Empowering Women's Health: A Conversation with EazeBio Founder and CEO Reem Mahrat

In this episode of the Startup Tri-Valley Podcast, hosts Yolanda Fintschenko, executive director of Daybreak Labs and i-GATE Innovation Hub, home of the Startup Tri-Valley (STV) Initiative, and Lisa Adamos, Economic Development Manager for the City of Pleasanton,  sit down with Reem Mahrat, a serial entrepreneur and founder of EazeBio. Reem shares her inspiring journey from a chemical engineer to a leader in the biotech industry, focusing on women's health. She discusses the innovative work being done at EazeBio, including the development of biomarker-based point-of-care diagnostics that empower women to monitor their health at home. Reem also highlights the importance of early detection and personalized healthcare, drawing from her personal experience of losing her father to late-stage cancer. Tune in or watch to learn about the unique advantages of the Tri-Valley startup ecosystem, the significance of having a strong "why" in entrepreneurship, and Reem's vision for the future of women's health.

Transcript

Startup Tri-Valley Podcast - Reem Mahrat (pt1)

Yolanda: This is the startup Tri-Valley Podcast featuring in-depth conversations with the leaders who are making the Tri-Valley the go-to ecosystem for science-based startups. I'm Yolanda Fintschenko from Startup Tri-Valley. 

Lisa: I'm Lisa Adamos with the City of Pleasanton

Yolanda: So, I'd like to welcome, today, to the pod our Daybreak Labs’ entrepreneur and residence, founder of EazeBio, a Daybreak Labs member company, serial entrepreneur, co-author of Feed Your Good Genes, avoid Autoimmune Disease, Tri-Valley Resident Reem Mahrat. Reem, thank you so much for being on the pod. 

Reem: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I am really, truly excited to be here today with you. 

Yolanda: So, I'm going to kick things off because you have an extraordinary background. So, I'm going to give some people a teaser. One of the attractions to and advantages of having Reem Mahrat in our Tri-Valley startup ecosystem, especially as an entrepreneur-in-residence at our hard tech incubator, Daybreak Labs, is that she is a serial entrepreneur. She started companies in life sciences, both in therapeutics and in diagnostics.

And as you heard, she has a new company that she's actually starting from, Daybreak Labs. Here in the Tri-Valley. And her last company, Ramen ID was something that she was able to do, in Pleasanton. And her background is just extraordinary because it's very rare to see life sciences founders who can actually span both therapeutics. And your ability to do span therapeutics and diagnostics is incredibly rare! And that's made you a huge resource for our founders. So, I'd like you to maybe tell us a little bit about yourself, your company, and what your new company is doing, and maybe a little bit about what got you there. 

Reem: Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me. And I am actually a chemical engineer by training. Over the past two decades I've been really involved in the biotech industry, mainly building and scaling up biotech companies including RamenID and Calico Bio Lab, which were both successfully acquired. And currently, I'm leading EazeBio, which is a biotech company that focuses on women’s health. We are dedicated to transform women’s health through innovative point-of-care diagnostics. It is Biomarker-based testing allows women to test at home, it's accurate, accessible, and easy to use. We are trying basically to close the gap in maternal and metabolic health and empower women. That's what we do.

 Our mission is very, very simple, yet urgent. All women are facing the same struggle. Our concern sometimes or more often gets dismissed or misdiagnosed and we can't just wait for the system to catch up. We need to build the system and that's why we started EazeBio. And thank you for being our home. It’s been a great place for us to innovate. Daybreak Labs has been really instrumental in our growth. I want to start from the beginning, actually. Most of my executive team is from Daybreak Labs and Tri-Valley. So, it's a great talent pool and also, it's a state-of-the-art lab. We have access to everything we need and, Yolanda, has been taking care of us. If we need anything, and it's not there, she makes all the resources available. So, thank you. And we're just loving it there. It's the best place to grow and innovate. Thank you. 

Yolanda: Thank you so much, Reem. That's amazing. And I love, I love the recognition you're giving Daybreak Labs. We feel the same way. So, about you. I'm curious because you are such a leader. You're an author, you're a scientist. You have started and successfully exited out of companies in a particularly difficult time to exit and I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what prepared you for that role, and then for some of our founders who are wondering how in the current state of life sciences, how am I going to get to that exit? If you could talk a little bit about how you got to that successful exit for Ramen Id? 

Reem: Yeah, absolutely. So, this work is absolutely personal. I lost my dad to late-stage cancer. And it was really too late for us to do anything. And that experience changed everything for me. And that's why, I believe early detection can save life.

I always ask, keep asking myself if actually we’d detected it early, my dad’s disease, his story would be totally different. And that's the experience. And my background, professional background as chemical engineer, putting these two together set me for a success to lead and scale up biotech companies, including Calico and Ramen ID.

The exit of Ramen idea is part of being really smart about when markets are shifting. Like, all founders, they start companies based on a real-time problem they want to solve. We started Ramen ID during Covid. We were planning to create a point of care platform for Covid, but market, as we all know, shifted pretty quickly and we had to adjust our platform.

Since it was for early detection of pathogen and bacteria. We adjusted the platform to enable us to do food safety and that's how we got acquired. It's just, you know, being adaptable. And my message to founders, always find your why, because hard days will come. The only thing that will carry you through is the problem that you are passionate about to solve, and your purpose.

So that's: Always find your why and always lead with purpose. 

Lisa: I love that. I love that your passion is so inspiring. 

Yolanda: I agree, and such great advice. For us, I think as Lisa pointed out, the significance of having a why that's not anchored to an exit or an amount of money or even a product, but a problem, which is early detection, and that very personal connection to your father.

That really connects you to the people your technology is serving; who are asking the same problems either for themselves, or for a loved one, to say, how could we detect this earlier? How could we get ourselves or this loved one to a successful treatment and cure? and that early detection, solving that problem is such a critical piece of that.

Reem: 

Totally agree. One thing to add to what we are building at Eazebio. We're not just actually in business for early detection. We’ve also, a biomarker piece. The platform will allow you to tailor the treatment based on the person’s biology. And this is very, very important because women are so underrepresented in research and clinical study, that one size treatment wouldn't fit all.

So, we're not only doing the early detection, giving patients the tool to intervene early, we’re also making healthcare personal and proactive. You have the control to monitor your health. And you have the power to influence your choices. So, the biomarker we are building, the platform we're building, it allows you actually to monitor your metabolic health in a way, you can understand how lifestyle, your choices of food, exercise, and how you deal with stress influence your genes. How it can turn it on and off and allow you to personalize your own treatment and take control of your health. So, we're really excited about what we are building at Eazebio, and we want to empower, especially women to understand their body faster, and act faster because early detection is key for survival and a better health outcome. And that's what EazeBio is doing. It is deeply personal.  

Yolanda: That's amazing. And, what I heard you say, I think is that you've been able to take this original inspiration from your father and carry it into your own inspiration, really as a scientist, but as a woman seeing a completely unmet need and addressing in women's health and taking your experience as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a scientist, and particularly in both the diagnostics space and understanding how diagnostics interacts with treatment in order to help women transform their lives. Really, when it comes to these diseases that have, most diseases have this epigenetic component. And it sounds like that's what you're doing. Did I get it right? Exactly 

Reem: Right. Exactly right. And same philosophy, actually, drives that book. writing Feed Your Good Gene, Avoid Autoimmune Disease. I want to share with the reader that our genes are not our fate. We can influence them as Yolanda just said, we can turn it on and off based on our choices, like exercise, healthy diet and how we manage stress. Genetics set the stage, but you hold the pen! And that book, it's really to empower reader to understand how we can take control of our health. Write our own health journey. 

Yolanda: Right. That's exactly what I say. 

Lisa: That's inspiring. Wow. 

Yolanda: I like that.

So, a diagnostic that helps you set the stage. And the diagnostics that lets you take the pen, so you can write your own journey. So, the stage has been set by your genetics, but you still have that pen. And, and having that information is what allows you to maybe write a chapter that is different than what your genes might be pointing you to.

Reem: Absolutely, yes. You have the power. 

Yolanda: So, in doing all of this, what has surprised you the most in your current role? 

Reem: Honestly, how big the gap in women’s health is. I know we all knew there were gaps, but how deep did that gap run? Really very disappointing.  Women really facing life threatening conditions like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, autoimmune disease. They are struggling in silence. You know, it's like sometimes they don't have options. They don't have the support they need. So, the health system needs to catch up. But, as I mentioned earlier, it is our role and we have to be part of that solution and try all together, work together. What's the beauty about Tri-Valley that we need to have that community working together toward empowering, women’s diagnostic and women’s health. It is what Eazebio is doing now: We are changing that reality, one diagnostic, one woman at a time. But if the whole community come together and we can collaborate with the right strategic partner, for example, building biosensor, the right clinical site as a community. The power of the team will accelerate our mission, and we will get there faster and save countless lives together.

Lisa: You mentioned just the ecosystem, and so I think that actually really relates to the one question that we were talking about is what about the, the ecosystem? You touched on it. Just a sec. And what about the ecosystem has contributed to your success? 

Reem: So being part of Tri-Valley ecosystem gave me access to really amazing resources. Not just the talents, it's also the Lab, the facility, a meaningful partnership with a lot of innovators. The community is really a help of great minds. And everybody wants you to succeed. you know, that blend of innovation and community is really what I love the most about Tri Valley.

I know we all always want to be part of Silicon Valley. But, Tri-Valley has its own unique community sense, where you really can innovate without losing the human sense for, unlike Silicon Valley, where all it's about burnout mentality, when is the next, and funding ground: When, when you are going to hit that milestone versus here you can innovate you can work and collaborate and, um, you still can have space to breathe. You know, you need that. You need to keep your brain sharp and be able to balance your life and your work. take that pressure out. for me, it's really the balance: innovation and space to breathe. That's what I love the most. 

Lisa: I love to hear that because that is something that we would like to shine about the Tri-Valley and about Pleasanton, is that you can start and grow your company here, but you can have a life, work life balance.

And so that's wonderful to hear. So, what do you love about living and working here in the Tri-Valley? 

Reem: Personally, I love the balance as you just said. I can go in the lab. It's really close to my home. I can do all the experiments I want and then, in the evening, go for a nice hike.

It’s just refreshing. And I get access to Livermore Lab, a lot of research hub habitat in the area. We have a lot of activity where Yolanda and Daybreak Lab arranged for us launch and learn, a lot of opportunity to connect with the community, build meaningful partnerships with AI companies, and technology companies.

And as you know, now we all know healthcare is not just about molecules. It's about AI sensor digital health, and we have the ecosystem here to provide all of those resources in one place. You don't really need to go and look for an innovator in that field. Yolanda brings all posts to the table, and we always have really the most meaningful partnership because we're not competing with each other. We really like to help each other. Everyone wants you to succeed, and that's what I love the most here. You know, genuinely everyone wants to succeed. The sense of community is amazing. 

Lisa: I love that. All boats rise. 

Yolanda: That's, and you know, we say that a lot in the Tri-Valley. All boats rise. And, and I've heard, I think every mayor says something along those lines like a success for a com. A company in a different town means more jobs for everyone. And I think, and then there's also the component. That we don't talk about very much.

But you mentioned, you know, being able to end with a hike. So, there's this personal care, but also the ability because you are living and working relatively close to your home to participate in civic life or in your children's life or in some hobby that's really meaningful to you. But it is something that I know, I assume from the city standpoint is I know that working with Lisa, there's a lot of commissions.

All the cities have different kinds of commissions where people need to volunteer their time and expertise. 

Lisa: Oh yeah, 

Yolanda: absolutely. And being able to be, you know, a founder and, and have the ability to also offer expertise. We did the event together. How the two of you met with a startup Tri-Valley, the Tri-Valley Life Sciences Summit in last October, and Reem was able to contribute to the CEO round table and provide that kind of leadership for the city, which is a big thing, right? 

Lisa: We were really excited. We hosted the CEO Roundtable, and we were honored to have you there, and it was nice to see that there was a mix of women, and men. That wasn't just all men. It was very much represented. There was a balance and so we were so grateful that you could participate in that. And then just planning the life sciences summit with you, Yolanda and the rest of the team was really inspiring. Yolanda, you mentioned the city commissions and committees. Pleasanton has our Economic Vitality Committee, and the members of that committee represent different industries, and we have a life sciences representative. It's currently vacant and recruitment is open at this time and so there's my plug for that. But it's in case Reem needs another job. Right? exactly.  But it is wonderful that we get different experts or people who are in that field to help us understand what is needed to encourage and to support economic vitality in Pleasanton and in the greater Tri-Valley.

Reem: Absolutely agree. It was an honor for me to participate and I loved seeing how the local leaders came together and supported each other. It's just amazing. It was really great. Thank you for planning and coordinating and having me as well part of that community. This is how you build not just businesses but a legacy.

This is how you make an impact in your community. Getting all together toward building a better community for our families. We live here and we want to make this a better place for our kids. 

Lisa: Absolutely. 

Yolanda: So, building on that comment, you know, making it a better place for our kids: what opportunities do you see for your company as you grow in the next five years? And then, conversely, what challenges do you see and strategies to overcome? 

Reem: Yes, we definitely are very excited about the progress we already made. We had a clinical study pilot, clinical study that proved our clinical utility for our novel biomarkers. So, we believe we will be the leader in metabolic health.

In five years, we will have, a product that would save women's lives and improve health. If we are doing it right, like the home testing and the biosensor, we are really not only going to improve life, but we are also going to redefine what it means to be healthy. We will be able to “what we envision?” detect diseases before it starts.

We want to shift the healthcare from reactive to real-time monitoring where you can act faster and have the tool to intervene earlier and get a better health outcome. 

Building on that, we will expand. Now we're focusing on metabolic health, autoimmune disease, pregnancy complications, but we want to really expand to cancer. Because, as you know, you’re a scientist Yolanda, sometimes early detection is the only way and the key for survival. And, some cancers, like ovarian cancer, are hard to detect, people go when it's in the final stage. And it's really heartbreaking versus if you do continuous monitoring or you can include those biomarkers as a screening tool, you would be able to save countless lives and that's Eazebio is all about.

Yolanda: Right. What I'm hearing you say is what you've identified your initial go-to market. It is something you can move, kind of lift and shift after you've established those markets to other specific diseases where if you are detecting the disease because of a symptom, you may be past the point of an effective treatment. And that by expanding your company's vision and or expanding your company's offering in time to include continuous monitoring you'll be able to address some of these very hard to detect diseases much earlier where there's a clinical intervention would actually be significant. 

Reem: Absolutely. Yes. 

Yolanda: Wow, that's amazing. And I'm curious how do you see this sounds, expansion sounds like more, more people, more space, et cetera.

How do you see that interacting with the Tri-Valley in terms of the talent pool available and who will you be looking for? 

Reem: Yeah, so currently we're hiring, we're hiring for engineer and scientist we're looking also for partners and investors, the smart money to accelerate our work.

Daybreak Labs has been amazing, and especially, we have room to grow. What I love about Daybreak Labs, sometimes if you need to do something very advanced, Yolanda sets up relationships with a lot of institutes and big labs that allow us to do some work there.

So, I feel very confident that Tri Valley will be the best place for us to grow our business. Currently, our team has nine people on our board and we're hiring. So, things have been really exciting for us. 

Yolanda: So, we can put the, if you have those positions to advertise, we can put that, those links in our show notes so you can Yeah, absolutely.

Maybe someone in our audience. 

Reem: Yes. If they're mission-driven and even if they don't have the expertise we're looking for, we love to take interns as well. 

Yolanda: That's Fantastic. I'm glad you mentioned internships because I know we have so many events planned. One in women's health that will of course feature Reem Mahrat. And also, we are partnering with Las Positas College to help expose the college students to internships here in the Tri-Valley. And I'm curious for those preparing for their career in the life sciences. Someone who wants to be maybe an intern in your company or one like your company and is, is very early, first- or second-year college student, maybe at Las Positas College, maybe even in high school, looking at what to do next. What advice would you give them, in order to prepare, not only to work in a company like yours? Maybe part of the reason they want to work in a company like yours is because one day they want to start a company like yours.

Reem: The best advice, I guess, go beyond science. Always understand the business and, always find your why, because that's what carries you through. Surround yourself with the believers. They challenge you, but they're the ones who hold you up. And don’t be afraid of taking risk.

Dream big and follow your dream but also put the effort. Be cross-disciplinary as I alluded earlier, now with the AI and the digital health, chemistry and biology have changed a lot. So, you really need to advance your skills every day. You need to learn and be open.

Not only read about the process, go and learn it. A lot of leaders in the industry specialize in one thing and when you're leading a team especially in biotech, and it's like we know it's advancing very quickly every single day. You really need to have a deep understanding of the process because you can utilize new tool. For example, we are building a biosensor. I'm not the expert in building biosensor. I am a chemical engineer. I had to learn how I can utilize that new technology to build something the next generation of diagnostics. And that's what you need. You always have to look at what's new, how you can utilize it.

 I believe, science by itself really can’t save the world, but people do. And you need, to have the purpose to lead your career because that's the thing you can be part of for your entire life. Your mission, your dedication to what you want to build.

That’s what it's going to take you to the finish line. 

Yolanda: That's, that's such an inspiring and, and helpful way to frame it, Reem, because if I'm hearing you correctly. You're talking to students, but I think anyone who's listening to really understand why they're doing what they're doing, or if they want to change what they're doing to have more impact, to understand that why, and that the why will allow you to focus on outcome, which gives you room to learn, to accept different things that didn't exist when you found your why, and learn how to have the incentive to learn how to apply those things. So, for example, you know, AI was not something that I learned in school, but that doesn't mean I don't want to understand how an artificial intelligence is going to be able to transform the work that we do in Startup Tri-Valley.

You are applying it to your technology because there's a utility there and there's an interesting, I think maybe, as a scientist, I didn't hear you say those words, but, in my head, I was translating what you said to understanding your process at a first principal level. So, if you understand the process of how you get from idea to application to product to capturing a market, then you can see the principle behind everything, accept, learn, and accept the new tools that emerge and apply them so you can get there most effectively. 

Reem: Absolutely, yes. Okay. And you know what's missing too, right? 

Yolanda: Exactly. Yes. You'll recognize the missing link when you see it.

Reem: Even the problem with founders, they love their babies, and they don't accept, like when someone tells you, your baby is not beautiful, right? Like, it's your baby. And you don't see what, what's missing. You know, it's like when you're building your startup, and that's why I surround yourself with those people really, you know, transparent and, but also educate yourself so you would be able to be open-minded.

Figure out what's missing, you know? Like, for me, when I build something as always, it's mission driven. And it's not about building product, it's really about solving a problem. And science will follow. So that's it, focus on the pain points, science was follow. Be a leader, go and learn, build a team, and understand that it is what you're building today. It might not work 10 years from now. So be open-minded. 

Yolanda: That's amazing. That's great 

Lisa: As I was listening, because I have older children and then I have children that are in high school. And you talked about internships and things. And my son is applying for college and he's in the Biomed Academy at Dublin High. And we had those students come and volunteer at the Life Sciences Summit because I wanted them to have this opportunity to be surrounded by all of this energy, this positive, amazing energy. And I'm just like, you know. Kind of bouncing, hearing all of what you're saying that I think is just like, I want them to hear a little bit, you know, I want them to hear this more. So, I think it's just amazing how I, um. Like you were saying, the partnership now that startup Tri-Valley has with Las Positas College. And I just hope that we can, you know, create those opportunities more for our students because they're the future of our talent here in the Tri-Valley, and there are so many who are interested in health and in life sciences and biotech. 

Yolanda: Absolutely. And it's such an impacted career path right now as well.

I know that all the healthcare companies are having trouble attracting. And they need more people, and we have some big healthcare problems to solve as well. So, we need everyone. We need the future engineers, future doctors, future nurses, future technologists, future everything.

And yes, getting them excited is really important and. Giving this advice, I think to help them chart a path. And I think the purpose is what helps you find your path, is what I think I'm really taking away from your remarks. I have a feeling some of this might apply to any founder as well. But I'm curious if you have any additional words of wisdom for founders who might be in the audience, especially life science founders, but even founders who are working in other industries. 

Reem: I believe all founders struggle with time management. I want to say for me, I learned it the hard way. It's really not about time management. It's really about attention. Control your attention. So, focus on what really matter. I like my meeting to be short and focused. I delegate whenever it's possible. I focus on the deep work, critical thinking, and keep things with very impactful focus. Be efficient. Only by mastering attention and attention control. It is the key to make time work for you, not against you. I feel founders always say “oh, I'm overwhelmed. I don't have time.” So, if you want to have time, shift your focus on what truly matters.

Mastering attention is the key to make time work for you, not against you. 

Yolanda: I love that. Master attention to make time work for you. That's great advice. 

Reem: Against you because we always struggle with time. It's just hard. 

Yolanda:  I like the shift away from time management to attention management because sometimes you can't manage your time. Something deserves your full attention. It might take your whole day. 

Reem: You know, what's the sad thing? Like 10 years ago, attention span used to be three minutes. Now it is down to 47 seconds. 

Yolanda: Wow. 

Reem: It is really bad, especially with the technology and all of those social media. So, it is really hard to control your attention. 

Lisa: There are so many distractions. You really have to focus. Yes, I like that. Manage your attention. 

Yolanda: That's great advice. So, is there anything we didn't ask about that you'd like to talk about?

Reem: I believe we talked about everything. But I just want to emphasize the urgency of women’s health. You know it's a really, we are half of the population and, uh, we are underrepresented in research or clinical trials, even in biotech leadership. So, we need to do more, and we need to lift each other.

That's all. And you're doing both, you know, I'm so lucky to have all the support, so thank you for lifting each other. 

Yolanda: Thank you. So, with that I'd like to thank my fantastic co-host, Lisa Adamos, and of course, thank you, Reem, for being on the podcast. We really appreciate you sharing your insight, your wisdom, and your inspiration.

Reem: Thank you. It was a pleasure.