he/him), Molly Hoult, and Richard Wagner for your contributions. Great to meet you, and thank you for all of your help, Emily (Krasowski) Yanachkov and Diana Malkin. #lifesciences #pitchevent #investor #panel #boston

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Absolutely thrilled to announce our investment in Cleerly and support James Min, MD in the journey to transform the way we detect, understand, and treat heart disease. This investment perfectly represents why I focus on HCIT: the opportunity to drive meaningful, measurable improvements in the quality of care for millions of people. Cleerly's groundbreaking technology enables a more proactive, personalized approach to heart health—shifting the paradigm from reactive treatment to prevention. By leveraging advanced imaging and data, Cleerly empowers clinicians with the tools they need to better assess risk, identify disease earlier, and provide targeted interventions that save lives. Onwards and upwards! https://lnkd.in/eQwpfta4

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BioPharma Sector highlights at your fingertips.

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Biopharma's "mud-and-stick" season rolls on... From last week but worth noting Symbiotic Capital's new debt fund. This new vehicle from Arie Belldegrun's Bellco Capital is meant to provide debt to later-stage pharma. While these announcements never come on day 1 of a fund, what was truly astounding was that its already 40-50% deployed (!!!). https://lnkd.in/g7ehYBNR There's a lot of pain out there across the industry for a debt facility to be deployed that fast. You're seeing companies across the board hunker down, cut every program but their lead, and just focus on that, waiting (often times) for clinical readouts. Single assets are the new "platform". Which is why biopharma is in "mud and stick" season (my northeast friends will know what this is). Its not winter, but its definitely not spring. What are you seeing? Let me know! #pharma #investing #biotech

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In this episode of my #BreakingHealth podcast, I speak with Jon Maschmeyer, partner at Permira, about what attributes he finds exciting when considering a deal, the key to working with private equity as a management team, and more. Listen below: https://lnkd.in/eVxpyxCY  

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I’ve had the chance to go deep with a number of digital health alum, healthcare mentors and #corporate innovation partners over the past few days. A few themes to share:   1. Digital will change healthcare. Period. How is hard. But it will happen and the best are continuing to push ahead. 2. What keeps companies in the S&P 500 for 50 years or more? Partnerships and innovation. This is why large systems must practice the hard art of both partnership and partnership towards innovation. For startups, partnership reps may be more important than brand. 3. There is a difference between needs and behaviors that startups need to understand, especially in Healthcare where incentives, process, practices are complex. Finding who pays early is not only essential but existential. 4. Don’t optimize for valuation, optimize for value. Over the long-run, this is what will matter. In Healthcare, today value will have to tie to ROI. Pharma, providers, payors are under pressure. Your solution needs to be must-have and drive ROI.   MC Healthcare was launched over 5 years ago to accelerate industry/startup intelligence and collaboration and commercial partnerships for digital health startups and industry (payors, providers, pharma). Calling startups to apply. Want to be a partner to find and work with the best? DM me directly.

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Some great advice in this interview — featuring Jeffry Weinhuff of Visionary Ventures — relevant to all sub-sectors of #medtech. My favorite line is “investment capital is not tuition.” 😂 But the best advice stems from the insight that good exits via IPO or M&A processes with multiple buyers competing for your company require that most medtech companies must prove their value via strong commercial metrics. And doing that takes a lot of time, expertise and money. Plan, hire and raise capital accordingly. At Vensana Capital, our investment process centers on a deep analysis of every aspect of getting a breakthrough medtech innovation to market, no matter what stage of development a company is at today. We like entrepreneurs who believe their innovation can be highly impactful to patients. We love the ones who want to leave no doubt. https://lnkd.in/eDsUqgn6

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In September, the results of the Phase III trial of biospecific antibody Ivenescimab delivering a meaningful improvement over Merck’s Keytruda in lung cancer sent Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT) stock soaring. However, few paid attention to the originator of the PD-1/VEGF targeting asset, Chinese biotech Akeso Bio. Akeso represents a cohort of emerging innovative drug companies from China, working at impressive speed to deliver advancements in patient care and next-generation therapeutics with global ambition. #deeptech #chinesedeeptech #bosonventures #Ivenescimab #biotech #immuology

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Chris Diorio is one of the great founder CEOs and technologists I've ever been lucky enough to work with and learn from. The story of Impinj is fascinating and inspiring. I love his advice for all leaders: "My No. 1 job as a CEO is to give every person in the company the opportunity to be wildly successful. I truly feel that if every person in the company is wildly successful, the company can’t help but be wildly successful." Look forward to further discussion with Chris on an upcoming Madrona Founded and Funded podcast about lessons learned from building the overnight-20-year-success-story that is Impinj.

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