How 22 year old Dr. Dharmica Mistry turned her PhD and discovery into a Medtech start-up for breast cancer diagnostics, driving impact with women's health as her core focus. Lessons from a lab scientist turned entrepreneur.

How Does a 22-Year-Old STEMM Graduate Found a Biotech Company?

Deep Tech aspiring founders, this one is for you!

Why start a PhD and what can you do with it?

Some people fall into their PhD, following the next logical step after their Honours or Masters.

Some people fall into it because they are not sure what job to go after yet.

Not Dharmica Mistry, she wanted to go into nutrition but didn't get in the course so instead of ruminating she picked subjects which were close to what it would have looked like in the nutrition degree and fell in love with microbiology in the process. After graduating she was not keen on a PhD either because she felt she could not see the impact of such work in a near future.

But her first job at a biotech changed her mind when she did a discovery which had such a great potential to change the odds of aggressive breast cancer in women under 50 with a simple blood test.

With this mission in mind, she co-founded BCAL diagnostics, a diagnostic company looking to detect breast cancer early with a blood test.

 

If you have heard of the valley of death, you would know that deep tech has many of these because proving the science and making it robust is a really challenging task. It can't "just" work, it has to work in a clinical setting, which means at scale and speed for a diagnostic lab to work with it. It needs a great amount of fundings and so her PhD was a great way to get to validate the science and make this further fundable.

 

Dharmica takes us through the journey of a deep tech founders and the crucial steps that make you or brake your start-up.

 

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The step-by-step journey of bringing a deep tech healthcare innovation from initial discovery to market, including securing intellectual property, finding co-founders, and navigating the challenges of raising capital
• How to bridge the gap between scientific expertise and business acumen through targeted upskilling, networking, and commercialization programs
• Practical strategies for overcoming identity challenges as a young scientist in business, including building credibility and communicating effectively with diverse stakeholders

 

Listen now to hear Dr. Mistry's remarkable story of resilience and learn how her accidental discovery involving olive oil in her hair led to groundbreaking breast cancer detection technology.

Happy listening!

You can learn more about Dharmica and her current role as a Director Diagnostics Industry Engagement at MTP connect and about BCAL diagnostics

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmica-mistry-2468a148/

https://www.mtpconnect.org.au/Story?Action=View&Story_id=485

https://www.bcaldiagnostics.com/

 

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelique-greco/

https://angeliquegreco.com.au/

 

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