CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Portal Innovations, LLC, a national life sciences, medtech and bioinformatics start-up incubator today announced that Raju Prasad, Ph.D. and Bhavan Suri will join the Portal Advisory Board, formed to support the leadership team with deep expertise in key areas of science, technology and finance.
Dr. Raju Prasad is a biotechnology analyst focused on therapeutics, at William Blair & Company. Dr. Prasad previously worked as a research associate with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. Raju covers companies focused on gene therapy, gene editing, and cell therapies, including key historical buy recommendations on AveXis and Spark Therapeutics which were both acquired. He is currently ranked in the top 5% of Wall Street research analysts according to Tipranks.
Bhavan Suri, is a partner and co-group head in the technology, media, and communications sector at William Blair & Company, specializing in the healthtech, IT services and enterprise software industries. Previously, he worked in venture capital and early-stage-technology commercialization. Mr. Suri has won multiple awards over the past decade including the Financial Times/StarMine "World's Top Analysts" listing as the No. 1 stock-picker in IT services.
Connecting breakthrough science and technology to commercial application is critical when financing and building a successful life sciences venture. Raju and Bhavan bring years of experience on Wall Street to Portal which will be key to translating biomedical innovation into value for investors as well as patients.
“Having Raju on the Portal Advisory Board will allow us to support innovative companies focused on gene editing, cell therapy and gene therapy,” said Portal founder & CEO John Flavin. “And given the convergence between devices, drugs and data, Bhavan’s experience in software and predictive analytics is critical to helping our companies leverage computational tools to improve treatments for patients.”
“Portal will play a key role in transforming the midwest healthcare innovation ecosystem and I’m excited to use my experience to advise the leadership team in building impactful companies,” said Prasad. “The nexus of biomedical research and data sciences holds great promise for life saving treatments for patients,” added Suri. “Portal is well positioned to help entrepreneurs and scientists take innovations from concept to commercial validation.
About Portal Innovations, LLC
Portal Innovations is building a life sciences, medtech and bioinformatics start-up platform based in Chicago, Illinois. It is bringing together high-performing entrepreneurial teams, global capital and industry partners to accelerate biomedical innovations from discovery through commercial proof of concept. Portal is partnering with Trammell Crow Company to provide state-of-the art shared wet and dry labs for life sciences, medtech and bioinformatics companies. Learn more at www.portalinno.com.
