RHAEOS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
Anna Lisa is a serial entrepreneur with deep experience in startups, venture capital, technology transfer, non dilutive financing, biomedical research, and life science consulting. She specializes in early-stage, cutting edge technology businesses and has been a part of the entrepreneurial community for 20 years.
She helped drive the formation and raised angel and venture funding for several start-up companies while also serving as top management for many of the ventures. She also led regulatory affairs, quality, and operations for several medical device companies. She also has extensive experience in non-dilutive funding having helped new companies receive over $50M in SBIR/STTR, state and private grants. Her experience in this type of funding has landed her several contracts with Argonne National Labs, The Polsky Exchange at the University of Chicago, INVO at Northwestern University, the Illinois University Incubator Network, and more. She is also on the Advisory Board for Women in Bio Chicago, a medtech mentor at mHUB Chicago, and an advisor at the Chicago Biomedical Consortium.
She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Rhaeos, Inc., a digital health and medical technology company born out of the Rogers Research Group at Northwestern University, developing non-invasive wearable flow sensors for various chronic medical conditions for hospital and home use. She has led the company through multiple value inflection milestones including bringing in >$18M in financing including major NIH and NSF grants, achieving FDA breakthrough designation, collaborating with major hospitals across the country for clinical studies, and winning MedTech Innovator, the largest medical device competition in the world beating out >1000 companies globally.
She holds 3 Masters' Degrees in Cell Biology (Rush University), Business (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Public Health (University of Illinois at Chicago).
Job Titles:
- Product Development Engineer
Blake Parsons focused his undergraduate career at Northwestern University on developing an extensive understanding of the mechanical design and testing of medical devices, and applied this knowledge to a variety of wearable sensor academic projects, leading to multiple publications. Blake also spent part of his undergraduate career as a co-op at Ethicon, where he was able to further develop his mechanical design skills and gain an increased understanding of the regulatory processes necessary to successfully launch a product. He brings his knowledge and experience to the mechanical design of Rhaeos systems and devices. Blake earned a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2021.
Job Titles:
- Research and Development Engineer
Chase Correia began his career at the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics as an undergraduate researcher contributing to the development of soft, flexible biosensors. He has broad experience in the electromechanical design of wearable devices and physiological data analysis. He earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University specializing in wearable computing.
Dr. Adam Zysk has over 20 years of research experience in academic and clinical settings. He has led engineering development and clinical studies efforts for multiple medical device efforts and continues to bring together multi-disciplinary teams focused on pursuing improvements in patient care. Additionally, Dr. Zysk is well versed in Class II and III medical device regulatory submissions in the US and EU. He has also been the PI of multiple NIH funded projects. He earned an MS and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, was on faculty at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and held an appointment at the Washington University in St. Louis.
Dr. Alex Burton started his biomedical engineering career 8 years ago developing algorithms to extract physiological responses collected with body worn devices to determine behavioral and environmental impacts on the wellbeing of patient and office workers. Since then, he has transitioned into implementing medical device designs to interface with the central and peripheral nervous system. He has >10 published works including peer-reviewed papers and review articles on fully implantable wireless, battery-free, electronics and patent on non-invasive techniques to map current density patterns from deep brain stimulators. He earned both his BS and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Arizona specializing in mechanics and medical device sensors.
Dr. Amit Ayer completed neurosurgical residency at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an MBA at Kellogg School of Management, and is currently pursuing fellowship training in epilepsy and functional neurosurgery at Stanford University. He has authored over 25 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts and book chapters in leading basic science and clinical journals, including Science Translational Medicine, Nature Digital Medicine, Journal of Neurological Surgery and the Journal of Immunology. Dr. Ayer has been recognized by funding from the Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation, the Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute, among others. He was awarded the Cisco Global Problem Solver Prize and shortlisted as a finalist for the "Innovator of the Year" award by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS).
Dr. Chad Seaver is a medtech executive and entrepreneur with over twenty years' experience commercializing medical device and biotech breakthroughs. He currently serves as the CEO of Cinitlight, a medical technology company advancing the diagnostic ability of molecular imaging used in oncology, cardiology, and neurological imaging. Previously, he was a co-founder and CEO of Arkis BioSciences, a neurosurgical device company. Dr. Seaver led commercialization of the company's groundbreaking Endexo(r) catheter technology and minimally invasive guidewire instrumentation advancing hydrocephalus shunt treatments. Arkis BioSciences was acquired by Integra LifeSciences in July, 2019.
Dr. Seaver previously held various senior management positions over the course of eight years with Siemens Healthcare. He most prominently led development and commercialization of the company's first time-of-flight positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, introduced as the Biograph mCT at the 2008 EANM. He further garnered corporate funding to create and lead a new R&D department developing mixed-signal integrated circuits forming the foundation for the world's now fastest time-of-flight PET scanner, marketed as the Biograph Vision.
Dr. Seaver is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. He is a licensed Professional Engineer, an elected Senior Member of the IEEE, and an inducted member of Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi.
Job Titles:
- the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Chief, Neurosurgery
Dr. James Killeffer has practiced neurosurgery in Knoxville since 1997. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and is a Fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He grew up in Knoxville and graduated from the University of Tennessee with Honors in 1987. He completed medical school at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, completed a general surgery internship at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, and completed his neurosurgical residency at West Virginia University, where he joined their faculty as an Instructor in Neurosurgery. He returned to Knoxville to join his father in practice at University Neurosurgery, PC.
Dr. Killeffer became a full-time member of the faculty of the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine in 2006. His duties there as Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery and Assistant Professor of Surgery include directing resident and medical student education and participating in neurosurgery-related research.
He has published articles on numerous topics including cervical spine anatomy, spinal imaging, intracranial subdural hematoma, brain tumors, spinal anomalies, intravenous nutrition, and the socio-economic aspects of neurosurgery. Currently, he is collaborating with members of the Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee and with engineers in the private sector in research involving cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics and the kinematics of brain trauma. He also is working with engineers to develop implants to improve the treatment of cerebrospinal fluid circulation disorders.
Dr. Killeffer's clinical practice includes treatment of a broad spectrum of adult neurosurgical problems including the brain, spine, and peripheral nerve surgery. Special interests include minimally invasive techniques in brain and spinal surgery, endoscopic pituitary surgery, trigeminal neuralgia, and hemifacial spasm, and surgical neuro-oncology, including brain and spinal stereotactic radiosurgery. He practices at an academic teaching hospital to give his patients access to the state-of-the-art comprehensive care of neurosurgical problems.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Neurosurgery Research
Dr. Jenna Koschnitzky brings over 20 years of basic and clinical science experience working in diverse research areas including plant and sensory biology, neuroscience, clinical trial development, and patient engagement. Her interest in hydrocephalus stems from eight years directing the research department at the Hydrocephalus Association, a health non-profit organization.
During that time, Dr. Koschnitzky developed and executed multiple research programs while cultivating relationships with clinical and basic researchers as well as with dozens of industry partners. This work included collaborating with and supporting the activities of multicenter clinical research collaboratives, the Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network (HCRN) and the Adult HCRN, and developing and running a basic science network the Hydrocephalus Association Network for Discovery Science. Concurrently, she developed and ran multiple annual research grant programs, developed and deployed the first hydrocephalus focused community powered registry, and developed community- based hydrocephalus research priorities using the James Lind Alliance methodology. Dr. Koschnitzky also served on the Board of Directors for the Health Research Association.
Dr. Koschnitzky is currently the Senior Director of Neurosurgery Research of Rhaeos, Inc. and a science consultant. She graduated summa cum laude and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society (Wake Forest University). She holds a PhD in neuroscience (Northwestern University).
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- President
- Materials Scientist and Biomedical Engineer
Dr. John Rogers is a world-renowned materials scientist and biomedical engineer whose work underlies FlowSense. Prof. Rogers also has experience in startup companies in areas ranging from semiconductor metrology (Active Impulse Systems) to wearable electronics (MC10) to photovoltaics (Semprius) and solid-state lighting (CoolEdge). Prof. Rogers is also a co-founder of NeuroLux, Wearifi, Epicore and others. He has also published >550 papers, and is an inventor on >100 patents and patent applications, >70 of which are licensed or in use by large companies and startups that he has co-founded. Dr. Rogers is also one of only 25 people in history to be named to three National Academies: Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Cedars - Sinai Medical Center, Dept. Chair, Neurosurgery
- Chairman and Professor of the Department of Neurosurgery
Dr. Keith L. Black serves as Chairman and Professor of the Department of Neurosurgery, Director of Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and Director of Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. An internationally renowned neurosurgeon and scientist, Dr. Black joined Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in July 1997 and was awarded the Ruth and Lawrence Harvey Chair in Neurosciences in November of that year. Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Black served on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) faculty for 10 years where he was Professor of Neurosurgery. In 1992, he was awarded the Ruth and Raymond Stotter Chair in the Department of Surgery and was head of the UCLA Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program.
Dr. Black pioneered research on designing ways to open the blood-brain barrier, enabling chemotherapeutic drugs to be delivered directly into the tumor. His work in this field received the Jacob Javits award from the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of the National Institutes of Health in June of 2000. Dr. Black and patients undergoing the first clinical trials of the drug, RMP-7, were profiled in 1996 on the PBS program, The New Explorers, in an episode called Outsmarting the Brain. Dr. Black's other groundbreaking research has focused on developing a vaccine to enhance the body's immune response to brain tumors, use of gene arrays to develop molecular profiles of tumors, the use of optical technology for brain mapping, the use of focused microwave energy to non-invasively destroy brain tumors, and development of noninvasive optical imaging for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine in the Fall 1997 special edition of Heroes in Medicine. Dr. Black has published more than 260 peer reviewed scientific papers and, in March 2009, he published his book Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles.
Dr. Black serves on numerous editorial boards, including the Public Library of Science (PLoS). He was on the National Institutes of Health's Board of Scientific Counselors for Neurological Disorders and Stroke and was appointed to the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of the National Institutes of Health from 2000-2004. He was also selected as committee member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Independent Citizens Oversight Committee from 2004-2006. He is also a member of numerous professional societies including the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Neurosurgical Society of America and the Academy of Neurological Surgery. He also is a Founding Member of the North American Skull Base Society.
Job Titles:
- Director, Yale Center for Brain & Mind Health
- Founding Director of the Yale Center for Brain & Mind Health
Dr. Kevin Sheth is a founding Director of the Yale Center for Brain & Mind Health and the Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research for the departments of Neurology. and Neurosurgery. He leads prevention efforts in neurologically vulnerable populations and works towards advancing therapies for acute brain injury such as stroke and brain hemorrhage. In pioneering the development of new strategies to treat brain swelling, his work has changed the fundamental approach to brain injury in the ICU and spurred the creation of new technologies in drug delivery and neuroimaging. Highly collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts from the lab have culminated in the first phase III trial to prevent brain swelling in stroke, the first phase III NIH funded prevention trial in brain hemorrhage, and the deployment of the first portable bedside MRI for brain injury in the world. His team at Yale has served as a national model for academic critical care neurology units. In recent years his group has also turned their attention to public health prevention efforts, focusing on cardiometabolic risk factors that can prevent decline in brain health resulting from stroke, dementia, and depression.
He is currently a principal investigator for two NIH neuroscience networks, StrokeNet, and SIREN. He is a multi-PI for four additional R01/U01 awards from the NIH. Dr. Sheth has served as PI or co-PI for 8 multicenter clinical trials in stroke. He is a winner of the prestigious Robert Siekert Award from the American Heart Association (AHA), the Derek Denny Brown Award from the American Neurological Association and an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Most recently, he was the recipient of the Stroke Research Mentorship Award from the American Heart Association. Dr. Sheth is the author of over 300 publications. His work has been showcased in The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, NPR, and CNN.
Dr. Sheth has also formed partnerships with entrepreneurs, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device start-ups to bring forward highly innovative solutions. These efforts have resulted in extensive knowledge of FDA pathways, development of phase I-III drug programs, and implementation of new technology into the clinical workspace. The principal theme of his efforts are towards collaboration and an improved understanding of neurological disease.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery
Dr. Matthew Potts is an Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery, Neurology - Ken and Ruth Davee Department and Radiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Potts' clinical interests include cerebrovascular surgery, neurointerventional / endovascular surgery, brain aneurysms, brain arteriovenous malformations, brain cavernous malformations, stroke, cerebrovascular ischemic disease, carotid stenosis, intracranial atherosclerosis, spinal vascular disease, tumor embolization, and radiosurgery. His research interests include flow diversion for brain aneurysms, advanced imaging of arteriovenous malformations, and patient safety and outcomes studies.
Dr. Mitali Stevens has >20 years of experience in clinical pharmacy and market access in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Working collaboratively with cross-functional partners, she has developed and helped to execute systematic evidence and reimbursement strategies for several companies that integrate health economics, outcomes research and market access solutions across all stages of the product life cycle to ensure competitive advantage and commercial success. Dr. Stevens received her Doctor of Pharmacy from The Ohio State University. She is a licensed pharmacist and holds a Board Certification in Pharmacotherapy Specialty.
Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari obtained his BS and MEng degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 and 2003. He received his PhD degree in biomedical engineering from the Harvard Medical School-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology in 2008. Upon completion of his PhD, Dr. Ghaffari co-founded MC10 Inc and currently serves as CEO/Co-Founder of Epicore Biosystems and associate professor in Northwestern University's Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Ghaffari's contributions in soft bioelectronics, micro/nano-scale systems, and auditory neuroscience have been recognized with the Helen Carr Peake PhD Research Prize, the MIT100K Grand Prize, MIT Technology Review Magazine's Top 35 Innovators Under 35, and Forbes Future of Work Top 50. Dr. Ghaffari has published over 110 scientific publications and is inventor on over 50 patents.
Dr. Siddharth Krishnan obtained undergraduate and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a doctorate in Materials Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has broad experience in the design, manufacture and testing of soft, wearable biosensors. Dr. Krishnan is also on the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 list for science and on MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 list for 2020.
Job Titles:
- CEO, Steele Foundation for Hope
John has over 25 years of financial and operational experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device arenas. Prior to joining Alyve Medical, John was CFO of Bolder Surgical and led the M&A team during the successful sale of Bolder Surgical to Hologic, Inc. in December 2021. John also co-founded Micro-Imaging Solutions whereby he led the finance and business development efforts for over 15 years. Prior to that role, John spent most of his career as a finance executive with large, multi-national corporations including Akzo-Nobel NV, Amgen and Thermo Fisher Scientific. John is a graduate of both Colorado State University where he earned a BS in Accounting and the University of Colorado-Denver where he earned an MS in Finance. John is also a CPA.
Kim Rodriguez has 25 years of global healthcare and medical device industry experience, spanning multiple therapeutic areas-including neurology, cardiology, and women's health. She is currently the CEO of BrainCheck, an easy-to-use platform that enables primary care doctors to perform cognitive assessment and intervention at the point of care-in lieu of a referral to a specialist. Most recently, as a Venture Partner at S3 Ventures, she supported the firm's healthcare investments. Earlier, she served as CEO & Co-Founder of Acessa Health-a venture-backed startup providing a minimally-invasive, uterine-sparing fibroid treatment for women. Under her leadership, the company raised $30M, launched a new product, obtained broad insurance coverage, and was acquired by Hologic for over $120M in upfront and expected follow-on payments. Previously, Kim was CEO at Halt Medical and led the largest business unit, Vascular Intervention, at Spectranetics (acq. by Royal Philips for $2.2B). She has held senior leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson, Blockade Medical (acq. by Balt International), Concentric Medical (acq. by Stryker Neurovascular), Guidant Corporation (acq. by Abbott Vascular), and Microvena (acq. by ev3). Kim received her Executive MBA at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and BS in Management from Pepperdine University.
Job Titles:
- Principal at Creative Ventures
Kulika Weizman is a Principal at Creative Ventures. Prior to that, she was a co-founder and CEO of a synthetic biology company producing functional ingredients naturally found in human breast milk. She also launched and led R&D projects for food and cosmeceutical applications using fermentation technologies at BIOTEC. Kulika holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Robert Kline has 25 years of healthcare related experience and a record of success growing innovative companies that improve the quality of life. In 1998, he founded Medivance to develop therapeutic temperature management products to improve clinical outcomes in critical conditions such as cardiac arrest, traumatic brain injury and stroke. The company was acquired by Becton Dickinson for approximately $250 million in 2011. Mr. Kline's next venture was ViroCyt, a spin-out from the University of Colorado. The technology reduced the time it takes to quantify small biologic particles (including viruses) from days to hours. ViroCyt was acquired by Sartorius AG for 10x revenue in 2016. In 2017, Mr. Kline became CEO of Bolder Surgical, a startup producing surgical equipment for use in minimally invasive pediatric procedures. The company was acquired by Hologic, inc. for $160 million in 2021.
Job Titles:
- Product Development Engineer
Mr. Scott Odland has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University. Throughout his engineering career, Scott has expressed a passion to build, starting with making his own wooden surfboards and skateboards. At Northwestern, he continued to explore his passion in areas such as robotic manipulation, algorithm development, and sensor fusion. At Rhaeos, Scott has utilized these experiences to push software and firmware development forward.
Job Titles:
- Product Development Engineer
Ms. Shannon McKay is a product development engineer at Rhaeos specializing in electronics and thermal testing. Ms. McKay earned her B.S. degree in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University. During this time, she worked in the John Rogers lab assisting in the development of nerve cooling devices.
Dr. Chad Webb began his technical career 16 years ago doing electronic test fixture design for a small tech start-up. Since then, he has held R&D positions in academia, government labs, start-ups, and Fortune100 companies. Most recently, Dr. Webb spent six years building global technology R&D programs in highly regulated industries at 3M, with roles in driving new technologies from lab concept to commercialization, new program development, trial execution, R&D strategy, intellectual property strategy and licensing, and acquisitions. He has >30 patents and patent applications, and 20 peer-reviewed papers, many of which form the foundation of wearable flow sensing technology.
He earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.