LabStart Fellowship Demo Day 2026

​Our 2026 LabStart Fellowship is coming to an end and you are invited to our Demo Day. Come hear the pitches from our 6 LabStart Fellows and see all that they have accomplished over the past year.

​All of our fellows are either fundraising or looking for their next partner or customer. Please join us in hearing from the following fellows:

Emilio Balderas (Aura Life Science, Chicago, IL) is disrupting the manufacturing industry by reducing production costs by up to 4x in biomanufacturing and enabling truly carbon-negative production.

​Sebastian Garcia (Khaya Biosciences, New York, NY) is a Colombian-born scientist converting waste from the beer and dairy industries into advanced wound dressings and other hydrogel products.

​Warren Ndlovu (Sotera Materials, Oakland, CA) is developing low-carbon, high-performance wall panels that reduce construction waste and increase building reliability and fire resistance.

​Tinia Pina (Stealth, New York, NY) is creating liquid coolants for data centers that are non-toxic, flame resistant, and biodegradable to help address data centers’ massive energy and water consumption.

​Monica Sanders (Bonne Terre Labs, Alexandria, VA) is a Georgetown professor developing a tool to help tech leaders make data center siting and sustainability decisions that are equitable, transparent, and community-backed, reducing the chances of costly litigation.

​Pilanda Watkins-Curry, Ph.D. (AuraChrome, Henrico, VA) is a chemist with a cosmetology license building safer, ethically sourced alternatives to toxic makeup ingredients, with women of color top of mind.