About Myka Labs
Leadership
Daniel Laser, Ph.D.
CEO
Dan Laser is President and CEO of Myka Labs.
Dan got his start in the biomedical field developing prototype haptic feedback subsystems for a U.S. Army-funded surgical robotics initiative while studying mechanical engineering as an undergraduate at Northwestern. He went on to earn his Ph.D., also in mechanical engineering, from Stanford. With the 9/11 attacks occurring partway through his PhD work, Dan spent a year as a MacArthur Affiliate at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, focusing on biothreat mitigation and working closely with former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry.
After graduate school, Dan founded Wave 80 Biosciences and established the company as a leader in the field of microfluidics-based biological assays. Dan led a Wave 80 team of experts in wide-ranging engineering and scientific fields in performing cutting-edge bioassay research for customers ranging from the U.S. Defense Department to next-generation sequencing companies. Dan then went on to serve as CEO at Avvio, a company founded by Dr. Robert Grubbs, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Avvio pioneered an innovative combination of lipid nanoparticle technology with alendronate chemistry as the basis for novel treatments for diseases associated with biomineralization. At Avvio, Dan raised $14 million in venture capital and led the company through two successful clinical studies treating some seventy patients before transitioning out in order to join Michael Harrison and Lee Swanstrom as the core leadership team at Myka Labs.
Michael Harrison, M.D.
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Harrison is the founder of Myka Labs and serves as its Chief Scientific Officer.
Dr. Harrison served as division chief in Pediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital at the University of San Francisco for over 20 years, where he established the U.S.'s first Fetal Treatment Center.
With the background of having performed innumerable high-stakes surgeries on neonates with conditions like esophageal atresia, Dr. Harrison become devoted later in his career to looking for answers to two key questions. First, given that the effects of scar tissue can linger long after a pediatric surgery has completed, can new devices be designed to allow conditions like esophageal atresia to be repaired with less scarring—and, ideally, less invasively at the same time? Second, can conventional intraoperative imaging be augmented using sensors and artificial intelligence to give pediatric surgeons (as well as surgeons and endoscopists caring for adult patients) a more nuanced, more detailed and more accurate awareness of the intricacies of the anatomy within which they're working? Dr. Harrison founded Myka Labs to drive the development of innovative products and technologies in these two areas.
Lee Swanstrom, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Lee Swanstrom serves as Myka Labs Chief Medical Officer.
Dr. Swanstrom is a pre-eminent innovator in endoscopy and minimally invasive surgical systems and methods. He is past president of both the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) and the Foundation for Surgical Innovation and Education. He is the author of over 350 peer-reviewed articles and multiple textbooks including a leading text on endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery. He previously served as Chief Innovation Officer at the Institute for Image-Guided Surgery, IHU Strasbourg.
Companies at which Dr. Swanstrom was a founding advisory member include Apollo Endosurgery (acquired by Boston Scientific) and Fractyl (NASDAQ: GUTS).
Advisory Board
Barry Salky, M.D.
General Surgery, Mount Sinai
Ivo Boskoski, M.D./Ph.D.
Gastroenterology, Gemelli Policlinico, Rome
Deb Nagle, M.D.
Colorectal Surgery, Stony Brook Medicine
Miguel Burch, M.D.
General Surgery, Cedars Sinai
Robert H. Lustig, M.D.
Endocrinology, University of California, San Francisco
Edward Benz, M.D.
CEO Emeritus, Dana-Farber
Brett Sheppard, M.D.
Chair of Pancreatic Disease Research, Oregon Health Sciences
Marshall Stoller, M.D.
Urology, UCSF
Jacob Mishell, M.D.
Interventional Cardiology, Kaiser
Joo Ha Hwang, M.D./Ph.D.
Gastroenterology, Stanford
Rich Isaacs, M.D.
Dean, California Northstate Medical School
HISTORY TIMELINE
2021
Myka Labs was founded with the goal of leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced sensor systems for high-clinical-impact procedures in the abdomen. Central to the company's founding: pioneering research carried out at the University of California at San Francisco and a LMU Klinikum in Germany on new ways of repairing congenital malformations involving the esophagus and the windpipe. This pioneering research effort, led by Myka Labs founder Dr. Michael Harrison and LMU Klinikum's Dr. Oliver Muensterer, paved the way for a paradigm shift in how pediatric surgeons approach the repair of these birth defects. The research held out hope that, for the first time, patients would be able to undergo repairs that would condition the repaired tissue for long-term health, while also avoiding a highly invasive surgery. Every year around the world, some 25,000 newborns are born with tracheoesophageal birth defects requiring surgical repair.
2022-2023
Early Myka Labs artificial intelligence models for real-time surgical team awareness, along with the first Myka Labs multifunctional sensorized catheters, are developed and transitioned into preclinical studies, with astoundingly favorable results. At the same time, Connect-EA is successfully used in repairing tracheoesophageal birth defects at Stanford, Vanderbilt and LMU Klinikum.
2024
Multiple publications in leading pediatric surgery journals report on the successful use of Connect-EA for repair of birth defects affecting the windpipe and esophagus. Multiple Myka Labs patents issue. Myka Labs expands its core team and advisory board, adding top specialists from around the world.
OUR INVESTORS
