Lab to Startup

Lab to Startup

Hundreds of thousands of researchers around the world are working to improve life and address imminent threats to humanity. Often, the research ends up in the “Scientific valley of death” in the form of publications and patents that never see the light of the day.

Welcome to “Lab to Startup” a podcast aimed at showcasing the effort needed to translate lab research to startups. The show has two main goals: 1. Sharing the stories of those scientists and engineers who have successfully fou…

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Ending a 100-Year quest to replace toxic Hexavalent Chromium without sacrificing cost, speed, or performance
64
July 13, 2026

Ending a 100-Year quest to replace toxic Hexavalent Chromium without sacrificing cost, speed, or performance

Mehdi Kargar, Ph.D., is the CEO and Cofounder of Maxterial. They are commercializing an affordable metallic coating to protect surfaces against extreme environments and to reduce the use of hexavalent chrome, and cyanides, known to cause cancers. This is the story about how Maxterial cracked the code to replacing Hexavalent Chromium without sacrificing cost, speed, or performance, and the decade of near-deaths, grit, and serendipity it took to build a deep tech revolution.Maxterial receiv
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Biotech's New Rules: Tight Capital, Hard Science, AI, and Survival in 2026
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March 2, 2026

Biotech's New Rules: Tight Capital, Hard Science, AI, and Survival in 2026

Doug Crawford, Ph.D., is the founder of MBC BioLabs and also a Managing General Partner of Mission BioCapital. Doug’s goal is to help entrepreneurial scientists create successful startups. His dream is that every entrepreneurial scientist with a dream be given a chance. Since its founding, this program has helped launch 500 companies and helped raise over $20 billion in capital.Robert Blazej, Ph.D., is a Partner at Mission BioCapital and Director at MBC BioLabs. He is a passionate biotechnolog
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Cold Plasma Meets Machine Learning: The SirenOpt Story of Solving Manufacturing's Nanoscale Blind Spot
61
Jan. 19, 2026

Cold Plasma Meets Machine Learning: The SirenOpt Story of Solving Manufacturing's Nanoscale Blind Spot

Jared O'Leary, Ph.D., is the co-founder and CEO of SirenOpt, and Ali Mesbah, Ph.D. is his cofounder and also his former PhD advisor. Ali is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley.SirenOpt is a Berkeley spin-out that is solving one of manufacturing's biggest blind spots.Their PlasmaSens platform uses cold atmospheric plasma and AI to non-destructively inspect thin films and nanomaterials in real-time—catching defects and inconsistencies that traditional methods miss entirely. They
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Designing the Future of Drug Delivery: How AI is Solving RNA's Biggest Challenge
60
Dec. 8, 2025

Designing the Future of Drug Delivery: How AI is Solving RNA's Biggest Challenge

Yogev Debbi and Prof Avi Schroeder (Technion Israel Institute of Technology), co-founded Mana bio along with Dr. Kira Radinsky and Roy Nevo. They are leveraging data, machine learning and high throughput screening to design novel Lipid NanoParticles for targeted extrahepatic delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics and vaccines.Lipid nanoparticles are microscopic fatty bubbles that deliver genetic medicines into your cells—think of them as the FedEx trucks of molecular biology. Remember the mRNA
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Solving the CRISPR delivery problem using a proprietary peptide-based platform
59
May 19, 2025

Solving the CRISPR delivery problem using a proprietary peptide-based platform

Dana Foss and Ross Wilson are the cofounders of Editpep, a biotech startup focused on developing CRISPR-based therapeutics. They are using a proprietary peptide-based delivery platform that enables targeted delivery to specific cell types, particularly for hard-to-reach areas like the brain.While Dana Foss is the CEO, Ross Wilson is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and also the Director of Therapeutic Delivery at the Innovative Genomics Institute at the Univers
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Altitude Lab Fund- Supporting healthcare founders in challenging times
58
March 11, 2025

Altitude Lab Fund- Supporting healthcare founders in challenging times

Chandana Haque is the Executive Director of Altitude Lab, a healthcare startup accelerator building a community of diverse entrepreneurs in Utah. Altitude Lab was cofounded in 2020 by Chandana and Chris Gibson, the co-founder & CEO of Recursion in...
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