Bhaskar Ramamurthy, Ph.D. has 25 years of experience in the design and development of medical devices. He has been at SRI International (Executive Director, Ventures), Innervision (CTO), Siemens, and Acuson. At SRI International, he was involved in intellectual property strategy, commercialization, and the creation of spin-offs. At Innervision, he created a diagnostic imaging system for imaging the obese. At Siemens and Acuson, he led the development of several diagnostic ultrasound technologies that were deployed and adopted widely. His expertise in medical devices has been sought out by M&A teams for performing technology and risk assessment. He is an inventor of over 40 patents issued and pending.

Ryan Dittamore has developed and commercialized multiple oncology products utilized in medicine today. Most recently, he was CBO of Decipher Biosciences, acquired by Veracyte ($600M), and previously Chief of Medical Innovation at Epic Sciences, where he led the clinical development, reimbursement, guideline support, and commercial partnering of the AR-V7 test (the first predictive test in prostate cancer). Ryan has also held roles at Roche Dx (Ventana), Genisphere (Code Biotherapeutics), and Bio-Rad. Cumulatively, he has partnered with over 60 biopharma companies, is the author of over 30 peer-reviewed publications, and inventor of 12 patents issued and pending.

Michael Lesh, MD is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF, and he was, until recently, Executive Director of Health Technology in the Office of the Vice Chancellor at UCSF. Michael combines a background in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, with a medical career in internal medicine, cardiology, and cardiac electrophysiology (UCSF, U. Penn). Dr. Lesh’s inventions at UCSF include the method of atrial fibrillation ablation. Atrionix commercialized this innovation and was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Lesh invented the appendage occlusion device to prevent stroke (PLAATO), and founded and led Appriva, which was acquired by Medtronic. An accomplished entrepreneur, he was the founder and CEO of companies including Mitralife, Inc., Evera Medical and Middle Peak Medical, and served as Director at HeartScape, Stentys, Abate, Cordance, and KidneyCor.

Eric C. Leuthardt, M.D. is a neurosurgeon who is currently a professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also Chief of the Division of Neurotechnology. Leuthardt is an internationally renowned neurosurgeon, scientist, and innovator. He has created and translated numerous high-impact medical innovations. These include the first FDA-approved brain-computer interface for stroke, the use of resting-state fMRI for advanced brain mapping, the neurosurgical application of laser ablation, and the use of ultrasound to non-invasively “sonobiopsy” the brain. His work in the field of neuroprosthetics, neurotechnologies, advanced brain imaging, and neurosurgical devices has yielded him numerous accolades as a pioneer in applied neuroscience. In addition to over 150 peer-reviewed publications, Leuthardt has over 1600 patents on file with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a myriad of medical devices and neuro-technologies. He is also the founder of eight startup companies, a partner of the venture fund E15, an Emmy Award-winning playwright, and the author of two fiction novels, Red Devil 4 and Limbo.

Hong Chen is a world-leading scientist in developing innovative therapeutic ultrasound technologies. She is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering from the University of Washington in 2011. She was a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University from 2012 to 2015. Since joining Washington University in St. Louis in 2015, her research has been focused on developing ultrasound-brain interfacing techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases and understanding brain functions. Her research has been funded by NIH BRAIN Initiative, NIBIB, NIA, NIMH, NCI, NSF, and DoD. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound, the IEEE International Ultrasonics technical committee, and the Acoustical Society of America Biomedical Ultrasound technical committee. She has received numerous awards, including the Frederic Lizzi Early Career Award from the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound, the Young Investigator Award at the International Symposium on Focused Ultrasound, and an Outstanding Teaching Award.