Ala Santos, PhD is a specialist in the commercialisation of research and new solutions in the broader medical and healthcare sector. Born and raised in Poland, she developed her research career internationally (Belgium, UK, USA). During her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago, she developed novel blockers for cancer metastasis and diagnostics for cardiomyopathy. In recent years, she led the New Technology Development team at Abbott Labs, building a state-of-the-art infectious disease diagnostic platform. She has also served as President and Chair of the Board of Women In Bio (WIB) Chicago. She serves on the boards of organisations in the US, EU and UK. She chairs the Disruptive Technology Award committee, which annually selects the most disruptive technologies in diagnostics and laboratory medicine for the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine. Since 2022, as CEO of the Polonium Foundation, he has supported the highly skilled Polish scientific diaspora, building a global network of relationships of professionals of Polish origin from many disciplines in academia, industry and business.
In addition to his leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies and non-profit organisations, Dr Santos has been advising healthcare startups for more than a decade (e.g. USA, France, Italy, UK, Poland, Brazil), supporting internationalisation (mainly US launches) and conducting investment potential analysis for venture capital firms and individual investors (USA).