On May 2, 2023, Medicine by Design’s Building a Biotech Venture program hosted their annual pitch competition to conclude this year’s programming, in partnership with H2i, Precision Medicine Initiative (PRiME) and Talk Boutique. This pitch competition brought incredible teams together, with product concepts that have high potential for innovation to regenerative medicine research. H2i would like to congratulate our very own ventures, Myoxa Therapeutics and Specific Dx, for taking home both prizes at this year’s competition!  


Myoxa Therapeutics (featuring Aanshi Gandhi, Danielle Serra, Aaron Rosenstein, Maria Nguyen and Mohammad Saleh) took home first-place and an award of $25,000 in funding to support their development of enhanced cell therapy. 

Their team presented their solution of engineering cells that sense low oxygen levels and respond by turning on protective mechanisms. Judges were impressed by their exciting product concept, potential market opportunity and high-quality science. 

Specific Dx (featuring Jaspreet Randhawa and Siobhan Wilson) took home second-place and an award of $10,000 in funding to support their development of a urinary tract infection (UTI) rapid test for people with spinal cord injuries. 

The winning pitches were selected by four judges, Matthew Platt, Angela MacDonald, Gary Margolis, and Robin Quirk, who all have a range of experience in areas including entrepreneurship, law and venture development.  

Congratulations to both winning ventures on their successful pitches & to all the participants of this year’s Building a Biotech Venture program! We’re looking forward to seeing your ventures continue to grow.