Professor Michael Berk

Chair of Psychiatry, Deakin University

Adam Caplan

Founder and General Partner, Jumpspace Ventures

Jumspace Ventures is a New York based venture capital firm focused on breakthrough innovations in neuroscience and human-machine interfaces. The firm invests in early-stage companies advancing brain-computer interfaces, neuromodulation and neural diagnostics.

Adam is also a Co-Founder at Artisan Council, a digital marketing agency, as well as a Co-Founder and Board Member at Facteus, a provider of consumer transaction data to hedge funds.

Earlier in his career, Adam co-founded ID8 Investments, a diversified venture capital firm, as well as Super Rewards, a monetization solution for social network games which was acquired by Adknowledge in 2009. Before that, he worked as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley for eleven years, focusing on the emerging Internet and new media sectors.

Professor Mark Cook

The Sir John Eccles Chair of Medicine and Director of Clinical Neurosciences at St. Vincent’s Hospital

Mark Cook is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Sir John Eccles Chair of Medicine, University of Melbourne, and Director of Neurology at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He is a neurologist recognised internationally for his expertise in epilepsy management, particularly imaging and surgical planning. In 2023 he was named an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to neurological medicine and research through contributions to the treatment of epilepsy. He has worked closely with engineers for most of his career, developing novel therapies for epilepsy. His interests have included experimental models of epilepsy and seizure prediction, and he has led 3 first in human clinical studies of epilepsy devices, and is involved in the commercialisation of an implantable seizure detection device – Epiminder – that received FDA approval in May 2025.

Hon Weng Chong

CEO and Founder, Cortical Labs

Hon Weng trained as a medical doctor at The University of Melbourne and was exposed to the world of technology entrepreneurialism during his research year at Johns Hopkins. In addition to being a medical doctor, Hon Weng is a full-stack software engineer and a machine learning enthusiast. Hon Weng is a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient in 2016.

Rachel de las Heras

CEO, Ceretas

Rachel was formerly the Ultrasound Product Development Manager at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), The University of Queensland. Under her leadership, she has overseen medical device development directed at establishing the safety of therapeutic ultrasound in Alzheimer’s disease through the successful completion of a first-in-human study.

Rachel has developed diagnostic medical devices whilst at Panbio (now Abbott formerly Alere) and Cellestis (now Qiagen). Most notably co-inventing and developing QuantiFERON Monitor, a diagnostic to improve the clinical management of transplant patients now marketed by Qiagen.

Rachel has commercialised research discoveries whilst at UniQuest and has also held several commercial and business development roles.

Since completing her PhD in molecular neuroscience, Rachel has worked in leadership positions across various scientific disciplines including biochemistry, organic chemistry and engineering.

Trish Lavery

Visiting Fellow, School of Cybernetics, Australian National University

Rachel Levin

Investment Director, National Reconstruction Fund Corporation

Rachel is a biotech and medtech investor with experience across research (MSc, PhD, industry), startups, and big pharma.

Geoffrey Mackellar

CTO, EMOTIV

Geoff obtained his PhD in Laser Physics from Macquarie University between 1979 and 1985. Prior to that, they obtained a BSc(Hons1) in Physics(Hons), Mathematics, and Computing from the University of New England (AU) between 1975 and 1978.

Dr Helen Macpherson

Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University

Dr Macpherson has received $4 million funding to support this research. She has expertise in the design and conduct of randomised controlled trials. Dr Macpherson also has experience working with large population-based data sets. She is currently supervising several PhD students using various neuroimaging techniques to study age-related changes in cognition. Drawing on her background in cognitive neuroscience and psychology, Dr Macpherson’s work is contributing to the important knowledge that dementia risk can be reduced by targeting health behaviours.

Dr Macpherson contributed to the development of Dementia Australia’s BrainTrack app, a pioneering tool designed for self-monitoring cognition, which has already reached 150,000 downloads.

Andrew Maxwell

Chairman, Cyban

Professor Nicholas Opie

CEO, Ultra Bionics and Founding Director, Synchron

He designed and developed the world’s first endovascular brain computer interface that can be implanted without invasive brain surgery. His creation, the Stentrode, is aimed at restoring communication, mobility and independence to people with paralysis. He is currently working to develop new neurotechnology to treat other neurological conditions including Epilepsy, depression and Parkinson’s.

Professor Opie earned his undergraduate degrees in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (Hons) and Science at Monash University, his PhD in retinal neuroprostheses at the University of Melbourne and his MBA from Melbourne Business School. He is a Professor, NHMRC Investigator Fellow and Head of the Vascular Bionics Laboratory within the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne where he has been awarded more than $30M in research funding to translate his technology from concept to clinic. He is also a Founding Director of Synchron Australia and Synchron Inc, raising more than $200M to commercialise the Stentrode System.

Professor Opie has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, including in Nature Biomedical Engineering and Nature Biotechnology, has presented his work at over 200 local and international conferences and is an inventor of over 110 patents. He has received numerous awards for his inventions, including Times Top 100 inventions in 2022.

Harikesh Pushpapathan

General Partner, Stoic VC

Partner @ Stoic VC; an early stage venture fund solving our world’s most intractable problems by a) Redesigning human health b) supercharging compute c) rebalancing the earth. To do this, we partner with Uniseed – commercialisation body managing 65% of Australia R&D output. I currently sit on a few committees including Uniseed, Antler and NSW government’s Biosciences fund. Prior to this, I spent a few years investing personally, at other funds, fundraising for startups and building my own telehealth business. When I’m not investing or recovering from sporting injuries, I love to write – both in music and blogs.

Dr Kathryn Sunn

CEO, Celosia Therapeutics and Director of Commercialisation, Macquarie University

Dr. Sunn is renowned for her dynamic leadership and strategic vision in fostering technology collaborations and expanding commercial opportunities within the Australian research and early enterprise sectors. With extensive experience in intellectual property management, strategy, and business development, Dr. Sunn has held roles in two of Australia’s leading patent firms and has spearheaded the technology transfer units at the Australia’s largest universities. Her expertise lies in forging impactful strategic partnerships and delivering commercially focused advice to transform innovations into valuable assets.

Dr. Sunn holds a PhD in Medical Science with a specialisation in genetics from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. She is a trained patent and trademark attorney in Australia and New Zealand. serving She is on the Board of Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia as well as on the boards of several Macquarie University startup companies.

Professor Cassandra Szoeke

Lead, Women’s Healthy Ageing Program, Monash Centre for Health Research

Cassandra is is the Inaugural Chair of the Asia-Pacific Node of the Women’s Brain Project. She has contributed to the development of national health policies, has sat on the Council of the Australian Medical Association, was appointed to Medical Panels by the Department of Health (Victoria) and has held Chief Health Advisor roles for the Australian Healthy Ageing Organisation and the National Council of Women.