Five days of life sciences programming across DC and Maryland, from SBIR grants and dual-use defense funding to Series A lessons and where the region’s next lab space will go.
When DC Startup & Tech Week kicks off on Monday, October 19, life sciences will have its biggest presence yet.
For the third year in a row, BioBuzz is leading the week’s life sciences track. In 2024 and 2025, that meant a single day of programming. This year, the track runs Monday through Thursday across four venues, built alongside a planning committee of grant consultants, commercialization veterans, and investors from across the region.
The expansion lands in a week that already draws more than 8,000 attendees. DC Startup & Tech Week, often called DC’s answer to SXSW, runs on a community-led model: local organizations propose and host their own sessions under one umbrella, spread across the city.
“The buzz in DC this week is real, and it’s been building for years,” said Chris Frew, CEO of BioBuzz Networks. “DC has the research institutions, the federal agencies, and now the capital and company builders, with Maryland’s manufacturing base and Virginia’s research and defense strength on either side of it. What we haven’t always had is one place to see it all together. This week is a collaborative effort to show exactly what’s happening, what’s being built, and, just as important, to be honest about where we still need to go if this region is going to compete with Boston and the Bay Area for the next generation of companies.”
The week follows a single arc, tracing a company from the lab bench to its own building. At the center is Wednesday’s The DC Advantage, the track’s anchor in the District and the case that DC is where life sciences gets built next. The lineup is a mix of official DC Startup & Tech Week sessions, which register through dcstw.com, and partner events with their own registration on Luma. Here’s the full lineup.
Monday, Oct 19
The track opens with early-stage founders still working out how to turn research into a company, starting with federal grants and ending with a path many health founders overlook: the military as an early customer and a source of non-dilutive capital.
➡️ Beyond the Instructions: A Practical Guide to Navigating NIH SBIR/STTR
Official DCSTW Session
@ Convene DC (Washington, DC)
2:00 – 3:30 PM | Register >
Led by Nao Gamo
A practical, start-to-finish overview of the NIH SBIR/STTR program, which funds US small businesses across the life sciences: eligibility and readiness, proposal strategy, submission logistics, and how reviewers read your application. With how much the SBIR/STTR landscape has shifted this year, first-time applicants and seasoned founders alike will leave with concrete, actionable guidance instead of losing months to an ineligible or non-competitive submission. Nao Gamo, PhD, founder and CEO of Grant & Proposal Atelier and a federal grant reviewer, has won grants as both an academic researcher and a startup founder.
➡️ Dual Use, Defined
Official DCSTW Session
@ Convene DC (Washington, DC)
3:35 – 3:55 PM | Register >
Meet two of the region’s most valuable partners for startups building for both military and civilian markets. Learn what dual use really means, where to find non-dilutive funding and military partners, and how to engage with HJF and MTEC at every stage.
Featuring:
- Katie Bratlie, Director, Innovation Ecosystem and Labs, The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine
- Stuart Tyner, Senior Advisor, MTEC | Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium
➡️ Finding the Defense Application in What You’re Building
Official DCSTW Session
@ Convene DC (Washington, DC)
3:55 – 4:25 PM | Register >
Founders who built for hospitals and patients share how they discovered a military use for the same technology: how they found it, what it changed about their funding path, and what they’d tell founders who haven’t looked yet.
Featuring:
➡️ Dual Use Startup Showcase
Official DCSTW Session
@ Convene DC (Washington, DC)
4:30 – 5:30 PM | Register >
Network with some of the region’s most promising dual-use and early-stage life sciences startups as founders share what they’re building at showcase tables. HJF and MTEC will be on hand to talk non-dilutive funding, military partnerships, and how startups can work with military medicine. Investors, partners, and fellow founders: meet the companies behind the science and the people backing them.
Tuesday, Oct 20
Tuesday turns from starting companies to scaling them. Daytime sessions at MLK Library cover an overlooked healthcare market and AI in clinical trials. The evening brings our flagship event of the week, an Insights to Impact edition where CEOs who have crossed the Series A threshold talk candidly with the founders about to.
➡️ Build Where Nobody’s Looking: Healthcare, Design, and the Market Everyone Missed
Official DCSTW Session
@ MLK Library (Washington, DC)
1:00 – 1:45 PM | Register >
Featuring Jasmine R. Jones, CMF
Post-mastectomy care is a $3+ billion market and one of the most fragmented, under-dignified, technology-resistant categories in women’s health. Jasmine R. Jones tells the story of building Myya, a direct-to-consumer, insurance-billable platform for modern mastectomy bras and breast forms that launched from a Parisian-style boutique in DC and now serves women in all 50 states. Expect a framework for spotting high-value, low-competition healthcare markets, a real account of building hospital and provider referral partnerships before having the resources that usually open those doors, and an honest look at fundraising in a category nobody was pitching. Not a talk about the future of AI in healthcare: a ground-level account of building in an industry that resists change.
➡️ The Clinical Trial Operating System: Sovereign AI for Clinical Trials
Official DCSTW Session
@ MLK Library (Washington, DC)
2:00 – 2:45 PM | Register >
Pharma, biotech, and CRO leaders face a hard trade-off: the AI tools that could accelerate clinical trials often require sending sensitive patient and trial data outside their control. Panelists explore how sovereign AI, with models running inside the sponsor’s own compliant, zero-egress environment, can deliver enterprise-grade intelligence without surrendering data ownership, across trial design, patient recruitment, and operations. Attendees leave with a practical framework for evaluating clinical AI, and what to demand from AI vendors, without compromising compliance or control.
Featuring:
- Dev Roy, Board Member, Enclavia.ai
- Deborah Hemingway, PhD, Managing Partner, Ecphora Capital
- Harsha K Rajasimha, Founder & CEO, Jeeva Clinical Trials Inc.
- Laura Brooke, DMSc, MS, PA-C, Clinical Research Physician Assistant, Clinical Trial Sub-Investigator, Pharmaron
➡️ What I Wish I Knew at Series A: Building for What’s Next
Partner Event
@ PwC (Washington, DC)
4:00 – 7:00 PM | Request to Join >
Every company scaling past Series A hits the same wall: the systems, governance, and financial infrastructure that carried it this far stop working, usually before anyone notices. What worked at 15 people breaks at 50. What satisfied a seed investor doesn’t survive diligence.
This signature BioBuzz Insights to Impact event puts CEOs who have been through it into an unscripted, peer-to-peer conversation about the version founders don’t tell investors: the hire made a year too late, the system that held right up until it didn’t, the real problem sitting somewhere nobody was looking.
They’ll get into what broke and what it cost, what sophisticated investors actually look for, how to build credible financials and real governance without over-engineering too early, and what they’d put in place today to stay ready for a raise, an acquisition, or an IPO.
This is a curated, invitation-style evening for life sciences industry leaders: founders and executives, investors, and the finance, legal, and operations leaders who support them. The guest list is built for a high-quality, peer-driven room, so registration requires host approval.
Featuring:
- Francisco Leon, CEO, Tolerance Bio
- Jesse Christopher, CEO + Co-Founder, Longeviti Neuro Solutions
- Jon Rowley, Founder + Chief Product Officer, RoosterBio Inc.
- Johnnie Lewis, Partner, PwC
- Patricia Campbell, Director, Emerging Company Solutions, PwC
- Chris Frew, CEO, BioBuzz Networks
+ Startup Showcase with AccufyDx, Caleo Biotechnologies, Deep Root Biolabs, Nostopharma, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals, and True Bearing Diagnostics.
Wednesday, Oct 21
Wednesday is the anchor of the week. Boston and the Bay Area built biotech’s past; DC is building what’s next. At Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus, pediatric research, a venture studio, and the talent pipeline sit under one roof. FDA, NIH, and Capitol Hill are a Metro ride away, and the city is funding the ecosystem directly. Co-anchored with SOAR Bio, The DC Advantage puts the institutions, operators, and founders proving it in the same room.
➡️ Women In Bio – Capital Region Coffee Chat – Washington, DC
Partner Event
@ Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus (RIC)
8:00 – 10:00 AM | RSVP >
Start the morning with coffee, conversation, and connection. Women in Bio – Capital Region invites women across the life sciences community, from founders and scientists to investors and operators, to an informal, intimate Coffee Chat before The DC Advantage. Space is limited to keep the conversation personal.
Featuring:
➡️ The DC Advantage
Partner Event
@ Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus (RIC)
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Request to Join >
Step inside what’s quietly being built at the epicenter of life sciences in DC. At the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus, pediatric research, a cancer research center, and DC’s first life sciences venture studio sit under one roof, pairing seasoned entrepreneurs with emerging founders. Great science needs great company builders, and DC is bringing them together.
Hosted by SOAR Bio and BioBuzz, the morning covers the new company-building playbook: translating research, developing entrepreneurial talent, and doing more with less. Leaders from Children’s National, Virginia Tech, and SOAR Bio open with how their partnership takes shape and what it takes to turn a discovery into a company.
From there, a startup CEO, a venture-studio CEO Fellow, and the educator training the region’s talent get candid about making the leap from scientist to entrepreneur, finding mentors, building teams, and stretching limited resources. The morning closes on what DC is building and funding, how local support and federal partnerships open doors for founders, and how DC connects with Maryland and Virginia to grow the next generation of life sciences companies.
This is a curated program for life sciences leaders and ecosystem builders, so registration requires host approval. Doors open at 9:30 AM.
Featuring:
- Nathan Kuppermann, MD, MPH, EVP & Chief Academic Officer, Children’s National Hospital
- Chris Hourigan, DM, DPhil, FRCP, Director, Cancer Research Center–D.C., Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute
- Murat Kalayoglu, MD, PhD, Founding Partner, SOAR Bio
- Al Mashal, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Current Surgical
- Patrick McTamney, PhD, Partner & CEO Fellow, SOAR Bio
- Ivica Labuda, PhD, Program Director, Biotechnology Masters Program, Georgetown University
- Adam Lattimore, MPA, Director, Technology & Innovation, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
- Eric Van Gieson, PhD, Senior Advisor, The Conafay Group; former DARPA Program Manager, Biological Technologies Office
- Murat Kalayoglu, MD, PhD, Founding Partner, SOAR Bio
Thursday, Oct 22
Thursday leaves the District for the I-270 corridor to answer a practical question: when a company is ready to expand, where does it go, and who’s building the space?
➡️ Community Connect #8 | Where to Grow: The Capital Region’s Next Life Sciences Chapter
Partner Event
@ Montgomery College (Germantown, MD)
8:00 – 11:00 AM | RSVP >
Companies are weighing this region against Boston, the Bay Area, and North Carolina, and the corridor’s next chapter depends on decisions being made right now. Developers will tell you a deal lives or dies on entitlements, capital costs, and whether a tenant shows up before the carrying costs do. Companies will tell you they choose a market for talent first. Public-sector leaders sit in between, deciding what to put on the table.
Those conversations usually happen separately. This one happens together. It opens with ATCC CEO Ruth Cheng on why a life sciences company chose the region, why it landed in Montgomery County, and what tipped the decision.
From there, developers get candid about where life sciences deals pencil, where they break, and what has to change for the next project to land here instead of somewhere else. Economic development and workforce leaders then respond with what they can actually offer in incentives, financing, and talent, and where the real constraints are.
Networking runs throughout the morning, followed by tours of the campus.
Featuring:
- Ruth Cheng, PhD, President & CEO, ATCC
- Andy Chod, Co-President, Minkoff Development Corp.
- Scott Nudelman, Co-Founder & Managing Principal, Vitrian
- Jennifer Reynolds, Director, Life Sciences, Virginia Economic Development Partnership
- Thomas Luginbill, Executive Director, PIC MC at Montgomery College
Friday, Oct 23
The week wraps in Maryland at the Maryland Tech Council’s Bio Innovation Conference, where investors, federal leaders, operators, and startups meet for keynotes, panels, and one-on-one partnering.
➡️ Bio Innovation Conference
Partner Event
@ Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center (North Bethesda, MD)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM | Register >
The Maryland Tech Council’s flagship life sciences conference closes the week with a full day of keynotes, panels, and roundtables. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, shares the agency’s research priorities, and former senior FDA leaders Julie Tierney and Tala Fakhouri, PhD, offer a candid look at how the agency actually makes decisions. Denise Gavin, PhD, director of FDA’s Office of Gene Therapy, covers the pathway for novel therapies.
Panels tackle scaling cell and gene therapy manufacturing and building a global development strategy from day one, with speakers from AstraZeneca, Gilead, Kite, REGENXBIO, Barinthus Biotherapeutics, and AccufyDx, also in Tuesday’s Startup Showcase. Roundtables cover non-dilutive funding beyond SBIR, workforce pathways, and biomanufacturing facilities, and One2One Partnering runs all day. The day ends with a keynote from Bad Blood author John Carreyrou and a cocktail reception.
See you in there!
