WoW Woman in FemTech I Eydis Lima, founder of Curiva
Eydis Lima is the founder of Curiva, a company developing diagnostics patch designed for the detection of gynecologic oncology malignancies. The company's patentable and proprietary technology offers the patch with an application that provides diagnoses of cervical cancer as the primary indication in a streamlined manner and in a non-invasive approach to the diagnosis of cervical cancer initially, enabling patients to receive proper cancer treatments and physicians to diagnose them the same day.
Eydis is an engineer turned entrepreneur, she seeks to innovate solutions for women in the area of gynecologic oncology. She has consistently been rewarded for hard work with increased responsibilities and opportunities to help clients grow or take on improved business angles that can manifest into early-stage startups. Particularly, in the case of the research, she performed in the Mor Lab at Yale University with ovarian cancer therapeutic, Cantrixil. To date, therapeutics is in phase II clinical trials with Kazia Therapeutics both in Australia and the United States. Additional work that she conducted in this lab were in-vivo studies to demonstrate that a grafted diagnostics nanoparticle had the potential in detecting ovarian cancer micrometastasis.
Currently, she is focused on the technology and business development of a patent-pending technology she’s invented, diaPatchTM, a diagnostics patch for the detection of cervical cancer. Her prior research inspired her to pursue this innovator and entrepreneurial path and she seeks to incrementally propose improved non-invasive tools to women suffering from the large toll that gynecologic oncology malignancies take on their lives. Lima has a Master’s of Science in Entrepreneurship from the University of Notre Dame and a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Eydis, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I am an engineer turned entrepreneur. I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After graduating and working in the industry I decided to do post-baccalaureate ovarian cancer research at Yale University's School of Medicine where I was published in multiple areas of ovarian cancer research. I then enrolled in a Master’s of Entrepreneurship at the University of Notre Dame, where I founded Curiva, an early-stage startup focused on innovating gynecologic oncology detection via a non-invasive patch. My current focus is working on healthcare-oriented projects and the fundraising and operations of Curiva.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
I knew from as early as my second year of college that I wanted to become an engineer to impact the women’s health field in any capacity. But it wasn’t until after I had gotten solid industry experience that I was able to have the opportunity to transition back to academia and be published in scientific journals. One day I was frustrated by not being able to publish in the industry world as a young professional without an advanced degree like a Master’s or a Ph.D., and I went home one evening and began doing some research on who the top names in the gynecologic oncology research space were. I came across a really interesting news release at Yale University, wherein there was this doctor, Dr. Gil Mor, and his team who had just received funding to kick off tech transfer and in-vivo studies for a new therapeutic for ovarian cancer. That same week, I took a day off of work and decided to visit Dr. Mor’s office in New Haven, CT. I had to wait until the afternoon to get a meeting with him, but thanks to his wonderful assistant, we met that same afternoon. From there the rest is history, I was made an offer to work with him and his team in advancing Cantrixil’s development in an in-vivo model.
It has been semi-challenging to work in this industry because it’s already its own niche. But at the same time, I’ve seen this as a pioneering challenge. I always like to push my limits and my growth with the Mor Lab was only the beginning. The FemTech space now has so much to offer and a giant market with a high demand for technologies that are going to only better our health and well-being in the incoming years. I’m so thankful and lucky to be a part of it!
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
Let’s see, I have 10 years of professional experience since graduating with a Bachelor’s degree, and out of those, 4 years have been in the entrepreneurial space founding and growing Curiva. The biggest obstacle for Curiva and I have been establishing solid relationships with academia and other partners to get the R&D and product development of diaPatchTM off the ground and to where it is today. Although universities in the last few years have begun to be more open-minded about technology transfer and entrepreneurial pursuits, from the entrepreneur’s perspective it is still quite slow and not as founder-friendly. I work extremely hard every day to make headway here not only for Curiva and me with my team but also for those younger entrepreneurs to be, so that their lives are easier in 5, 10 years from today. In my opinion, knowledge should not only be published but also capitalized on for the betterment of humanity.
What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
I would say that because it is a niche industry, granted with various sub-interests to it, in women’s health and femtech there’s infertility, there’s hormones/menopause, there’s neonatal health, oncology both breast and gynecologic, etc. But from the perspective of those who aren’t in the field, in their mind, the question is well why should there be a focus on just women, when we still have large problems in our overarching world to address? Not many regular people stop to think and put themselves in the shoes of those in this industry unless they’ve been affected by some kind of disease within it or have a sibling or friend who has. I simply wish there to be more awareness and support for women’s health concerns, both large and small.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
Let’s see, in recent years there has been a whole bunch, especially through the adjustments and tough times of COVID-19. But I think the top two so far have been receiving my Master’s of Entrepreneurship from the University of Notre Dame, but furthermore being able to work on Curiva as my capstone thesis. The startup would not exist today without my acceptance and hard work throughout that program. And I have David Murphy, the Assistant Provost of the Office of Innovation at ND to thank for drawing me into the ND network! The second accomplishment would have to be a submission for an NIH SBIR Phase I grant for Curiva. My team and I worked endlessly at the end of 2021 to submit this grant for the January 2022 deadline, and we cannot wait to hear if we will be receiving funding for this upcoming July.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
At Curiva we are laser-sharp focused on fundraising a pre-seed round at the moment. We have had one individual angel investor invest and are currently in conversations with another handful of both angels and sophisticated investors. We need to raise capital in order to develop Curiva’s functional MVP by the end of this year. And to have a small runway until we close the seed round next year in 2023, which would facilitate the entire completion of Curiva’s alpha product, diaPatchTM. The other big project our Co-Founder, Tracie McGinnity, Ph.D., and I are working on is the R&D and product development efforts of diaPatchTM. We are doing all kinds of design experiments (DOE), data analysis, and prototype testing that will get us to diaPatchTM functional MVP. It’s a ton of hard work but we make it as fun and as exciting as it can be!
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Yes, of course. It’s important to me because from a young age I had a reproductive health medical condition that thankfully isn’t life-threatening and I’m able to live a normal life for which I was stigmatized by a medical professional during the diagnosis. I will never forget how that experience made me feel at age 12, and I work so hard to create awareness about women’s health so that no other young woman ever feels that way. Also, I think we owe it to our mamas, grandmamas, and great grandmamas for all the obstacles they faced and overcame for our current generation from birth control to abortion options and laws. They are true heroines.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Recently at the end of 2021, FemTech Focus & Coyote Ventures published a FemTech Landscape Annual Report, wherein the authors highlighted the following areas:
The $1 trillion market size – is based on the purchasing power of the 3.8 billion women in the world.
Prime for disruption – 4% of pharma’s R&D budget is for women’s health, women are increasing their health expectations but less than 1% of VC funding is going to FemTech.
80% female founders – highlighting the outputs that female founders produce such as 2X revenue, 35% higher ROI, and 22% lower employee turnover.
Average exit value $301M – reporting that female-founded exits increased 16% YOY and are exiting faster with an average of 4 years.
With this in mind, I think that there are many areas of opportunities in the reproductive, pelvic floor, heart, autoimmune, and oncology spaces of FemTech. As well as in product categories such as healthcare software, medical devices, therapeutic drugs, and patient apps and services.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
Create new opportunities for yourselves, be a pioneer. I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase when one door closes many others open. That could not be truer for my professional growth so far. And trust me, I’ve had a few doors that have closed and could never be opened again. But I would wake up the next day and see a new path that I hadn’t considered before, then show up for it. Think differently, act differently!
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Theresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D. – Dr. Woodruff was the first woman in science figure that drew me into this field as early as my college years. I remember taking really difficult chemical engineering classes simultaneously with calculus and differential equations in college which made it hard for me to find the motivation and the way to continue the ChE degree. But it was reading the news and scientific papers about Dr. Woodruff and her lab that kept me afloat through the harder days and all-nighters. Dr. Woodruff is an internationally recognized expert in ovarian biology at Northwestern University. She has coined terms such as “oncofertility” in 2006 and her work is focused on women’s health research, particularly highlighting the importance of including sex as a biological variable in research. And she has advocated policies for greater women's inclusion in clinical studies of therapeutics.
Gloria Huang, MD FACOG – Dr. Huang is an internationally known expert in the treatment and prevention of ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancers. She is skilled at minimally invasive surgery and is the principal investigator of a federally-funded cancer research laboratory at Yale University School of Medicine. I remember attending lunch seminars during my years of research in the Mor Lab and listening to Dr. Huang discuss her clinical research in-depth. She’s an incredible surgeon and a very influential woman in the field primarily to her patients and certainly to the scientific community. I am very humbled to have walked the same hallways as her and to have sat at lecture halls to hear progress on the projects in her lab. Dr. Huang is a highly entrepreneurial faculty, and she has provided some advice to the startup and me in the past, particularly during the 2021 Yale Innovation Summit, which was held virtually.
Patricia Gordon, MD – Dr. Gordon is a retired radiation oncologist who leads CureCervicalCancer, a non-profit with a commitment to save women’s lives in the developing world. I recently heard about Dr. Gordon from an advisor after she received the CNN Hero award in December 2020. She is doing heartfelt work for so many communities around the globe and certainly creating an impact on the more than 311,000 potential deaths of women who die from cervical cancer worldwide annually.
All these women lift me up whenever I am feeling stuck, or I have a day where more problems than solutions arise. They are truly changing the way in which our industry is supported on the ground and through advocacy. I only hope to be as incredible as them one day!
Find out more about Curiva on their website.
Follow Curiva on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Connect with Eydis on LinkedIn.
This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.