Esya Labs
Our Team
Prof. Dr. Yamuna Krishnan
Co-founder & Chief Science Officer
Co-founder & Chief Science Officer
Yamuna is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago where she has pioneered the application of DNA nanotechnology to live cell imaging. She is also the youngest woman in history to win India’s highest scientific recognition, originated multiple patents, and published across numerous peer-reviewed journals.
Dhivya Venkat
Co-founder & CEO
Co-founder & CEO
Dhivya is a passionate entrepreneur with 15+ years experience in defining winning strategies and building high-performance teams. Her consulting experience stretches 50+ countries and ranges from startup to corporate. She worked alongside Accenture, Deloitte, and other world-leading financial firms.
Markus Zejermann
COO & CFO
COO & CFO
Markus is a seasoned finance professional and technology-driven company builder. He brings 15 years of experience across Private Equity and business consulting and has focused on helping companies scale.
Esya Labs
Our Team
Prof. Yamuna Krishnan, PhD
Co-founder & Chief Science Officer
Dr. Krishnan is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago where she has pioneered the application of DNA nanotechnology to live cell imaging. She is also the youngest woman in history to win India’s highest scientific recognition, originated multiple patents and published across numerous peer-reviewed journals.
Dhivya Venkat
Co-founder & CEO
Dhivya is a passionate Entrepreneur with 15+ years experience in defining winning strategies and building high performance teams. Her consulting experience stretches 50+ countries and the range from startup to corporate. She worked alongside Accenture, Deloitte and world leading Financial firms.
Souvik Modi, PhD
Director of R&D
Dr. Modi comes with a Ph.D. in Chemistry and 15+ years experience in biotech R&D during which he co-invented some of Esya’s IP and pioneered its intracellular targeting. He received some of Europe’s most prestigious fellowships and published in high-impact journals.
Shareefa Thekkan, PhD
Chemical Biologist
Dr. Thekkan
holds her PhD in Chemical Biology. She is experienced in Organic synthesis and developing
fluorescent based sensors for live cell imaging.
Hernando M. Vergara, PhD
Head of neuroanalytics and multiomics
Dr. Vergara has 14+ years of experience in experimental and computational biology. He has published in high-impact journals across several research fields such as developmental biology, evolution, and systems neuroscience.
Florence Young, PhD
Cell Biologist
Dr. Young holds a PhD in Cell Biology and has several years’ research experience in identifying molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases.
Adam Shellard, PhD
Senior Cell Biologist
Dr. Shellard has a PhD and 12+ years of experience in cell biology and live imaging. He has published in many high-impact journals and received several prestigious awards.
Brian Dhingra
Commercialization Lead
Brian brings a track record of leading teams to deliver transformative results for clients across the healthcare sector at McKinsey and Company with particular focus on strategy / corporate finance, go-to-market, and M&A.
Dr. Souvik Modi
Lead Scientist
Souvik comes with a Ph.D. in Chemistry and 15+ years experience in biotech R&D during which he co-invented some of Esya’s IP and pioneered its intracellular targeting. He received some of Europe’s most prestigious fellowships and published in high-impact journals.
Owen Connolly
Cell Biologist
Owen holds an MSc in neuroscience and, during his PhD, has obtained experience in biomarker discovery for neurodegenerative diseases.
Esya Labs
Our Advisors
Prof. Jack Szostak, PhD
Advisor
Dr. Szostak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the structure of the DNA of chromosomal telomeres, and the role of the enzyme telomerase in telomere maintenance and senescence. He has made significant strides in the field of genetics, including techniques for gene manipulation and the evolution of RNA sequences. Dr. Szostak completed his PhD in biochemistry at Cornell University before moving to Harvard Medical School to start his own lab at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute. He is now a tenured full Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard, and the Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Brian Coe
Advisor
A serial diagnostics entrepreneur, Brian has started, commercialised, and successfully exited numerous diagnostic companies, with his last diagnostic company being recently IPO-ed. He is Entrepreneur-in-Residence for healthcare at the Polsky Centre at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His knowledge spans commercialisation of diagnostic devices, micro-fludic platforms, quantitative molecular and measurement assays in research and clinical laboratories, clinical decision support systems and CLIA laboratories.
Jamie Dananberg, PhD
Advisor
Dr. Dananberg is currently the CMO at UNITY Biotechnology. Before joining UNITY, Dananberg served in several roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals as Executive Vice President, including Head, Cardiovascular and Metabolism Therapeutic Area, and as the Head of both the Therapeutic Areas Group and Experimental/Translational Medicine. He has brought more than 70 programs from Discovery to Development, leading and supporting efforts through all phases, including the launches of 8 commercial products.
Fouzia Laghrissi, PhD
Advisor
Dr. Laghrissi is the CEO of DalCor Pharmaceuticals and has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical industry leadership experience, including roles at AstraZeneca, Roche, HBA and WPIC. She brings a wealth of experience in US and Europe through working in clinical development, global strategic marketing, business development, licensing and M&A.
Prof. David Kupfer, PhD
Advisor
Dr. Kupfer is the ex-Head of the DSM-5 plan committee, and has expert knowledge of the current principal manual for psychiatric & neurocognitive diagnosis, as recommended by the American Psychiatric Association. For more than 35 years, Dr. Kupfer’s work has focused on the conceptualization, diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders.
Vincent Linder, PhD
Advisor
Dr. Linder is the CEO at Calciscon AG, biomedical consultant, entrepreneur & senior biotech executive with track record of success for biomedical devices. Dr. Linder advises medical device companies and helps them turn their technical innovation into approved medical devices. He is the inventor of over 300 patents on microfluidics and point-of-care diagnostics with over 175 granted.
If you crave challenges, there's no better place to be
Esya is a dynamic company operating at the intersection of biochemistry, technology and medicine. If you crave challenges and the chance to see your work impact the millions of lives touched by Alzheimer’s disease, there’s no better place to be.
