Our first talent spotlight goes to one of our 2019 speakers, Sana Alajmovic, who took part in our panel on finding a route to market in a complex sector. Sana is the co-founder and CEO of Sigrid Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech on a mission to transform the way we prevent and treat our modern day chronic lifestyle diseases. Sigrid's first product under development is called SiPore15 and is based on oral administration of precisely engineered porous silica particles. Upon approval, SiPore15 will be the first and only oral therapy of its kind designed to act mechanically in the gut to help prediabetics achieve clinically meaningful reduction in blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Pretty fascinating, right?

Want to learn more? Check out their website at https://www.sigridthx.com and follow them on Twitter @SigridThx

Our second talent spotlight goes to another 2019 speaker, Deepa Mann-Kler, whose presentation focused on Making Pain Fun: Exploring the Future Capabilities of Immersive Health Technologies. Deepa brings 23 years Executive leadership experience of delivering high-level diversity and inclusion strategies, implementing anti-discrimination policy and improving socio-economic disadvantage in society. She has 13 years of Non-Executive leadership experience with a cross-sector exposure and has been appointed as Commissioner to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Deepa is CEO of Neon, an immersive healthcare technology company. As a thought leader Deepa regularly keynotes on the intersection of diversity, inclusion, creativity, technology, innovation, health and wellbeing and was delighted to speak at TEDx on “Being Human”. She is Visiting Professor In Immersive Futures with Ulster University. As an artist, she has a focus on public art neon installations, notably Lumiere Durham 2019, London 2016 and 2013 in Derry/Londonderry UK City of Culture. Deepa authored the first report on racism in Northern Ireland in 1998 "Out Of The Shadows."

For more on Deepa, follow her on Twitter @deepamann_kler and check out https://www.discoverneon.com/

This week's talent spotlight shines on CEO and founder of HealthUnlocked Jorge Armanet, who spoke on The Social Network for Health at last year's GIANT event. Jorge founded HealthUnlocked to transform how people access health information, shifting the emphasis from providers to patients, and from doctors to data. HealthUnlocked now has 1.2 million members on their platform and has been visited by over 100 million people in the last 3 years.

Feel like visiting yourself? Head over to https://www.healthunlocked.com or follow Jorge Armanet on Twitter at @JorgeArmanet

Rayna Patel is the CEO and Co-founder of Vinehealth, an app designed to support those through cancer treatment. Rayna took part in the panel "Finding investors aligned with your vision" in the Accelerate Health: Financing the Future module. Rayna is a medical doctor with degrees from Cambridge and UCL and has a wide range of experience working with the NHS, Harvard Business School and Columbia University. For more information head to Rayna's Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayna-patel or check out Vinehealth at https://www.vinehealth.ai/

Deepti Atrish is a CEO/ Founder of Poonyah a health tech startup and last year, led the panel on "The future of intelligent, holistic care" which took place on the main stage at GIANT. Deepti is a Technology Entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience managing the digital agency and founded two start-ups. Her latest venture, Poonyah, is a blockchain-enabled remote monitoring & health analytics ecosystem which empowers the health and wellbeing of people using IoT and wearable tech. As a company, they are passionate about using technology to facilitate Seniors live independently in their own home with little intervention. Deepti was the winner of Top 100 Asian TechStars, a finalist for Tech Leaders Awards 2019 and shortlisted for Tech Women 100 UK, 2019. As a digital marketer, she has extensive hands-on experience in developing & implementing strategies, business modelling, product creation, paid & programmatic marketing across multiple industries.

Read more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/deeptiatrish/ or on the Poonyah website https://poonyah.co.uk/

Gian Seehra is an investor at Octopus Ventures currently focused on health, and also previously founded companies Pebble Labs and Trait Biosciences. Gian participated last year in the panel on "Evaluating innovation across diverse markets" in our Accelerate Health: Financing the Future module.

Learn more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianseehra/ or on the Octopus Ventures website: https://octopusventures.com/

Following the trend of VC funds, this spotlight is on Vijay Barathan. Vijay is an extremely fascinating member of Optum Ventures and is their only medical doctor turned investment banker and VC. Vijay began his career in medicine and worked as a doctor for the NHS. He qualified from Guy’s Kings and St. Thomas Medical School in London and holds a MBBS in Medicine and a B.S. in Development Neurobiology. Before Optum Ventures, Vijay was a life science partner with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund leading and managing investments across life sciences with a specialist focus on digital health. Vijay has invested in data driven companies targeting respiratory health, complications of diabetes, patient safety, consent and education.

To learn more about Vijay and Optum Ventures, head over to https://www.optumventures.com/team/vijay-barathan

Our 8th talent spotlight goes to Caroline Noublanche, who took part in the Insurtech Showcase on startups as solutions to health insurance frictions and barriers. Caroline is the CEO and Co-founder of Apricity, a virtual fertility clinic that aims first, at disrupting the fertility treatment experience and then, at improving chances for women and couples who have difficulties to conceive using Artificial Intelligence. Learn more by heading to Caroline's Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinenoublanche/ or on the Apricity website: https://www.apricity.life/