Samuel Sia

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Columbia University

Samuel Sia, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, has developed novel technologies for point-of-care blood tests, both in an academic and industry setting.  He is co-founder of Claros Diagnostics, which garnered European regulatory approval for a prostate-cancer blood test for doctor’s offices, and was acquired by OPKO Health (NYSE: OPK).  Dr. Sia’s work in global health diagnostics has garnered coverage from Nature, Science, JAMA, Washington Post, BBC, NPR, Voice of America, Science News, Popular Science, Chemical and Engineering News, and MIT Technology Review.  His lab-on-a-chip device has been tested in Rwanda to collect and analyze blood tests at a patient’s bedside to diagnose infectious diseases.  He was named by MIT Technology Review as one of the top’s world young innovators, and is an inducted fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.  He is founder of Harlem Biospace, a biotech incubator facility in New York City (developed with the NYC mayor’s office) that has hosted over 50 biotech companies.  He also currently co-directs the entrepreneurship initiative for Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.  Dr. Sia has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics (with a HHMI predoctoral fellowship) from Harvard University.  Dr. Sia completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University