Bios

Murat Cirit, PhD

President and CEO, Cofounder

Murat is an inventor and entrepreneur in tissue chip and digital twin technologies, renowned for his innovative approach to predictive platform development. His expertise stems from a background in bioengineering and computational biology plus extensive experience in the field as the founding Principal Investigator of the Translational Center of Tissue Chip Technologies (TC2T) and co-Principal Investigator on the DARPA-funded MPS program at MIT. His work continues to shape the future of these cutting-edge technologies and their impact to drug discovery.

Jacques Banchereau, PhD

CSO

Jacques is an internationally recognized immunologist and molecular biologist, renowned for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of immunology and drug discovery. Over his distinguished 35-year career, Dr. Banchereau has shown exceptional leadership in both academic and industrial research. Having held esteemed roles such as Professor and Director of Immunological Sciences at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Chief Scientific Officer at Hoffman-La Roche, CSO at Immunai, and Adjunct Professor of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, he has consistently demonstrated his expertise in driving forward scientific inquiry and pharmaceutical innovation.

Kevin O’Handley, MBA

COO, Cofounder

Kevin is an experienced entrepreneur, having served as a strategic member of founding and leadership teams in tech start-ups. As cofounder and COO at Ferro Solutions, he built corporate capabilities to solve meaningful problems in the medical, defense, & industrial sectors and oversaw operational, sales & marketing, and HR functions. Additionally, Kevin has supported and mentored emerging entrepreneurs with the MIT Venture Mentoring Service I-Corps program, sharing his expertise to foster new innovations.  

Emily Geishecker, MS

VP of Operations, Cofounder

Emily is a project manager and administrator specializing in advanced technology development programs. She excels in coordinating interdisciplinary teams to tackle complex problems and drive project success, having served as the program manager for the Translational Center of Tissue Chip Technologies (TC2T) and project manager for the DARPA Human Body on a Chip program at MIT. Emily has supported a vast array of programs, from those funded by NIH, DARPA, CASIS, NSF, and commercial partners to Javelin’s internal R&D, along with laboratory operations, collaborator and stakeholder relations, and logistics.

Shiny Rajan, PhD & MBA

Sr. Director of Product

Shiny brings a unique perspective with a combined technical and business acumen to develop commercial products to address market needs. She has an extensive background in thermoplastic micro- and milli-fluidic hardware for advanced cell culture models and development of integrated multi-tissue systems for more predictive preclinical models. As Engineering Lead for the BARDA Chemical Countermeasures project at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, she implemented a complex lung MPS to model the effects of chlorine gas on human lungs and accelerate the discovery of potential treatments.