Join us for the 10th Annual Lobster Pot, an exhilarating evening celebrating the leadership and innovation of women in biotech. This event will spotlight women-led startups as they pitch groundbreaking ideas to a panel of distinguished venture capitalists. Each pitch session will include Q&A and feedback, offering valuable insights into the innovation landscape.

The evening will conclude with a vibrant networking cocktail hour, providing opportunities to connect with industry leaders and peers. Be part of Women In Bio’s mission to advance diversity and inclusivity in life sciences, and don’t miss this inspiring showcase of talent, vision, and innovation!

Ticket includes two drink tickets.

Program

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.  Registration
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.  Pitch Sessions & Cocktail Hour

Pitch Companies

Laura E. Kelley, CEO & Founder, Aperture Bio

Laura is the CEO and Founder of Aperture Bio. Ms. Kelley is a creative, results-driven leader skilled at building strategic partnerships. She has spent her career commercializing health technologies, most recently as a Blavatnik Fellow for Life Sciences Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. Prior experience includes managing growth marketing for a health insurtech start-up, leading corporate strategy for a medical distribution group operating across 12 emerging markets, and scaling access to technologies to combat malaria across East and West Africa. She holds a master's in public health from Columbia, an MBA from Harvard, and a BA from Rice University.
Company Description: Aperture Bio captures disease state biosignatures used to develop personalized cancer therapies via our transformative 3D biology platform.

Luba Perry, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of ReConstruct Bio

Luba holds a PhD in biotechnology from the Technion – Israeli Institute of Technology and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard University. With over 15 years of experience in academia and industry, she has been at the forefront of developing groundbreaking cell and tissue therapy technologies and products. After nearly four years as a Senior Staff Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, she transitioned her research into real-world impact by co-founding ReConstruct Bio. She now leads the development of the company’s groundbreaking BioImplant technology to transform soft tissue restoration, with an initial focus on revolutionizing breast reconstruction and augmentation by providing safer, more natural, and long-lasting alternatives for patients.
Company Description: ReConstruct Bio, a cutting-edge preclinical spinout from Harvard’s Wyss Institute, is set to transform reconstructive surgery and oncology care with its revolutionary BioImplant technology. By harnessing advanced bioprinting and regenerative medicine, the company creates implantable living, vascularized tissues from a patient’s own cells, offering safer and more natural alternatives to synthetic implants and invasive surgeries. Initially focused on breast reconstruction for cancer survivors, ReConstruct Bio is expanding its groundbreaking innovations to include trauma repair, aesthetics, and other oncological applications. Through non-dilutive funding, the company successfully validated its approach through proof-of-concept small animal studies, demonstrating its transformative potential in reconstructive medicine.

Shana Wang, Co-Founder & CEO of PathCision Medicine

Shana Wang is the Co-Founder and CEO of PathCision Medicine. She brings two decades of expertise in consulting, finance, and organizational leadership to her role. She holds an MA in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University and a BA in economics and English from Wellesley College.
Company Description: PathCision Medicine is a Boston-based biopharma startup developing targeted therapies for oncology and other disease areas with unmet needs. PathCision’s lead program is a first-in-mechanism antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) designed to cross tissue barriers and accumulate payload in invasive and metastatic cancers. This program came out of PathCision’s machine learning-enabled spatial biology platform, which uncovers novel targeting pathways from tissue pathology insights.

Joanna Xylas, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO of Materialize Bio

Joanna Xylas is the CEO of Materialize Bio, an NSF-backed Tufts spinout pioneering advanced medical technologies. With over a decade of leadership in commercialization, clinical strategy, and market development at both startups and established MedTech companies like Brixton Biosciences, TISSIUM, Conformis, and Integra LifeSciences, she has consistently driven breakthrough innovations. A former LabCentral Ignite Fellow and a PhD graduate in biomedical engineering from Tufts University, Joanna is passionate about bringing natural biomaterial innovations to patients and harnessing translational technology to redefine surgical care. As a mom of two, she is driven to develop medical solutions that improve lives for generations to come.
Company Description: Materialize Bio is an NSF-backed Tufts spinout with novel scalable 3D manufacturing methods tailored specifically for biopolymers. Materialize's platform taps into the exceptional regenerative, antimicrobial, and material properties of natural biopolymers, which are wildly underutilized as medical implants because of difficulties in fast, cost-effective prototyping and efficient production. With a range of concepts, their beachhead medical device is a breakthrough biopolymer ear tube with novel features and drug-elution capabilities. They are uniquely positioned to enhance the quality of healthcare with their functionalized implants, marking a pivotal moment as biopolymer technology finally makes its dent in both high-volume and personalized implant markets.

Avery Yan, PhD, Founder & CEO of Riboway Therapeutics

Dr. Avery Yan is the Founder and CEO of Riboway Therapeutics. She has extensive experience in R&D, investment, business development, and biotech leadership, with a strong track record in drug development, deal-making, and team building. Previously, she was Head of Biology at FUSION BioVenture, Fosun Pharma USA’s venture arm, where she led preclinical asset licensing and incubated a US-based biotech (later Leverna). Before that, she led the Cell and Molecular Biology team within Amgen’s Translational Systems Biology group, supporting 15+ drug programs and contributing to five IND filings. Her expertise spans multiple modalities, including small and large molecules, ASOs, siRNA, CAR-T, TCR-T, and PROTACs. Avery earned her PhD in neuroscience from Stony Brook University and completed postdoctoral research at Columbia University. She is also the President and Co-Founder BioSpark Group, a Boston-based nonprofit focusing on tracking industry trend, facilitating cross-disciplinary discussions and fostering a collaborative biotech ecosystem.
Company Description: Riboway Therapeutics is a biotech startup leveraging AI to decode RNA biology and develop RNA-targeted therapeutics to precisely control protein expression and function. We specialize in controlling how proteins are made by targeting RNA. Our technology enables upregulation, downregulation, activation, or inhibition of target proteins based on therapeutic needs.

Venture Capitalists

Lauren Mifflin, PhD, Principal at Frazier Life Sciences

Lauren is a Principal of Company Creation at Frazier Life Sciences, where she is building stealth NewCos in immunology and neuroscience. Previously, Lauren co-founded and built several biotech companies working with 82VS/Alloy Therapeutics and 5AM Ventures focused on developing treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative conditions, and rare diseases. Early in her career, she was a health tech investor with Jump Capital and a management consultant with Monitor Group. Lauren completed her BA/BSc at the University of Pennsylvania through the Vagelos Life Sciences and Management (LSM) program, her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and her PhD at Harvard Medical School, where she worked with Dr. Junying Yuan on RIPK1 inhibitors.

Stella Paffenholz, PhD, Principal at Nextech Invest

Stella is a Principal at Nextech Invest, a venture capital firm that supports precision medicine approaches in oncology and beyond. Prior to Nextech, Stella gained experience in venture creation at Apollo Health Ventures, management consulting at McKinsey, and in-house consulting at Merck KGaA. Stella holds a BS in molecular biomedicine from the University of Bonn, an MS in molecular biosciences from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg as a Helmholtz Fellow and a PhD from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York with her research focused on cancer genetics. Throughout her studies, Stella was supported by a fellowship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Outside of work, Stella can be found running, cycling, or swimming to train for her next marathon or triathlon.

Chaya Patel, PhD, Principal, Mission BioCapital

Chaya is a Principal at Mission BioCapital, where she focuses on investing in therapeutics companies and supporting portfolio companies through operating roles. Chaya is also active in the Boston venture ecosystem as a leader for the Emerging Venture Capitalists Association (EVCA). Prior to this, Chaya worked on company creation at a family office and the growth of their portfolio company, Alloy Therapeutics. Chaya received her PhD from Dartmouth, where her research advanced the understanding of creating maternal immunity to prevent neonatal viral infections. She received her BS in microbiology and immunology from UCLA.

Aniqa Tasnim, PhD, Associate at 5AM Ventures

Aniqa is an Associate at 5AM Ventures based in Boston, MA. At 5AM, she focuses on early-stage life sciences investments and company creation. Prior to joining 5AM, Aniqa completed her PhD in David Ginty's lab in the Neurobiology department at Harvard Medical School. In Dr. Ginty's lab, she studied sensory alterations in mouse genetic models of autism spectrum disorders and was a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellowship. Aniqa earned her BA in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University.

Mariola Szenk, PhD, Investor at BlueYard Capital

Mariola is a venture investor at BlueYard Capital, backing founders who are creating deep-tech solutions to transform biology and healthcare at the earliest stages. Prior to BlueYard, Mariola led industry partnerships with global pharma at Mayo Clinic-backed life sciences AI company, nference^®, across both R&D and business strategy and served as an entrepreneur in residence at the venture creation studio Flagship Pioneering in their artificial intelligence division. Mariola conducted her PhD research in biophysical cellular modeling with Ken Dill and a postdoc in mammalian synthetic biology with Gabor Balazsi.

Pricing Information

• Members/Guests: $60

• Non-members*: $100

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Note: A confirmation email will be sent after registration has been completed. 

Maximum Capacity

180

Parking Information

Parking is available nearby at Technology Square Garage, Kendall Center Yellow Garage, and on-street.

Public Transit Information

Redline - Kendall/MIT Stop