Ecoatoms creates ‘Ecos’ {habitats} or modules to develop biological products in and for the toughest environments. Our team of medical doctors, chemists and aerospace engineers takes biological challenges and turns them into solutions. We are supported by DoD and NASA. Our mission is to expand the biofabrication economy for the benefit of humankind. From novel biomaterials to medical devices we leverage the space context to develop resilient and better performing bioproducts.

I lead the team of fellows within the bio/genomics committee at Life Science Angels where we recruit and screen the next generation startups/companies in the biotech and pharmaceutical space. I also manage and organize the deal flow while assisting with due diligence.

- Provided domain expertise advice in the Bio/Genomics Committee.- Conducted due diligence on the incoming companies for investment opportunity.- Participated in committee meetings with partners, company founders and investors.

At the Santa Maria Lab (Stanford) I developed mucoadhesive microgels for drug delivery in oral mucositis. More than 60% of the patients that undergo radiation and chemotherapy develop severe oral mucositis, a condition in which the oral mucosa presents constant inflammation and ulceration. Currently there is no available treatment on the market for the underlying cause. Injecting heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF) to the oral cavity, has been shown to enhance epithelial migration and proliferation after irradiation treatment. Though promising, patients with oral ulcers are reluctant to use oral injections, hence the need to develop a local delivery. Over the last two years, I have developed dopamine-modified mucoadhesive microgels that have the ability to encapsulate HB-EGF and deliver it to the oral mucosa as a mouth rinse. After an 8-day treatment our oral mucositis mouse model shows a significant improvement in preventing the progression of the disease. This technology resulted in a provisional patent for an oral mouthwash that is undergoing pre-clinical studies. U.S. Patent Application 62855687: “Mucoadhesive microgels compositions and methods for using the same.” Solange Massa, Garbine Aguirre, Eva Dieuzy, Laurent Billon and Peter Luke Santa Maria.

As a project Lead at the Otoinnovation lab I help develop medical devices and pre-clinical drug delivery systems for Otolaryngology. https://otoinnovation.stanford.edu/

"Singularity University's Global Solutions Program (GSP) empowers participants with the tools, knowledge and skills for positively impacting billions of people...The Global Solutions Program annually admits a class to take part in a 10-week immersive experience designed to educate, empower and prepare today's brightest minds from across the globe to use exponential technology to solve the world's greatest challenges."http://singularityu.org/gsp16/

There is a critical need to improve existing drug discovery and toxicity screening processes. Currently, cell culture and animal models serve as gold standards for this purpose, but setbacks related to such models are high costs and uncertain results and often are poor predictors of human efficacy and toxicology. ’Organs-on-a-chip’ unites biology and engineering through microfluidics to generate tissue-like constructs from human cells that can aspire to emulate the in vivo conditions of the human body. During my Ph.D. thesis I developed several Organ-on-a-Chip platforms including a three dimensional ‘vascularized liver’. This award-winning structure was one of the first to recapitulate in vitro complex vascular responses in a three-dimensional setting. The most complex project using this technology, was interconnecting vascular, liver and cardiac ‘Organs-on-a-Chip’ towards a ’Human-on-a-Chip’ platform, where I fully developed the last two. As a result of this research, I published 9 peer reviewed publications that can be found in https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/solange.massa.2/bibliography/public/

I was a lecturer for Medical Scientific Bases III at the Universidad San Sebastian, Chile.

Subject: Medical Scientific Bases II -Cardiology-

Immunology