Former QWEST Intern Nam Pianapitham Takes Job at VC Fund

By Ruhani Chhabra.

We’re proud to celebrate the career journey of our former QWEST intern, Nam Pianapitham, who has recently stepped into an exciting new role as an investment associate at Disrupt Health Impact Fund, a health tech venture fund based in Thailand.

“Seeing so many startups and technologies come out of Bakar Bio Labs confirmed that I still wanted to be part of the startup ecosystem after I graduated,” says Nam.

She first joined Bakar Bio Labs as an undergraduate studying molecular and cellular biology at UC Berkeley, where she worked with Wanichaya Noiwangklang and our team on workforce development and operations. Even as an undergrad, her perspective and drive added real value to the ecosystem. Nam and her QWEST colleagues, Elijah Liu and Aria Kumar, repeatedly supported Bakar Labs leadership. Alongside those fellow interns, she co-founded our #BreakintoBiotech program, an initiative designed to provide underserved students with hands-on training and the opportunity to gain research experience. Nam also supported monthly check-ins with QWEST interns, helping shape the professional development of students who, like her, were eager to find their place in the biotech sphere.

“It was amazing to be able to call on Nam, Aria, and Elijah whenever we needed an independent perspective or help with data, marketing, or business projects,” says Kaspar Mossman, managing director at QB3.

By working at Bakar Bio Labs, she saw firsthand that innovation happens at every level. “Everyone’s working hard towards a goal—even if that goal is five or 10 years down the line, in terms of FDA approval or commercializing technology,” says Nam. Her time as an intern also gave her the confidence to realize that students can make meaningful contributions to the biotech community.

Now at Disrupt Health, Nam applies that same passion on a global scale, leveraging the knowledge she acquired during her time as an intern. The fund invests in transformative areas, including self-care, preventive health, age-well technologies, AI-enabled smart hospitals, and digital health platforms.

So far, Nam has supported investments in non-invasive glucose monitoring and AI-enabled microbiome testing that creates digital twins of the human gut. “It just felt like working at ten startups at the same time,” she says.

Here at Bakar Bio Labs, we’re inspired by Nam’s journey—from building opportunities for students to advancing the next wave of global health innovations. Congratulations to her!

This story is also posted on the Bakar Bio Labs website.