Dr. Ashkan Afshin, CEO and founder of Novelna, has been on a remarkable journey from his early college days to becoming a leader in global health and biotechnology. Surrounded by intellectuals throughout his life, Dr. Afshin was fortunate to have a supportive family and friends who fostered his insatiable curiosity and drive for innovation. This intellectually stimulating environment propelled him down a path that would ultimately lead to significant contributions to public health and cancer diagnostics.
Dr. Afshin's academic credentials are nothing short of extraordinary. He earned his MD from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, which laid the groundwork for his deep understanding of medicine.
Realizing the potential for a broader impact on public health, he pursued further education in the field, obtaining an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
However, his quest for knowledge didn't stop there: Dr. Afshin earned two Doctor of Science (ScD) degrees from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - one in Epidemiology and the other in Global Health and Population. He also obtained a Master of Science (MSc) in Health Policy and Management from Harvard, honing his skills in policy and decision science.
Dr. Afshin's early career was marked by his work at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, an institute funded by the Gates Foundation. As a leader at IHME, he spearheaded research on the global impacts of diet, physical activity, and obesity. His work led to the publication of highly cited papers in top-tier journals like the New England Journal of Medicine, establishing him as a prominent figure in public health. Dr. Ashkan Afshin's 2017 study on obesity, co-authored with 600 scientists worldwide, highlighted the severe global challenges posed by obesity and was widely covered in major media outlets. Another of his papers, one of the most highly cited of the year, focused on the impact of diet on mortality, further cementing his reputation as a leading researcher.
Despite his success in public health, Dr. Afshin was drawn to the potential of biotechnology to transform disease prevention and diagnostics. This passion led him to found Novelna, a company at the forefront of early disease detection. "My most important obsession is human health," says Dr. Afshin. "While practicing medicine can significantly impact individual patients, I wanted to leverage technology to benefit many more people."
At Novelna, Dr. Afshin has assembled a team of exceptional talent, each bringing unique expertise to the table. Dr. Bogdan Budnik, director of biomarker discovery at Harvard, contributes to the company's cutting-edge research. Deepak Malhotra, a Harvard Business School professor, offers invaluable insights into negotiation and value creation. Joseph Schmidhuber, an economist and recognized writer and researcher at Nature and PNAS, provides a critical macroeconomic perspective. Joseph Salama, an innovation strategist from the Gates Foundation, aids in navigating complex healthcare systems. This diverse, intellectually rigorous team constantly challenges and inspires one another, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in early cancer detection.
Novelna's mission is to make early disease detection accessible, accurate, and affordable for all. Their proprietary platform leverages proteomics and multi-omics technologies to develop highly sensitive and cost-effective diagnostic tests. One of the company's areas of expertise includes their pan-cancer test. This test, expected to launch as Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) by 2027, promises to set new standards in early-stage cancer detection.
Dr. Ashkan Afshin, emphasizing his goal, states, "Prevention and early detection are cornerstones of public health. Conventional early detection tests are not as effective as they could be because they are not personalized. The new generation of screening measures can be more effective by taking into account the characteristics of various populations using AI and their underlying biology, as characterized in their proteome." He further adds, "We live in an exciting time where we can develop highly accurate and affordable, early disease detection tools. These tools can identify diseases before patients notice any symptoms and before they manifest clinically, truly making an impact not only for our life expansion but our overall health."
