Natalie Wisniewski, PhD, is co-founder and CTO of Profusa, which develops and markets real-time biosensors that provide unprecedented insights into our overall health status. Together, she and her co-founders, executive team, collaborators and advisors built the company road map, enlisted top talent, secured funding and turned innovative concepts into products. Join us to hear the lessons she has learned as a health tech inventor and entrepreneur.
Where & When
Room 212, Byers Hall, UCSF Mission Bay (1700 4th St., San Francisco)
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
About the Speaker
Dr. Wisniewski’s research focuses on biomaterial-tissue interactions, specifically the foreign body response and how it affects implanted sensors. Her novel work on tissue-integrating sensors expands the paradigm of biocompatibility beyond surface chemistry to biomechanics and bioelectronics to enable long-term continuous sensors in the body. Dr. Wisniewski co-founded Profusa, Inc., a company that is revolutionizing continuous monitoring of body chemistries through in vivo biosensors and mobile health. Profusa has developed this technology from concept to clinic with tissue-integrating sensor in humans functioning for a landmark of 4 years. She is the Principle Investigator on $29M of NIH and DARPA research grants, and has over 100 papers, patents and invited lectures on biosensors, diabetes, tissue hypoxia, and implantable devices. She was awarded the NIH Transformative Research Award for her work on multi-analyte in vivo sensing for mobile health applications.
Dr. Wisniewski earned engineering degrees from Purdue University (B.S. in Chemical Engineering) and Duke University (Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. For her graduate work, she taught biomaterials and researched the mechanisms and effects of biofouling and the foreign body response on implantable biosensors). She worked in R&D and manufacturing for consumer products at Kimberly-Clark Corporation and in management consulting with McKinsey & Company. Before starting Profusa, she ran her own consulting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in technical, clinical and regulatory strategy. She currently serves on the Board of Directors and as Chief Technology Officer at Profusa.