OUR MISSION
At Inflammatix, we are reimagining diagnostics
Inflammatix will create and commercialize best-in-class host-response diagnostics to resolve major clinical and public health challenges.
Better patient care is at the core of what we do. We achieve better patient care through our innovative approach to developing diagnostics–our tests read the patient’s immune system to help us understand the cause of infection and the degree of its severity. Armed with this knowledge, the clinician can treat the patient appropriately and within minutes.
Precision medicine on demand
There is a critical unmet need for quickly and accurately characterizing infections in patients who are acutely ill. Our expert bioinformatics and assay development teams are building a host response-based diagnostics pipeline that includes tests for acute infection and sepsis, emerging infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, tropical infections, transplant rejection and other conditions.
We are initially focused on developing tests for acute bacterial infections, viral infections, and sepsis based on patent-pending biomarkers exclusively licensed from Stanford University.
Leadership
Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD
Dr. Sweeney helped invent the core Inflammatix technology and is a licensed physician and data scientist. He completed his MD/PhD at Duke University, and then spent time training in the general surgery residency program at Stanford University. While training as a surgeon, he became frustrated with the current diagnostic tools for infection. During his residency research years, he completed a postdoc MS in Biomedical Informatics, during which he worked with Dr. Khatri to identify a new way to diagnose infections based on ‘reading’ the immune system. Their work designing custom informatics algorithms for sifting through heterogeneous large datasets led to the core technology on which Inflammatix is based.
Jonathan Romanowsky
Mr. Romanowsky has over 15 years of novel, high-value molecular diagnostics commercialization experience. Jonathan is driven by the incredible impact that diagnostics can provide dedicated healthcare professionals to improve patient care while providing significant value to public and private payers paying for it. He has served in commercial leadership roles at Telomere Diagnostics, Veracyte, CardioDx and CareDx. He has successfully brought product concepts through launch and to achieve standard-of-care status. He has led numerous commercialization efforts in product management, marketing, operations, reimbursement and sales in the United States and abroad. Previously, Jonathan pioneered electronic prescribing at iScribe (now part of CVS) and was a business strategy consultant for Bain & Company. Jonathan earned his Bachelor of Science in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley and his MBA from Stanford University, focusing on medical technology innovation.
Purvesh Khatri, PhD
Dr. Khatri possesses more than 15 years of experience in bioinformatics, computational biology, and translational medicine. He is well-known for his work on ontological and pathway analysis of high-throughput molecular, genomics, and proteomics data. Dr. Khatri developed the first ontology tool for analysis of microarray data, named Onto-Express, and has expanded into a suite of web-based open access tools, Onto-Tools.
His most recent work focused on developing computational methods for integrated, multi-cohort analysis of publicly available data to increase sample size, as well as better account for the heterogeneity observed in real world patient populations. Using these methods, he has identified highly specific and sensitive biomarkers for: (1) infectious diseases (sepsis, respiratory infections, tuberculosis), (2) acute solid-organ transplant rejection, and (3) cancer (pancreatic cancer, small cell and non-small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma). Dr. Khatri has authored or co-authored more than 140 papers and holds 30-plus patents.
Oliver Liesenfeld, MD
Dr. Liesenfeld is an expert in the field of microbiology, infectious diseases and the host response. He has over 25 years of industry and academic experience in the diagnostics field, with a focus on molecular diagnostics and infectious diseases. As chief medical officer at Roche Molecular Diagnostics, he built a state-of-the-art medical department and led the company’s clinical science, medical affairs, clinical operations and biometrics functions. His team designed and executed numerous clinical trials to support regulatory approvals and commercialization of the company’s broad product portfolio, including the LightCycler® SeptiFast test for use in sepsis diagnosis.
Dr. Liesenfeld previously served as associate professor of Medical Microbiology and Infection Immunology at the Charite Medical School in Berlin, Germany, where his research focused on the immune response to infections. He holds an MD and a doctoral (Dr. med) degree from the Free University of Berlin, Germany and completed his residency in medical microbiology and infection epidemiology at the Charite Medical School, Berlin. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Liesenfeld has authored more than 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals and more than 30 book chapters.
Joao Fonseca, PhD
Dr. Fonseca has over 15 years of experience in developing and launching breakthrough point of care diagnostic products. Prior to joining Inflammatix, Joao was the founder and former CEO of Biosurfit where he managed multiple R&D teams in diagnostics, covering the fields of instrumentation & optical detection, microfluidics & automated sample prep, assay development and advanced computational methods to convert raw assay information into precise & accurate clinical results. Joao received a PhD in Physics from the Université Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg.
Ljubomir Buturovic, PhD
Ljubomir is VP of Machine Learning at Inflammatix where his team leverages novel data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop and validate the robust clinical algorithms that power the company’s diagnostic tests. Prior to Inflammatix, Dr. Buturovic was the principal at Clinical Persona, a consulting firm specializing in machine learning algorithm development for the life sciences industry. He previously served as chief scientist at Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc., where he led predictive algorithm development for two FDA-cleared genomics tests for cancer. Prior to that, he was bioinformatics director at Incyte Corporation. He has served as adjunct professor of computer science at San Francisco State University since 2005. Dr. Buturovic received his PhD in electrical engineering from University of Belgrade, Serbia, and did postdoctoral training at Boston University’s BioMolecular Engineering Research Center.
Yudong He, PhD, MBA
Yudong is VP of Computational Biology at Inflammatix, focusing on research for novel multi-gene molecular diagnostic signatures. Prior to Inflammatix, he led Computational Biology/Bioinformatics teams at Amgen and Merck as Scientific Director to advance multiple programs for drug R & D pipeline in areas of target discovery & liability assessment, lead optimization, safety issue resolution & enablement of IND fillings. He was also responsible for developing new platforms and data integration strategies for biomarker identification, mechanism of action elucidation, predictive & translational safety modeling. Prior, at Rosetta Inpharmatics, he pioneered novel algorithms and genomic applications including the 70-gene breast cancer prognosis classifier as basis for the FDA-approved MammaPrint test. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and is inventor of more than 10 US patents. He received his PhD in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and MBA from the University of Washington Forster School of Business.
Nina Menezes, PhD
Dr. Menezes leads the Marketing team to define and launch novel products using Inflammatix’s innovative technology platform. Nina is passionate about paradigm-shifting diagnostics and their ability to transform patient care. She joined Inflammatix in 2020 as VP of Marketing, with key responsibilities related to successfully launching Inflammatix’s flagship test, InSep, and further developing the pipeline. Prior to joining Inflammatix, Nina held Strategic Marketing & Innovation leadership roles in Abbott and Becton Dickinson, encompassing point of care tests, molecular diagnostics, and genomics. She started off her career in the management consulting arm of the healthcare investment bank Leerink Partners. Dr. Menezes has a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed her postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Pamela Lambert, MS, PMP
Ms. Lambert brings leadership expertise from over 30 years in scientific, management, and consulting positions in clinical laboratory, diagnostics, genomics, pharmaceutical, and medical device environments. Previously V.P. of Program, Quality and Compliance Management at Pathwork Diagnostics, she has contributed to the development and commercialization of numerous products to benefit biomedical research and healthcare through leadership positions in Project Management at Grail, Depomed, Complete Genomics, Pathwork Diagnostics, Applied Biosystems, Affymetrix, Inc. and Chiron (Nucleic Acid Diagnostics Division). She has also held management positions in Project Portfolio Management (Roche Molecular Systems) and Product Development, Clinical Affairs, Product Support and Project Management (Syva Company).
Pamela manages the company’s new product development design assurance, product lifecycle process and government contract reporting. She is a certified Project Management Professional and holds a Total Quality Management Certificate from San Jose State University in addition to her B.S. in Medical Technology from U.N.C. Chapel Hill and her M.S. in Clinical Laboratory Science from U.C. San Francisco.
Paul Fleming, PhD
Dr. Fleming leads the engineering group at Inflammatix which encompasses systems, mechanical, electrical, software, manufacturing, and consumable engineering, as well as human-centered industrial design, digital design, and human factors, and usability engineering. Prior to Inflammatix, he served as the Director of Program Management and Site Operations for the diagnostic group at Ximedica, a product development company, and Chief Scientist at GenCell Biosystems. Dr. Fleming received his Ph.D. from the University of Limerick, Ireland, where his work focused on the development of an instrument for high throughput gene expression analysis directly from cells.
Diana Lane
Diana Lane is a graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz with a Bachelor’s in Biology. She has worked in Quality Assurance supporting medical device and IVD development and manufacturing since 1989. Ms. Lane took a QA Manager role in 2003, and her positions since that time have expanded to include responsibility for Regulatory Affairs. She was most recently Director of Quality Management and Regulatory Affairs at Roche.
Tawny Darling
Tawny Darling serves as VP, People Operations for Inflammatix. In her role, Ms. Darling is responsible for leading Inflammatix’s overall human resources strategy, global talent acquisition, leadership development, diversity & inclusion, career development, comp & benefits, HR operations, and employee relations.
Ms. Darling has over 18 years of experience in human resources and has worked in the finance, tech, and bio tech industries. She received her BS in Business Management from the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ (go Wildcats!), and her MA in counseling at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, CA (go Gaels!).
Jerry Ceglia
Jerry Ceglia leads the Operations Team bringing 25+ years of manufacturing and supply chain management experience to Inflammatix. He has served in start-up, emerging, and public companies effectively developing teams and infrastructure to provide innovative products for Class II & III medical instruments and consumables.
Jerry recently lead leadership positions at Sientra and St. Jude Medical with responsibilities spanning manufacturing organizations for both in-house and contract partners, Jerry has guided teams from early development through high volume production and commercialization. His extensive experience collaborating with global suppliers has resulted in shorter cycle time, inventory reduction and reduced product cost.
Jerry earned a Bachelor of Science from Notre Dame de Namur University and an MBA from Golden Gate University.
Board of Directors
Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD
Dr. Sweeney is a licensed physician and data scientist with over 10 years of experience researching sepsis, and is the founding CEO of Inflammatix.
Steve Tablak
Mr. Tablak joined GeneWeave with a great idea for a transformative IVD and helped to build a great company.
Adam Wieschhaus, PhD
Adam Wieschhaus is a Director at Northpond Ventures and leads the firm’s work in life science R&D solutions, molecular diagnostics, and environmental sciences. Previously, Adam was a Vice President at Cowen and Company, where he covered the life science tools and diagnostics space for six years. Prior to Cowen, he conducted his postdoctoral studies at Tufts Medical School, where he developed and refined drug candidates across several therapeutic areas. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, a B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from University of Georgia, and is a CFA charterholder.
Ken Bahk, PhD
Dr. Ken Bahk has spent his career as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and venture philanthropist for multiple Family Offices. Prior to Lakewood Holdings, Ken was the founding CEO of Three Lakes Partners, has served in key investment, management, and Director roles, and functioned as in leadership positions for a multitude of professional organizations including the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Association for Molecular Pathology, and the American Society for Microbiology. As a conduit between technology and finance, Ken co-founded and manages the premier Analyst events for molecular diagnostics and microbiology to highlight technologies most likely to be impactful and commercially successful. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and an M.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology from Northwestern University, and his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management.
Kian Beyzavi, PhD
Dr. Kian Beyzavi is a seasoned veteran of the healthcare industry with a focus on leveraging innovative technologies to improve diagnosis and delivery of care. Having started her career at McKinsey & Company, she has 25 years of experience as a venture investor, entrepreneur, consultant, and general manager at Rho Ventures, Medtronic, Abbott Diabetes Care and Novartis Diagnostics. Through her work with multiple stakeholders, Kian has developed a systems level view of the complex healthcare ecosystem and the need to identify and align incentives. Most recently, she has been leading a specialized consulting firm advising a wide range of clients including Fortune 500 companies and start ups in the areas of strategy, product development, business model innovation, commercialization, and monetization of novel opportunities in life sciences including drug-device combinations, point of care diagnostics, data analytics, digital health, genomics, predictive algorithms and AI. She is currently a venture partner at Cota capital, a multistage investment firm. She holds a PhD in electrical engineering and applied physics from Princeton University.
Advisors
Jesús Bermejo-Martin, MD, PhD
Jesus F Bermejo-Martin, MD, PhD, trained in Medicine at the University of Valladolid, Spain. Dr. Bermejo-Martin was fellow of Clinical Immunology at the Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain, from 1999 to 2003, and received his PhD in Immunology at University Complutense of Madrid in 2005. In 2006 he was Guest Researcher at the University of Health Network, Toronto, Canada. Currently he is the PI of BioSepsis, focusing on translational research in sepsis, with a particular emphasis in gene expression and systems biology.
Nathan A Ledeboer
Dr. Ledeboer is a Professor and Vice Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Clinically, he serves as the Medical Director of Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics for Froedtert Hospital and Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories in Milwaukee, WI. His research endeavors, particularly in the area developing diagnostic tools for infectious diseases, have led to numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and more than 100 funded research projects.
Jim Ducharme
Dr. Ducharme is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at McMaster University, and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Queens University. He works as an emergency physician at Humber River Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Ducharme is currently the President of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. Past professional experience includes eleven years as Editor in Chief of the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine and serving as President for both the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians and the Quebec Association of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Ducharme has also held leadership roles in the private sector, having been Chief Medical Officer at MedEmerg (then AIM Health Group) and McKesson Canada.
Laura Adams
Previously, Laura was the founding President and CEO of the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI), RI’s statewide Health Information Exchange. During her time at RIQI, Health Data Management named her one of their 2018 Most Powerful Women in Health IT in the Thought Leader category and Becker’s Hospital Review named her to the 2018 inaugural list of Female Health IT Leaders to Know and to its 2019 list of Women in Health IT to Know. As Catalyst at X4 Health, Laura led the national strategic partnerships for the 3rd Conversation (3C) project (https://www.3rdconversation.org/), helping to reweave humanity into the fabric of healthcare and healing.
Laura chaired the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Planning Committee for the “Digital Infrastructure for Population Health and a Learning Healthcare System” initiative. Through her Laura Adams Consulting company, she has delivered conference keynotes in nearly every state in the union and in 13 different countries.
Laura was Founder, President and CEO of Decision Support Systems, a New York-based company specializing in Internet-based healthcare decision support. She has been a long-time faculty member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in Boston. She directed the IHI Idealized Design of the Intensive Care Unit project and served as faculty in the VHA’s ICU improvement collaborative and was the Principal Investigator on the RI Statewide ICU Collaborative. She was among the first to bring the principles of healthcare QI to the Middle East, in conjunction with Donald Berwick, MD and the Harvard Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East. She served as IHI faculty at the inaugural IHI Middle East Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare in Doha, Qatar.
Under her leadership, RIQI won the National Council for Community Behavioral Health Excellence Award for Impact in serving those with behavioral health and substance abuse challenges. She received citations from the RI Congressional delegation for her visionary leadership and contributions to improving the healthcare system in Rhode Island. Laura’s company was a multi-year winner of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce’s Exemplary award for Worksite Wellness. RIQI was named RI’s Most Innovative Company in Healthcare in 2015; was named 2017 Employer of Choice by the Employer’s Association of New England; and was a multi-year winner of RI’s Best Places to Work award from the Providence Business News. RIQI won the 2017 Innovation Award in Healthcare in Rhode Island; a national 2018 Healthcare Informatics Innovation Award for impact on the opioid crisis; and was a top finalist for the 2018 New England Business Innovation award, again for impact on the opioid crisis.
In Memoriam
In memory of our valued scientific advisory board member and close friend.
Hector Wong, MD
Dr. Hector R. Wong was a Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He also served as the Director of Critical Care Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation. His research program was focused on sepsis, and spanned the spectrum from laboratory-based research to translational research. A major focus of the program was the development of stratification, prognostic, and diagnostic biomarkers.
Investors
Inflammatix investors include the following groups:
Partner with Us!
Inflammatix is establishing partnerships with diagnostic instrument, companion therapeutic and commercial distribution companies across the globe. Contact us at info@inflammatix.com to explore collaboration opportunities.
Awards
Inflammatix is recognized for our accomplishments and promise
2021 SCCM Gold Snapshot Award for the 50th Critical Care Congress
Tracxn Emerging Startups 2021: Top Diagnostics Tech Startups
2020 MedTech Innovator Top 50 Medtech Startups
2019 FierceMedTech Fierce 15 Company
2019 AACC Disruptive Technology and Audience Choice Awards
2017 ISF Best Clinical Abstract Award
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