Cancer screening for everyone
All of us have been affected by cancer in one way or another. We believe the secret to beating cancer is not developing treatment for late-stage disease, but detecting cancer early, when cancer is likely to be cured. Mercy BioAnalytics is committed to eradicating late-stage cancer by developing a blood test that can detect cancers at their earliest stages, in everyone.
Currently, the cancers killing the most people are detected too late because there are no easy and effective screening tests.
To save more cancer victims, Mercy BioAnalytics is developing a three-pronged approach:
Detecting cancers
earlier
Testing that is
easier
Screening for
everyone
Our vision is a multi-cancer screening blood test, taken at your annual doctor visit.
Humility. We are blessed beyond words to be chosen to pursue this revolutionary scientific advancement that will relieve suffering and save lives across the globe. We will proceed with humility in all that we do knowing our mission is sacred and by its importance to humanity transcends our individual ego.
Focus. We will be laser focused on one goal – Enabling the early detection and localization of cancer in asymptomatic individuals through a blood screen. There will undoubtedly be attractive “opportunities” that will tempt us away from our goal. We must be vigilant in always remaining focused on our ONE GOAL!
Fail Forward. We are committed to the belief that apparent failure is a valuable and necessary step on the path to success. We will demand intellectual honesty and celebrate unvarnished truth in reporting results, especially in apparent cases of failure. In order to achieve our sacred mission, along the way there must be many experiments that do not yield the results that we were seeking. We will view these results not as failures but rather opportunities to gain valuable insights and advance our mission. We will embrace Thomas Edison’s philosophy:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Courage. We will maintain the courage to think and act independently and correctly. On this important journey we will be challenged by naysayers and skeptics. As we get closer to success, those challenges will likely grow in prominence and frequency.
It is then we will be most critically tested. It is exactly then we must rely on our courage and strength in our convictions to push forward with humility and confidence.
Persistence. We must be committed to keep pressing forward until we complete the mission, no matter what obstacles we experience. It is always darkest before the dawn. It is when things look the darkest we must redouble our efforts and move forward with even greater commitment. We will never, ever give up!
Unity. There is an old African Proverb that reads: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” That definitely applies to our mission. We must always support one another in everything we do. We must always pull even closer together when we feel divisions are arising between us. By supporting, respecting, and serving one another we will harness and maximize our team’s power. Together we are unstoppable. Together we will accomplish our mission.
Joseph Sedlak, M.D./Ph.D. expected 2023
Co-Founder
President
Chief Scientific Officer
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Paul Blavin
Co-Founder
Chief Executive Officer
Executive Chairman
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Laura Bortolin, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
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Emily Winn-Deen, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Diagnostics Strategy
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Daniel Salem
Research Scientist
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Chris Sedlak
Research and Development Engineer
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Britt Derrien
Executive Assistant
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We are always looking for talented individuals who can contribute to our mission. If you’re passionate about detecting cancer when it’s most treatable and up for the challenge, contact us at info@mercybio.com.
We are located in LabCentral in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.
700 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
Joseph is the Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Mercy BioAnalytics. Joseph graduated summa cum laude from the University of Michigan with a degree in biomedical engineering and entered the M.D./Ph.D. program at Harvard Medical School to pursue his mission to improve the lives of those with cancer. Since arriving at Harvard, Joseph focused on reducing the mortality and morbidity of cancer by seeking clinical opportunities to help care for cancer patients and studying in several research labs across Harvard and MIT. These research experiences included modeling the evolution of cancer resistance to small molecules, studying immunotherapy resistance, and biomarker assay development. Informed by his experiences working with patients and the body of ongoing cancer research, Joseph critically assessed early detection as the largest unmet need in the field of oncology. The majority of early-stage, localized cancers can be cured by surgery alone. However, as cancer progresses and distant metastases have developed, surgery is rarely curative.
After gaining insight into the challenges of early cancer detection and seeing the need for detecting cancers earlier go unmet, Joseph dedicated his efforts to improving cancer screening by co-founding Mercy BioAnalytics. Joseph is now on an authorized leave of absence from Harvard Medical School and plans to return to his fifth year in the M.D./Ph.D. program after seeing Mercy’s technology reach patients in prospective randomized clinical trials.
Dr. Winn-Deen (B.S., Chemistry, Lehigh University and Ph.D., Chemistry, Boston University) brings over 40 years of experience developing diagnostic and genomics assays using novel technologies to her position at Mercy BioAnalytics. She had numerous peer-reviewed publications, and is an inventor on 38 issued US patents.
Recent executive experience includes serving as chief strategy officer and advisor for Mesa Biotech, a start-up company focused on delivering simplified molecular diagnostic solutions for point-of-care applications, vice president of research services at AltheaDx, and vice president for diagnostics product development at Illumina. Previously she was vice president for both strategic planning/business development and genetics/oncology R&D at Cepheid and senior director of the genomics business area at Roche Molecular Systems. Dr. Winn-Deen’s molecular experience also includes directing the high throughput genotyping laboratory at Celera Genomics, developing the Applied Biosystems cystic fibrosis assay, and directing diagnostics R&D at Oncor, Inc. Her earlier career included development of clinical chemistry reagents, urinalysis test strips, and immunoassays for several Siemens Healthcare business units. For the past 10 years she has also owned and operated RxDx Advisors, a diagnostics and life sciences consulting company, where she focuses on helping clients formulate their corporate product development and market entry strategies.
Dr. Winn-Deen has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on funded grants from the NIST Advanced Technology Program, the National Cancer Institute, and the US Department of Defense, and on grant review committees for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the National Cancer Institute.
Professional, federal-level volunteer activities have included serving on the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society (SACGHS) (2003-2006), the Centers for Disease Control’s Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) (2007-2011), and on the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute’s (CLSI) Expert Panel on Molecular Methods (2010-2019). In these roles she has co-authored 10 whitepapers and consensus practice guidelines for clinical molecular testing. She was also a panel member, advisor, and grant reviewer for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Early Detection Research Network (EDRN)(1999-2002, 2009) and a member of the NCI Special Emphasis Panel on Clinical Assay Development for Cancer Diagnosis (2012-2014).
Dr. Winn-Deen has received a number of professional awards including the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Northern California Section’s Harold Van Remortel Service Award (1993), their Outstanding Contribution to Clinical Chemistry through Science and Technology Award (2006), and AACC’s Outstanding Speaker Award (1997). Other awards include Behring Diagnostics’ Customer Acceptance Award (1981) and Behring Award (1985), and Applera Corporation’s Inventor Award (2001). In recognition of her career achievements, she was elected as a Fellow in the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry in 2000.
Chris is a Research and Development Engineer at Mercy BioAnalytics. Chris graduated from the University of Michigan (UM) with a B.S.E in Biomedical Engineering. During Chris’ time at the UM College of Engineering, Chris delved into research and developed novel biomedical devices. Chris is most proud of developing an automated device with four other teammates for the quick detection of histamine from saliva. Chris collaboratively created a chemistry method for the detection of histamine that resulted in a ten-fold time improvement from existing quantitative methods. This pushed the technology closer to being fast enough for first responders to use saliva histamine to screen patients for anaphylaxis. Chris found his passion for working on life saving technologies and is driven to develop and automate early detection methods for cancer.
Daniel is a Research Scientist at Mercy BioAnalytics. Daniel graduated summa cum laude from the University at Buffalo with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. While at the University at Buffalo, Daniel was a recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. In 2013, he pursued graduate studies in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering Practice in 2015. Daniel completed his Ph.D. work in the Strano Research Group where he worked on the design and development of optical biosensors using single-walled carbon nanotubes. Over the course of his graduate work, he deployed these novel biosensors for biopharmaceutical characterization, food/water contaminant monitoring, and biomarker detection.
Inspired by his graduate work, Daniel is driven to develop new technologies that enable early disease diagnosis. As a member of the Mercy BioAnalytics team, he will dedicate his efforts to the design of a blood-based screening test for early-stage cancer.
Paul’s primary focus is youth life transformation for those who need it the most and are least able to help themselves. Paul and Amy, his wife of 27 years, have immersed themselves in the following programs:
In 2015, shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Paul began an effort to harness the power of exceptional art to inspire hope, compel action, and ignite lasting impact. He is the Executive Producer of The Hunting Ground, an exposé on the epidemic of sexual assaults on college campuses, and Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You” a Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar nominated original song written by Lady Gaga and Diane Warren who’s accompanying music video has more than 44 million views. Additionally, Paul is an Executive Producer of the heartwarming, inspirational animal rescue documentary Harry & Snowman and Mully, the inspiring documentary of Dr. Charles Mully “Father of the World’s Largest Family” with over 13,000 rescued children. In 2018, Paul became the founding financier, and is a board member of Scott Budnick’s film finance company, One Community (formerly Good Films).
In his prior career as a financier, Paul served as an investment banker with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and served as the President of First Mercury Financial Corporation, a publicly traded insurance company. He also co-founded and managed a private investment partnership – PWB Value Partners, L.P. – which began in 1995 with three investors and $3.2 million under management. Over 14 years, the business grew to more than 80 investors and approximately $2.0 billion, consistently outperforming the S&P 500 Index, net of all fees and expenses.
Most recently, backing the scientific inspiration of one of our Blavin Scholars, Amy and Paul have co-founded Mercy BioAnalytics, a Cambridge MA based company dedicated to the development and commercialization of a blood screen for the early detection of cancer.
Paul was born and raised in Southfield, Michigan just outside of Detroit. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School.
Laura is a Senior Research Scientist at Mercy BioAnalytics. Laura graduated from the University of British Columbia with a first-class Honors degree in Zoology and has a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard Medical School. After obtaining her Ph.D., Laura worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where she developed technologies for the detection and identification of biological warfare agents. She was part of the original team that developed the CANARY biosensor which has been fielded in various locations. Laura also led an effort to develop fast, easy, and fieldable sample-preparation technologies and devices to purify biowarfare agents from complex environmental samples.
Before joining Mercy BioAnalytics, Laura worked in the McCarroll laboratory at Harvard Medical School, where she developed a rapid and easy nucleus-extraction method for single-nucleus transcriptomic analyses of human brain samples.
Laura is the author of multiple patents and is leveraging this experience in tech dev and innovation to develop Mercy BioAnalytics’ novel approaches for the detection of early-stage cancer from liquid biopsies.
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