2023

Tri-Valley Life Sciences Summit

The Tri-Valley Life Sciences Summit Is Unchained!

Hosted by Unchained Labs and presented by Mirador Capital Partners and Tri-Valley Ventures.

October 18, 2023 | 5:00 – 8:00pm | Unchained Labs | Pleasanton, CA

The program begins with a networking reception so attendees can mingle, meet colleagues, and make new connections. he program opens with welcoming remarks from Tim Harkness, founder and CEO of Unchained Labs, followed by a brief survey of the State of Tri-Valley Life Sciences from Yolanda Fintschenko of Startup Tri-Valley.

We will then welcome Apton Biosystems CEO John Hanna to the stage for a fireside chat discussing the key steps that prepared Tri-Valley Ventures-funded Apton Biosystems for the merger with PacBio. This will be followed by a panel discussion with Tri-Valley life sciences entrepreneurs and ecosystem leaders from emerging life sciences hot spots in the Tri-Valley in synthetic biology and therapeutics.

Connect with the Tri-Valley life sciences ecosystem.

Almost 200 local life sciences entrepreneurs and professionals attended the 2022 Tri-Valley Life Sciences Summit. View the 2022 program and sponsors here.

Event Schedule

The Summit is designed to give busy professionals concrete takeaways they can incorporate into their work immediately, as well as plenty of opportunities to connect with peers. This year we have structured the program to provide high-value content for early-stage startups as well as high-growth, later-stage companies. A snapshot of the agenda is to to the right (or below).

5:00 PM

Networking

5:45 PM

Welcome – Tim Harkness, CEO, Unchained Labs

6:00 pm

Life Sciences Investment Landscape – Yolanda Fintschenko, Executive Director, i-GATE Innovation Hub

6:00 PM

Keynote – Fireside Chat with John Hanna, CEO of Apton Biosystems moderated by Tim Harkness.

6:30 PM

Panel Discussion with Life Sciences Entrepreneurs

7:00 - 8:00 pm

Closing Remarks and Networking

Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Tim Harkness

KEYNOTE MODERATOR

John Hanna

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

FAQs

Who should attend?
Scientists, technologists, investors and business professionals working in industries that include or intersect with the life sciences who are entrepreneurs or have entrepreneurial ambitions.

Why should I attend?
This event is designed to relay information, inspiration, and create networking opportunities for the speakers and attendees.

How can I contact the organizers with any questions?
Please complete our contact form.

How do I register for the summit?
Head over to our Eventbrite.

How do I become a sponsor?
Please visit our Sponsorship Page

Photos From Our Previous Summit

2023 Sponsors & Affiliates

We are honored to partner with leading firms in the Tri-Valley who have demonstrated their commitment to growing the life sciences ecosystem in the region.

Host

Presenting Sponsors

Affiliates

Ecosystem Sponsors

Event Sponsors

Become a Sponsor

2023 TVLSS Organizers

Brandon Cardwell

Innovation & Economic Development Director, City of Livermore

Yolanda Fintschenko, Ph.D.

Executive Director, i-GATE Innovation Hub
Director, Startup Tri-Valley and Daybreak Labs

Mitch Hertz

Executive Director at Cushman & Wakefield

Janelle Muranaka

Vice President of Operations at Meissa Vaccines

Greg Hitchan

Co-Founder/Managing Partner at Tri-Valley Ventures

Mitch Levinson

Chief Strategy Officer & Board Member at Pulse Biosciences

Morgan Pegus-Thomas

Manager of Marketing & Programs at California Life Sciences (CLS)

Brian Wilson

Office/R&D Leasing and Sales Advisor at Cushman & Wakefield

Location

Veeva System, the leading cloud-based software company serving the global life sciences industry, will once again host the Tri-Valley Life Sciences Summit at their headquarters in Pleasanton, CA.

Veeva Systems

4280 Hacienda Drive
Pleasanton, CA 94588

Connect with the Tri-Valley startup ecosystem

Let's Get Started

KEYNOTE

Tim Harkness

Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Unchained Labs

Tim is a serial entrepreneur who loves building great teams and great life sciences companies. With over 25 years of experience 3 successful exits including Molecular Devices, ProteinSimple and Unchained Labs, Tim's leadership has generated over $1.3 billion of shareholder value. Tim founded Unchained Labs to help scientists unlock next-gen biologics and gene therapies and is excited to take the business to the next level with The Carlyle Group. Tim is also an enthusiastic supporter other entrepreneurial teams and currently Chairman of the Board at both Biolog and Fluent Biosciences and a Board member at Labvoice.

PANEL DISCUSSION PARTICIPANT

John Hanna

Chief Executive Officer at Apton Biosystems

John Hanna has led Apton Biosystems as Chief Executive Officer since 2021. Mr. Hanna has more than 20 years of senior healthcare management experience, including ten years at genomic diagnostics company Veracyte, Inc., where his roles included chief commercial officer and vice president of marketing. Prior to that, Mr. Hanna held sales and business development roles at IBM, Humana, Inc, and America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)

LIFE SCIENCES INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE

James Langford

Principal at Tri-Valley Ventures

Tri-Valley Ventures is the only venture capital firm focused on funding and supporting early-stage companies in the Software, Life Sciences, and Deep Tech verticals in the Tri-Valley. James is responsible for conducting all aspects of due diligence involved in the investment decision-making process for prospective Tri-Valley Ventures investments. James’ experience includes providing over $1 billion in financing to 70+ innovative companies in both the earlier stage venture world and more mature middle-market.

James is passionate about supporting exceptional founders building breakthrough companies that are enabling people to live better, more fulfilling lives. If you're a founder, C-level executive, capital-provider, or intermediary in the space, please feel free to reach out and connect with James!

PANEL DISCUSSION MODERATOR

Carole-Lynn Glass

COO and CFO at Engine Room

Carole-Lynn Glass has served as COO and CFO for Engine Room since 2012. She brings unequaled expertise in designing and implementing scalable processes and systems. Having served as financial executive in privately held start-ups and large public companies from pre-revenue to over $300M, Carole-Lynn has significant experience in M&A and due diligence, accounting operations, budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting.

Carole-Lynn has served in several key roles including as director of emerging growth services for RoseRyan; manager and senior consultant at Kranz & Associates; acting CFO and director of finance for venture-backed and early-stage companies, manager of project-based services; VP of finance at Ion Beam Applications, Esprit Systems, ADI, 3Soft’ acting director of finance for Birst, Vium, and Synthego; CFO at SteriGenics; and interim CFO for Micro-Documentaries, Freedom Debt Relief, Meissa Vaccines, Berkeley Catalyst Fund, Voxeet.

PANEL DISCUSSION PARTICIPANT

Sulatha Dwarakanath, PhD

Founder and CEO at Kaya17, Inc.

Sulatha is the Founder & CEO of Kaya17, Inc. and co-inventor of the Kaya17 platform technology, leading to development of a Point of Care, Rapid testing solution for COVID-19. As a serial entrepreneur, Dwarakanath has more than 25 years of experience in taking several products from bench to market under regulatory environment.

While working for various reputed companies such as Bayer Diagnostics (Siemens Heatheniers) and Thermo Fisher Scientific, she brought in various innovations that lead shorter time to market for critical diagnostics products. As a part Medical and Scientific Affairs, Assistant Director at Roche Molecular Systems, managed the Infectious Diseases group focused on HIV and Hepatitis.

Formerly, as the founder/CSO of Nano Science Diagnostics, Dwarakanath was instrumental in developing tests for bacteria in food and Point of Care tests for Strep and Staph with innovations in nanotechnology. She was the director of AC2 Bioscience Incubator in Austin TX, where she conceptualized the life science incubator, that currently hosts 12 companies and raised $10M from various government sources. As a part of National Science Foundation InnovATE BIO center, she co-chairs the National Industry and Workforce Advisory Council.

PANEL DISCUSSION PARTICIPANT

Neil Ray

CEO & Founder Raydiant Oximetry, Inc.

Dr. Neil Ray is a pediatric anesthesiologist who observed the number of unneeded C-sections he was performing due to the lack of quality fetal pulse oximetry data during delivery. Inspired by the ability to make non-invasive oxygen measurements in the brain, he decided to leave his medical practice and form a company devoted to taking a more reliable fetal pulse oximeter to the market. He has lead Raydiant Oximetry since 2016 as founder and CEO. The Raydiant Oximetry team is dedicated to improving women's and fetal health by preventing unnecessary Caesarian sections with a more accurate measurement of fetal distress during delivery using Raydiant's novel, non-invasive fetal pulse oximetry technology.