Meet the Founders: Biotech + Engineering
Featured industry leaders explore innovation and recent growth in tech + creative sectors
December 23, 2020
DBP’s virtual series, Meet the Founders, launched last month with a webinar featuring Jelena Kovačević, Dean of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Will Canine, co-founder and CPO of biotech startup Opentrons.
During the live-streamed conversation, Canine shared his journey from political activism to working in biotech and building robots for biologists. “It was really with a goal to learn a new way of having an impact on the world,” he said. “Biotech is increasingly important for human civilization, but it’s also the least accessible technology to most individuals.”
He also spoke about his experience cofounding Opentrons, which now runs the largest COVID-19 diagnostics lab in NYC. Canine saw an opportunity in the market to empower scientists and help democratize lab technology through automation. He explained the company’s open source approach, and how it has helped to add value to the product and build credibility and momentum in users’ research projects.
Dean Kovačević guided the conversation with thoughtful questions about Canine’s professional journey, key moments in Opentrons’ development to date, the company’s process for honing and refining its product, and expectations for future growth. Kovačević also offered her perspective as an industry expert on the strong potential for biotech innovation and collaboration with the health sector in research, training, and product development – particularly during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Curious to learn more? Watch the conversation here.
The Make It in Brooklyn Meet the Founders webinar series is a new DBP program that highlights Brooklyn’s entrepreneurial spirit. The series focuses on diverse industry sectors – from fintech to fashion – and brings together Brooklyn-based founders and established industry experts for candid conversations on founding stories, pathways to business growth, and contributions to the sector.
Subscribe to the Make It in Brooklyn Minutes e-newsletter to hear about the next events in this series, coming early next year.
