Jay Anthonypillai

Biography:

Jayaranjan has an extensive background in biotechnology development and validation, and has worked in clinical, clean-tech, biotech, and agri-tech sectors. Leveraging his experience and background in biology and lipid chemistry, he has developed novel technologies for overcoming product development, process development, and engineering challenges. 

Jay has been an active figure in the Bay Area biotech startup scene, and is the founder of Berkeley Biolabs, a biotech incubator where he helped mentor and launch over 30 companies.

He is also the co-founder of The Berkeley Program which equips high school and middle school STEM students to pursue entrepreneurship, and Focus Academy which serves as a ‘Soft Landing’ for international biotech startups in the Bay Area. As an entrepreneur and mentor for several startups, Jay’s emphasis is often on product/market fit as the main driver of R&D effort and strategy.

Recently, Jay cofounded a coronavirus testing company that now tests several thousand people/month. This company uses a novel approach to expedite the rna based assay to detect the novel coronavirus behind the current pandemic. Since launching in April 2020, this company has grown to test people in NY and in CA.