Events

Diana Laird is a Professor at University of California San Francisco in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, Institute for Regeneration Medicine, and Bakar Aging Research Institute. She directs the Laboratory of Germline Development, Fitness, and Aging. Her research program is motivated by solving infertility, reproductive aging, and understanding how environmental inputs affect the germline. She is deputy director of the UCSF P30 Center for Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH). She grew up in Oregon, earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics from Harvard, and found her home in research as a field biologist during four seasons in Antarctica. After PhD at Stanford in stem cell biology with Irving Weissman, she trained as a postdoc in developmental genetics with Kathryn Anderson at Sloan Kettering Institute. Her research has been recognized by an NIH New Innovator Award (DP2), an award from the W.M. Keck Foundation for Biomedical Research and she is currently a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator.

Gloria Wu is a Senior Director at Lilly Ventures, based in the Bay Area, where she focuses on investing in early-stage biotech companies and biotech focused venture capital funds. A physician scientist by training, she earned her MD from Cornell University and her PhD from The Rockefeller University. Prior to joining Lilly Ventures, Gloria was an investor at 5AM Ventures investing in and building early-stage private companies and a consultant at McKinsey & Company advising global pharmaceutical and biotech companies on R&D strategy.

Lin He received her B.S. in Biology from Tsinghua University and her Ph.D. in Stanford University under the mentorship of Dr. Gregory S. Barsh.  Lin was a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with Greg Hannon before joining the University of California at Berkeley in 2008. Currently, Lin is a Thomas and Stacey Siebel distinguished chair professor at UC-Berkeley, and a HHMI faculty scholar.

Widya Mulyasasmita, PhD is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at BEVC, an early stage VC firm investing in the intersection of science, engineering, and computation. Before BEVC, Widya led life science investing at B Capital group. Earlier, Widya was the founding Chief Business Officer at InterVenn Biosciences and was Director of New Ventures at Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Widya has served on the boards of multiple healthcare companies across preclinical, clinical, and commercial stages. She started her career at McKinsey & Company. Widya received her B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering and Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Stanford University.

Marcelle Cedars is Professor and Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at UCSF. Dr. Cedars has been funded by the NICHD and NIA in her focused areas of research including ovarian aging and assisted reproduction. She is part of a multi-disciplinary team for the current ASPIRE study (Assessing the Safety of pregnancy In the CoRona virus pandEmic) to study the impact of first-trimester exposure to SARS-COv-2 on pregnancy and childhood neurodevelopment. She has served as an Associate Editor for Fertility and Sterility, and Editorial Board for Human Reproduction Update and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Infertility. She was the Chair of the FDA Reproductive Devices Committee. She currently serves on NICHD council. She is past President of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society.

Dr. Francesca E. Duncan earned her doctorate in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and completed post-doctoral fellowships in reproductive science and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and at Northwestern University. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University where she holds the Thomas J. Watkins Memorial Professorship in Reproductive Science.  She co-directs the Center for Reproductive Science and is the faculty director for the Master of Science in Reproductive Science and Medicine program at Northwestern. She is also an Associate Professor in Residence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in the Center for Healthy Aging in Women. Dr. Duncan leads a research program focused on understanding the cellular mechanisms of how aging – both physiologic and iatrogenic – impacts reproductive potential at the levels of the gamete and ovary. Dr. Duncan has also expanded her research to encompass modulating reproductive capacity as the Principal Investigator of the Ovarian Contraceptive Discovery Initiative whose goal is identification of novel ovarian targets for non-hormonal contraception using innovative models such as in vitro follicle growth and ovulation.  In her 25+ year history in the field, she has co-authored >125 manuscripts in the area of reproductive biology through collaboration with nearly 700 co-authors from 196 institutions. Her work has been cited nearly 4000 times (Scopus), with 35 papers ranked in the top 10% for citation impact in their subject areas, 7 of which are ranked in the top 1% (Web of Science/InCites).  Her findings have been highlighted on BBC radio, in Discover Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, CNN Health, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, National Geographic, WGN-TV, Forbes Magazine, and the Today Show. Dr. Duncan is committed to academic publishing and is an ad hoc reviewer for >30 journals, has served on numerous editorial boards, and is the current Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Human Reproduction. She is an active leader in professional societies, serving on the Board of Directors for the Society for the Study of Reproduction and on the Council for the Histochemical Society. Dr. Duncan is passionate about educating the next generation of leaders in the reproductive sciences, and she has served as a faculty member in prestigious programs such as Frontiers in Reproduction and Biology of Aging held at the Marine Biological Laboratories. Dr. Duncan is the recipient of several prestigious honors including a 2017 United States Fulbright Award, the 2019 Virendra B. Mahesh New Investigator Award from the Society for the Study of Reproduction, the 2024 Rolly Simpson Frontiers in Reproduction Distinguished Alumni Award, and the 2024 Roger V. Short Medal and Lecture.

Amander Clark PhD is Professor of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology at UCLA and the Founding Director of the UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education.  Professor Clark is an award-winning scientist and internationally recognized expert on topics in stem cell biology, developmental biology and reproductive science. Her current interests are in ovarian health, formation of the ovarian reserve, and the creation of next generation tools and technologies using stem cells aimed at improving health and health-span. Professor Clark has authored more than 100 scientific articles with over 20,000 citations of her published work. She is regularly invited to appear as a subject matter expert for the New York Times, the Economist, the New Yorker and Public Radio. From 2023-2024 Professor Clark served as President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, a global non-profit that promotes excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health, and from 2023-2025 she served on the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine Health Science Policy Board.  She is currently serving on the executive committee for the Center for the Study of Women/Barbra Streisand Center at UCLA. Through her research, service and teaching, Professor Clark is committed to scientific practices that are informed by multidisciplinary research and engagement with the public.

Dena B. Dubal MD, PhD is a physician-scientist, Professor of Neurology at UCSF and serves as the David A. Coulter Endowed Chair in Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease. Dr. Dubal completed neurology training at the UCSF, where she served as chief resident. Dr. Dubal further trained as a dementia specialist and now directs a laboratory focused on mechanisms of longevity and brain resilience to investigate aging and neurodegenerative diseases, in animal models and human populations. Her team discovered that klotho enhances the brain in aging and models of Alzheimer’s disease. Her team is committed to women’s health – and discovered novel and fundamental roles for the X chromosome in brain resilience to aging and disease. Dr. Dubal’s discoveries are published in top-ranked journals such as Nature, Nature Aging, and Science Advances and have been profiled in high-visibility media such as the New York Times, WSJ The Economist, NPR, Wired, and Scientific American.  Her work is recognized for its potential toward therapies to live longer and better.  Among her honors, Dr. Dubal received the Chanceller’s Award for Advancement of Women,  NIA/AFAR Paul Beeson Award for Aging Research, Glenn Award in Biologic Mechanisms of Aging, Grass Award in Neuroscience, and Neuroendocrine Research Award. She served on the Board of the American Neurological Association and currently serves in the leadership of JAMA Neurology, the Board of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, and the Board for the Weill Institute of Neuroscience.

Emily Jacobs is a Professor of Neuroscience at UC Santa Barbara and Director of the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, an endowed research consortium headquartered at UC Santa Barbara and spanning 10 institutions. Her body of research is redefining our understanding of the brain’s capacity to undergo dynamic neuroanatomical changes and plasticity well into adulthood. In 2024 her team published the first detailed map of the human brain across pregnancy and she leads several multi-center studies on neurological changes tied to menopause. Prior to UCSB, she held a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Medicine/Division of Women’s Health at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Dr. Jacobs’ serves on the Steering Committee of the Coalition for Women’s Brain Health, the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network, the Foundation for Women’s Health, and the WHAM Research Collaborative to drive the national and international agenda on women’s health research. In recognition of her work, Dr. Jacobs was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Health and Society” Scholar, a National Institutes of Health Women’s Health Fellow, and a National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science Fellow. Science News named her one of the “Top 10 Scientists” to watch. Outside of the lab, Dr. Jacobs’ team partners with K-12 groups to advance girls’ representation in STEM. You can find her work in the The New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, NPR, BBC, TED, Netflix, and MasterClass. She is a graduate of Smith College and UC Berkeley.

Irene Chen is an assistant professor at UC Berkeley and UCSF. She studies machine learning systems for healthcare to be more robust, impactful, and equitable. Her work has been published in machine learning conferences (NeurIPS, AAAI) and medical journals (Nature Medicine, Lancet Digital Health), and has been covered by media outlets including MIT Tech Review, NPR/WGBH, and Stat News. She has been named a Rising Star in EECS, Machine Learning, and Data Science. Irene received her PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and her joint AB/SM in Applied Math from Harvard.

Ashley Abel, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Metri Bio, a biotech company developing first-in-class targeted therapeutics for endometriosis, one of the most prevalent and underserved conditions in women’s health. Ashley earned her PhD from Prof. Berna Sozen’s lab at Yale School of Medicine, where she graduated with distinction and was awarded an NICHD F31 fellowship. During her time in Prof. Sozen’s lab, she initiated research that would later become the foundation for Metri Bio, which she co-founded with Prof. Sozen, Dr. Kathy Potts, and Thomas de Vlaam. The company is advancing human endometriosis disease models to develop first-in-class therapeutics. This past year, Metri Bio closed an oversubscribed $5M pre-seed round led by Pillar VC and was selected as a founding member of the Milken Institute Women’s Health Network, chaired by Dr. Jill Biden. Ashley was recently recognized on the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list.

Ivana Muncie-Vasic, Ph.D., is founder and CEO of Vitra Labs, a biotech company developing advanced culture systems and medias to enable hormone-free IVF. Ivana earned her PhD in Bioengineering from the UC Berkeley-UCSF joint program. She conducted her doctoral research in the lab of Dr. Todd McDevitt and subsequently joined the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Shinya Yamanaka for her postdoctoral studies. During her academic tenure, she was awarded Gladstone Institutes’ Distinguished Achievement in Science Award twice and was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list in 2024. Vitra Labs has raised over $12M led by Breakout Ventures to develop in vitro activation and maturation technologies that enable developmental progression of human oocytes across follicular stages outside of the ovary, increasing viable egg yield while reducing the invasiveness, cost, and inefficiency of traditional IVF.

Dr. Jamie Justice serves as Executive VP of Health at XPRIZE Foundation and Adjunct Professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, leading the $101M XPRIZE Healthspan. She is an accomplished geroscience researcher focused on proactively addressing health by targeting biological aging pathways. Her work drives capital to innovation through competitive models, leading prizes that aim to transform approaches to human health and longevity across global research communities.

Dr. Jennifer Garrison is a pioneering neurobiologist and entrepreneur renowned for her cutting-edge research into mechanisms of healthy aging. Her work explores the intricate connections between ovarian aging and brain health, seeking to understand how these factors influence our ability to age robustly. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Productive Health Global Consortium and Co-Director of the Center for Healthy Aging in Women at the Buck Institute, she pioneered a new movement to advance research science and medicine focused on female aging. She holds appointments in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Garrison is a passionate advocate for women’s health and is currently building a novel model to fundamentally transform how we translate science to solutions for women. She is frequently quoted in both national and international media, and serves as an expert advisor to the National Menopause Foundation (NMF) and the Gates Foundation Innovation Equity Forum. She has also played an active role in the longevity field, as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Aging Association (AGE), the National Scientific Advisory Council for the American Federation of Aging Research (AFAR), the Advisory Board for the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives (A4Li), and as Associate Director of the Buck-USC Biology of Aging PhD program. Dr. Garrison was named an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Neuroscience Research Fellow and an Allen Institute for Brain Science Next Generation Leader and is the recipient of a Glenn Medical Foundation Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, a Junior Faculty Award from the American Federation of Aging Research, and a Healthy Longevity Catalyst Award from the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Saul Villeda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Endowed Chair in
Biomedical Science at the University of California San Francisco and serves as Associate
Director of the Bakar Aging Research Institute. He obtained his B.S. degree from the University
of California Los Angeles, his PhD degree in Neuroscience from Stanford University, and
started his independent career at the University of California San Francisco as a Sandler
Fellow. Dr. Villeda has made the exciting discovery that the aging process in the brain can be
reversed by altering levels of circulating factors in blood. Dr. Villeda’s research is best known for
the use of innovative heterochronic parabiosis and blood plasma administration approaches to
investigate the influence that exposure to young blood-derived or exercise-induced circulating
factors has in promoting molecular and cellular changes underlying cognitive rejuvenation. His
work has garnered accolades that include a National Institutes of Health Director’s
Independence Award, the W.M. Keck Foundation Medical Research Award, the Glenn Award
for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, and the McKnight Innovator Award in
Cognitive Aging.

Michal Elovitz, MD, is a physician-scientist and CEO of Nuttall Women’s Health, where she leads an integrated research, funding and investment organization advancing foundational, sex-specific biology to improve women’s health across the lifespan. Over two decades in academic medicine, she built and led multidisciplinary research programs at the University of Pennsylvania and later served as Dean of Women’s Health Research at the Icahn School of Medicine, where she launched an institute dedicated to female and sex-specific biology. She now works across academia, philanthropy and industry to align scientific discovery with strategic funding and investment, accelerating the development and scale of transformative women’s health solutions.

Laura Sanchez, PhD, started her independent lab in the Fall of 2015 at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Pharmaceutical sciences. The lab relocated to the University of California, Santa Cruz Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in January 2021. Her team specializes in using and adapting imaging mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry for small molecule analyses in complex systems. She was a K12 BIRCWH Scholar (2016-2017) which supported the translation of the techniques to women’s health. 

Lisa Suennen has spent over 35 years as venture capitalist, entrepreneur, operating executive, strategy consultant and board director. She has worked extensively across the full spectrum of healthcare sectors: tech-enabled services, digital health, medical devices, diagnostics and at the intersection of technology and
biotechnology.

Lisa founded and serves as Managing Partner of American Heart Association Ventures, a platform of four venture funds focused on improving outcomes in cardiovascular and brain health. Those funds include Go Red for Women, Cardeation Capital, the Social Impact Funds and Studio Red. Lisa has held General Partner and leadership roles at multiple venture funds (GE Ventures, Psilos, Manatt Ventures) and has also held senior executive roles at Canary Medical, and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, and Merit Behavioral Care (fka American Biodyne) where, she was instrumental in driving company growth from early stage startup to over $800M in revenue and 35 million covered lives before and after the company’s IPO and acquisition. Lisa was also founding CEO of CSweetener, a company focused on matching mentors with rising female healthcare leaders (sold to HLTH Foundation).

Lisa is a founding member of the Duke Margolis Institute Capital Impact Council. She is past chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the NASA -funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health and serves on the boards and advisory boards of several emerging companies. She also serves as chair of the International Investment Committee of ANDHealth in Australia and on the advisory boards of Nina Capital and PROOF VC.  Lisa is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship and has been on faculty and actively teaching at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business since 2009. Lisa was recently featured in Forbes 2025 List of the 50 Over 50. Lisa writes the Venture Valkyrie blog and is an internationally recognized author and speaker.