GUILFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tesseract Health™ Inc. has named industry veteran and entrepreneur Vasiliki (Vicky) Demas, Ph.D. as its Chief Executive Officer, effective August 1, 2021. Dr. Demas brings over 20 years’ experience to the company with a deep history of innovation and discovery in diagnostic platforms (wearable and point of care), medical devices, and nanotechnology.
Dr. Demas joins Tesseract with a focused vision to usher in a new branch of diagnostics fusing the best of imaging and laboratory medicine through further development of the company’s groundbreaking Tesseract iC™ eye-imaging diagnostic technology platform. The company’s aggressive plan includes continuing to advance the technology development and pursuing regulatory approvals necessary to launch the world’s first platform to support point-of-care screening, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of a wide range of diseases efficiently, affordably, and without drawing a drop of blood.
“Our mission is to democratize healthcare on a global scale. Vicky has the leadership, technical, and strategic acumen required to fork history, creating a new branch on the diagnostic tree between radiology and laboratory medicine,” commented company founder, Dr. Jonathan Rothberg. “I am more excited than ever for Tesseract‘s opportunity to improve healthcare, lower costs, increase health-equity and be there when someone we love needs it.”
“I am excited and honored to join Jonathan and the Tesseract team to help develop and bring to patients a new platform for the monitoring and early diagnosis of disease,” commented Dr. Demas.
Before joining Tesseract as CEO, Dr. Demas led the development of new products at the cancer screening company GRAIL, where she also managed the scientific and technology portfolio and led a cross functional competitive intelligence program. She supported the development of the core platform technology which formed the basis of the company’s first multi cancer early detection test (Galleri), and she led GRAIL’s post-diagnostic efforts. Prior to joining GRAIL, she was a founding member of the Google Life Sciences (GLS) team within Google [x], which was later spun out to form Verily. At Verily, she led several teams and projects, including in diagnostics, medical devices, and translational laboratory science, and helped build its multidisciplinary science and engineering programs. Before Verily, Dr. Demas held multiple positions of responsibility at T2 Biosystems. She currently holds over 20 patents and has authored and co-authored numerous publications across multiple disciplines. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab/Livermore Lab.
About Tesseract iC™
The Tesseract iC™ platform (not yet cleared by the US FDA) is being developed as a portable, binocular-like eye-imaging device intended to diagnose a wide range of diseases without drawing blood. The platform design includes a novel chemical sensor and combined, multiple dimensions of imaging technology and artificial intelligence (“AI”) to image the retina, which is the only part of the human body where it is possible to directly see arteries, veins, capillaries, and nerves. In addition to well-developed uses in ophthalmology, Tesseract will pursue several indications for its technology in primary care, cardiology, neurology, and other fields.
About Tesseract Health™
Tesseract Health was founded in 2018 with a mission to democratize healthcare and improve lives using the wealth of health information in the human eye. Tesseract knows that the best way to predict the future is to make it, and that the retina may be the new noninvasive diagnostic platform of the 21st century. Tesseract Health’s goal is to make this future possible through its innovative Tesseract iC platform incorporating novel multidimensional sensors and AI. Tesseract Health is part of 4Catalyzer, a rapidly growing health technology accelerator with offices in CT, NY, CA, and Taiwan, and offices opening soon in Miami, Boston, and San Diego. Other notable 4Catalyzer companies include Butterfly Network (NYSE: BFLY), Quantum-Si (NASDAQ: QSI), and Hyperfine (NASDAQ: HYPR).
