Stephanie is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully launched Epitracker, Seraphina Therapeutics,two clinical research programs within the Department of Defense and non-profit sector, and founded public health education programs in the community and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her novel approach to discovering therapeutic candidates for animals and humans has been featured on NPR’s Science Friday, CBS, BBC, National Geographic, Biocom’s Annual Dinner (2014), J&J Innovations: Powerful Ideas Series (2015), San Diego Venture Group’s Hot Topic Series (2015) and Cool Companies (2017), LA BioMed Innovation Showcase (2016), and San Diego’s Innovation Showcase (2017). She has over 60 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters and is the lead inventor on over 40 issued and pending patents. For her entrepreneurial work in the health industry, Stephanie was awarded the Department of Human and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Innovations in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Stephanie received her B.S. in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego, D.V.M. from Tufts University, M.P.H. from Emory University, and was a National Research Council Associate with the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center. Stephanie has worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. She is an Albert Schweitzer Fellow for Life.
Did you know?
Beyond Epitracker and Seraphina, Stephanie has dedicated her career to improving animal and human health, including leading investigations on the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on wild dolphins, chairing investigations into unusual marine mammal stranding events, founding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Healthy Pets, Healthy People program, and founding the Gap Junction STEM program for veterinary students and middle school kids.
Literature
- Venn-Watson S, Schork N (2023) Pentadecanoic acid (C15:0), an essential fatty acid, shares clinically relevant cell-based activities with leading longevity-enhancing compounds. Nutrients (in review).
- Venn-Watson S, Butterworth CN (2022) Broader and safer clinically-relevant activities of pentadecanoic acid compared to omega-3: evaluation of an emerging essential fatty acid across twelve primary human cell-based disease systems. PLOS ONE 17:e0268778.
- Venn-Watson S, Reiner J, Jensen ED (2022). Pentadecanoylcarnitine is a newly discovered endocannabinoid with pleiotropic activities relevant to supporting physical and mental health. Sci Rep 12:13717.
- Venn-Watson S, Jensen ED, Schork NJ (2020) 25-year longitudinal dolphin cohort supports that long-lived individuals in the same environment exhibit variation in aging rates. PNAS.
- Venn-Watson S, Lumpkin R, Dennis EA (2020) Efficacy of dietary odd-chain saturated fatty acid pentadecanoic acid parallels broad associated health benefits in humans: could it be essential? Sci Rep 10:8161.
- Venn-Watson S, Baird M, Novick B, Parry C, Jensen ED (2020) Modified fish diet shifted serum metabolome and alleviated chronic anemia in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): Potential role of odd-chain saturated fatty acids. PLOS ONE 15:e0230769.
- Barratclough A, Gomez FM, Morey JS, Deming A, Parry C, Meegan JM, Carlin KP, Schwacke L, Venn-Watson S, Jensen ED, Smith CR (2020) Pregnancy profiles in the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): Clinical biochemical and hematological variations during healthy gestation and a successful outcome. Theriogenol 142:92-103.
- Le-Bert CR, Smith CR, Poindexter J, Ardente A, Meegan J, Wells RS, Venn-Watson S, Jensen ED, Sakhaee K (2018) Comparison of potential dietary and urinary risk factors for ammonium urate nephrolithiasis in two bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) popualtions. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 315:F231-F237.
- Eberle KC, Venn-Watson S, Jensen ED, LaBresh J, Sullivan Y, Kakach L, Sacco RE (2018) Development of testing of species-specific ELISA assays to measure IFN-γ and TNF-α in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). PLOS ONE 13:e0190786.
- Standorf K, Cortex-Hinjosa G, Venn-Watson S, Rivera R, Archer L, Wellehan Jr JFX (2018) Phylogenetic analysis of the genome of an enteritis-associated bottlenose dolphin mastadenovirus supports a clade infecting the cetartiodactyla. J Wildlf Dis 54: 112-121.
- Borras E, Aksenov AA, Baird M, Novick B, Schivo M, Zamuruyev KO, Pasamontes A, Parry C, Foutouhi S, Venn-Watson S, Weimer BC, Davis CE (2017) Exhaled breath condensate methods adapted from human studies using longitudinal metabolomics for predicting early health alterations in dolphins. Analyt Bioanalyt Chem 409:6523-6536.
- Hofstetter AR, Eberle KC, Venn-Watson S, Jensen ED, Porter TJ, Waters TE, Sacco RE (2017) Monitoring bottlenose dolphin leukocyte cytokine mRNA responsiveness by qPCR. PLOS ONE 12:e0189437.
- Elnaggar MM, Abdellrazeq GS, Venn-Watson S, Jensen ED, Hulubei V, Fry LM, Sacco RE, Davis WC (2017) Identification of monoclonal antibodies cross-reactive with bottlenose dolphin orthologues of the major histocompatibility complex and leukocyte differentiation molecules. Vet Immunol and Immunopath 192:54-59.
Meet the rest of our team
We are a consortium of scientists, doctors, dreamers & innovators. We believe that if we can impact health at its core, we can change the world from the inside out.
Eric Venn-Watson
MD, MBA
Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer
Eric is a practicing physician and entrepreneur. He served over 25 years as a Navy and Marine Corps physician, working with the special forces community to improve their health and fitness. Additionally, Eric founded multiple companies in the drug discovery, healthcare analytics, and medical device industries. He is passionate about developing medical technologies that improve the practice and delivery of healthcare on a global scale.
Kim Kamdar
PhD
Co-Founder, Board Chair
Kim is a Managing Partner of Domain Associates, a life sciences venture capital firm, and has been involved in numerous cutting-edge therapeutic start-ups. She was also a research director at Novartis, where she led a team to uncover small molecules that modulated signaling pathway networks.
Nicholas Schork
PhD
Co-Founder, Senior Scientist
Nicholas is a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Quantitative Medicine and Systems Biology Division at Translational Genomics Institute, an affiliate of The City of Hope. In addition, as a leader in the design and analysis of studies of longevity, Nicholas is Scientific Director for the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Aging-sponsored Longevity Consortium.
Edward Dennis
PhD
Scientific Advisor
Ed is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology specializing in lipid research at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Ed, who is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard University, was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Lipid Research and has 375 peer-reviewed publications, including roles of fatty acids in health.
Ronald Krauss
MD
Scientific Advisor
Ron is a Senior Scientist and Director of Atherosclerosis Research at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine at UCSF and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at UC Berkeley. Ron is a graduate of Harvard University, is board-certified in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism, and is a Fellow of the American Society of Nutrition and American Heart Association. He has 450 peer-reviewed publications, including leading papers on dairy-based fats and health.