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First Look

The 2025 World Medical Innovation Forum, 18 Harvard-affiliated Mass General Brigham faculty innovators delivered rapid-fire presentations showcasing market-ready science with strong commercial potential. Each eight-minute pitch highlighted emerging breakthroughs spanning therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, and AI.

From new approaches in cancer and autoimmune disease to advances in women’s health, pediatrics, neuroscience, and AI, presenters unveiled investment-ready technologies poised to transform patient care. Designed for investors, entrepreneurs, investigators, donors, and others passionate about accelerating innovation, First Look offers a unique window into high-impact discoveries on the path from lab to clinic.

2025 Winners

Two presentations were selected for additional recognition in 2025, based on their potential for clinical impact, scientific strength, and collaboration opportunities. The First Look prizes were awarded to Jeannie Lee, MD, PhD, Phillip A. Sharp Chair, Mass General Brigham Department of Molecular Biology, for her work on an epigenetic approach to Rett Syndrome, and Michael Talkowski, PhD, Director of the Mass General Brigham Center for Genomic Medicine, for his development of a noninvasive fetal sequencing platform.

Selective Reactivation of the Dormant MECP2 Gene: A Disease-Modifying Therapy for Rett Syndrome

Jeannie Lee, MD, PhD

Phillip A. Sharp Chair, Department of Molecular Biology, Mass General Brigham; Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

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Noninvasive Fetal Sequencing: A Simple Maternal Blood Test that Enables Comprehensive Prenatal Genetic Screening

Michael Talkowski, PhD

Director, Center for Genomic Medicine, Mass General Brigham; Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

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2025 Presenters

Closed-loop Cell Therapy to Restore Normoglycemia in Types 1 Diabetes

Shailesh Agarwal, MD

Associate Surgeon, Division of Plastic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

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Accelerating Clinical Trials with Large Language Models and Agentic AI

Danielle Bitterman, MD

Radiation Oncologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School

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Targeting Resistance: A Novel CEACAM1 Antibody to Address Immunotherapy Resistance Upstream of PD-1/PD-L1

Richard Blumberg, MD

Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Medicine; Jerry S. Trier, MD, Endowed Chair in Gastroenterology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

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Targeting Granzyme K: New Therapeutic Approach Blocks Chronic Inflammation Across Diseases

Michael Brenner, MD

Director, Human Immunology Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Elizabeth Fay Brigham Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

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Breaking Barriers: Human Blood-Brain Barrier and Blood-Tumor Barrier Models De-risk CNS Drug Discovery

Choi-Fong Cho, PhD

Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School

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Simple, Lightweight, and Accurate Oxygen Concentration Sensing Platform Technology

Conor Evans, PhD

Principal Investigator, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Mass General Brigham; Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

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Novel Neural Cell Therapy for Hirschsprung Disease and Related Enteric Nervous System Disorders

Allan Goldstein, MD

Chief, Pediatric Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital; Surgeon-in-Chief, Mass General for Children; Marshall K. Bartlett Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

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Restoring Vaginal Health: Next-Generation Live Biotherapeutics and Microbial-Modulating Metabolites for Bacterial Vaginosis and Reproductive Health

Douglas Kwon, MD, PhD

Director of Clinical Operations, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

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Counting White Blood Cells Without Drawing Blood

Charles Lin, PhD

Principal Investigator, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Mass General Brigham; Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School

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Facial Health Recognition AI: A Vision for Health

Raymond Mak, MD

Director of Clinical Innovation, Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

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Engineering Next Generation CAR T Cell Therapies for Solid Tumors

Robert Manguso, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine, Mass General Cancer Center & Harvard Medical School; Co-Director Tumor Immunotherapy Discovery Engine, Broad Institute

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Precision Long-term Therapies for Genetic Vasculopathies that Lead to Stroke, Aortic Dissections, MI, Severe Disability, and Death in Children

Patricia Musolino, MD, PhD

Co-Director, Pediatric Stroke and Cerebrovascular Service, Massachusetts General Hospital; Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

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Precision Coagulation Profiling at the Point-of-Need: A New Era in Bleeding and Thrombosis Prevention

Seemantini Nadkarni, PhD

Principal Investigator, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Mass General Brigham; Associate Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School

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The Future Patient Persona: Democratized, Scalable Medical Education Enabled by Generative AI

Arya Rao

MD-PhD Candidate, Harvard Medical School

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Scaling the McCance Brain Care Score for Population-Level Prevention of Dementia, Stroke, and Depression and Other Common Age-Related Conditions

Jonathan Rosand, MD

Founder, Global Brain Care Coalition; Director, Brain Care Labs, Mass General Brigham; Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

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Unlocking the Dark Genome: Targeting LINE1 to Activate Innate Immunity in Cancer

David Ting, MD

Associate Clinical Director of Innovation, Mass General Cancer Center; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

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