HJNO Nov/Dec 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS  I  NOV / DEC 2021 55 Jeanette R. Weiland Vice President of Bio, Innovation, & Special Projects New Orleans Business Alliance in five companies decreased in their repre- sentation of employees of color at the ex- ecutive level from 2019 to 2020 by at least 5%, and only 13% increased representa- tion for executives of color by at least 5%.” Furthermore, as it relates to female repre- sentation, the report found, “Like what we observed in last year’s report, representa- tion of women decreases at higher levels. Women make up 47% of total employees, but only 31% of executive teams and 23% of CEOs. However, in our 2020 sample there was a directional increase in repre- sentation over the course of the year: 36% of companies in the 2020 sample increased their representation of women employees by at least 5% from 2019 to 2020, and 43% of companies increased their representa- tion of women at the executive level by at least 5%.” To sum it up, there seems to be year- over-year improvement of women rep- resentation, yet a lesser amount of im- provement of diverse race/ethnicity representation when it comes to owning and/or managing a biotech company. Awareness and addressing this issue are a start, and along this theme and in an effort to provide some bright news, I would like to highlight two local New Orleans bio- tech trailblazers who can give women and people of color inspiration. They are both women, both women of color, both biotech company founders and CEO’s, and both are making tremendous scientific break- throughs. In alphabetical order, the two compa- nies and their respective founders and CEOs are: Chosen Diagnostics, Sunyoung Kim, PhD (LSU Health New Orleans spin- out) and Obatala Sciences, Trivia Frazier, PhD, MBA (Tulane University spinout). ChosenDiagnostics was recently award- ed a Phase II SBIR award in the amount of $2.1 million by the National Institutes of Health for Kim’s invention of the “NECDe- tect.” NECDetect is a diagnostics test that hospital NICUs can use by way of testing infant feces to detect a gastrointestinal dis- ease called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) before it becomes deadly. This disease pri- marily affects premature babies and can have a mortality rate as high as 50%. This Phase II award comes behind last year’s National Science Foundation award to Chosen Diagnostics for over $200 thou- sand, as well as the FDA designating NEC- Detect as a “Breakthrough Device” in No- vember 2020. Obatala Sciences has also received over $2 million of federal funds to further its research and recently closed a round of investor funding (over $1 million). Frazier’s company is a microphysiological system firm that acts as a service provider for pharmaceutical companies and also man- ufacturers products such as wound-heal- ing gels. The service provider division helps study the effects of therapeutics on human tissues, which are also isolated ac- cording to multiple factors such as gender, ethnicity, age and so forth, which helps create a more precise assessment of the efficacy of the therapies being tested. This technology enables companies that are de- veloping new drugs to see how their ther- apies react to human fat cells in hopes of speeding up breakthrough therapies that could address health challenges such as diabetes and cancer. New Orleans has long been a place where inventors and creators from multi- ple industries have made breakthroughs, including within the music, culinary, mix- ology, gaming, healthcare, maritime and biotech industries. Let’s ensure that our scientific creative talent shines as bright for Louisiana as their entertainment in- ventor counterparts who provide us with artistic therapies. n Trivia Frazier, PhD, MBA Obatala Sciences