For years, Silicon Valley has been bemoaning the lack of women in STEM. Now, finally, Silicon Valley is in a frenzy over sexism in venture capital. Linda Fong of StraDEFY (Strategic Dermatologic Engineering From Yale) has a way for Silicon Valley to prove its commitment to diversity: connect StraDEFY with a company capable of licensing its patented nanoparticle platform technology and growing it into the multibillion dollar empire it is destined to become.

Linda, a Ph.D. candidate at Yale in Biomedical Engineering, also has a Bachelor’s of Science in Biological Engineering from M.I.T. She is currently working at the Malone Center at Yale University with Mark Saltzman, Ph.D., Goizueta Foundation Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University, and Michael Girardi, M.D., Vice Chair & Professor of Yale Dermatology. Together, their work has been recognized by multiple grant programs. StraDEFY has earned a $50,000 SPORE Skin Cancer Research Award; $50,000 from Yale’s Center for Biomedical and Interventional Technology Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; $30,000 from the Connecticut Biosciences Pipeline Pilot Program; and a $130,000 Blavatnik Fund for Innovation Award.

What StraDEFY needs now are strategic partners and supportive investors, and Yale’s location in New Haven, Connecticut, has made that difficult. Unlike Silicon Valley, where you can’t get coffee without running into venture capitalists, New Haven is no haven for entrepreneurs. Yale is working tirelessly to address this issue head-on: the university has launched the Center for Biomedical and Interventional Technology, hosted hackathons annually at the campus, and set up the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. StraDEFY’s inaugural product, a safer sunscreen, was part of the first Cohort of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute.

For the cosmetic industry, StraDEFY’s inaugural product acts like an invisible armor for your skin. Your skin is the largest organ in your body, and modern sunscreens seep into that organ, spreading toxins throughout your body. Some of those toxins can even cause cancer. Unlike modern sunscreens, StraDEFY uses a new technology: nanoparticle platform technology with encapsulated UV filters. StraDEFY’s patented technology stays on the surface of your skin, acting like invisible armor, protecting you from cancer causing toxins as well as the sun’s cancer causing rays. With the right partner, StraDEFY’s technology could protect us all from toxic sunscreen agents as well as the sun’s cancer-causing UV rays.

But StraDEFY isn’t stopping at safer sunscreen. The StraDEFY team is currently channeling their brilliance towards using their patented nanoparticle platform technology to create more effective skin cancer treatments. StraDEFY intends to provide physicians with a minimally-invasive treatment regimen to target skin cancer locally without patients suffering dire side effects. In a world where one person dies from skin cancer every hour, effective treatments are critical.

StraDEFY is uniquely posed to disrupt two multibillion dollar markets: the cosmetic industry and the healthcare industry. StraDEFY’s patented nanoparticle platform technology is capable not only of protecting your skin from the sun’s cancer causing UV rays, but also of delivering cancer-targeted treatments in a controlled-targeted manner, creating a unified company focused on the prevention and treatment of skin.

Are you interested in licensing StraDEFY’s patented nanoparticle platform technology to grow the technology into a multimillion dollar empire? Are you interested in funding StraDEFY’s research into innovative skin cancer treatment techniques? By completing the form below, you can reach Linda Fong of StraDEFY directly.