BioCrossroads’ AXIS Mentoring Program

A core tenet of BioCrossroads’ mission is bringing people from Indiana’s life science sector together to increase our collective impact. We convene to collaborate. And no program better exemplifies these efforts than our AXIS mentoring program, which is designed to provide structured, team-based mentorship to early-stage life sciences entrepreneurs.  

What sets AXIS apart from other mentoring efforts is its focus on connection without institutional boundaries. AXIS is supported by powerful partners like IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, 16 Tech, Heartland BioWorks, and is operated through BioCrossroads. Entrepreneurs from anywhere in Indiana and at any stage can participate. BioCrossroads has recruited mentors from across the life sciences, bringing a wide range of professional and personal experience. Our mentor pool includes some of Indiana’s leading life sciences professionals, motivated to help advance and scale the next generation of innovation. 

The vision for AXIS is clear: cultivate a vibrant, inclusive, and interconnected life sciences ecosystem, with mentorship as the foundation for translating ideas into impact and retaining our top talent in the state. AXIS will play a critical role in helping early career scientists and emerging companies avoid common pitfalls, accelerate their growth, expand career pathways, and navigate the complex regulatory, funding, and commercialization environments unique to the life sciences sector. Drawing from the proven model of MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service (VMS), the program builds a strong support system for individuals navigating the challenges of scientific innovation, commercialization, and founder growth. 

Launched by BioCrossroads in 2025, AXIS has already supported two cohorts that have pitched their ideas and begun advancing their work.  

How You Can Get Involved 

• Apply as a mentee: Early-career scientists, researchers, and life sciences founders are encouraged to join the next cohort. 
• Become a mentor: Seasoned professionals can share expertise and make tangible impact. 
• Partner and support: Regional stakeholders can bolster AXIS’s reach and deepen its ecosystem influence. 

The success of AXIS hinges on its collaborative spirit—mentors, mentees, partners, and supporters working together to nurture vibrant, sustainable growth in Indiana’s life sciences sector. 

Cohort 1 

Qwyn AI
AXIS Mentee: Adam Martin 
Developer of an artificial intelligence-powered quality management platform designed to help life sciences organizations accelerate investigations, automate root cause analysis and prevent recurrence of quality issues. The company offers guided investigation workflows, automated documentation, regulatory intelligence, and trend detection, enabling pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers to maintain compliance, reduce cycle times, and improve product quality. 

IndiAide Inc.
AXIS Mentee: Alyssa Antcliff 
Developer of a daily task management platform designed to centralize the management of important health and personal information. The company’s platform improves functional independence and continuity of care for people with medical complexities, cognitive impairments, those who are aging in place, and their families, enabling clients to manage daily tasks and wellbeing for individuals with cognitive impairment. 

Quornix 
AXIS Mentee: Dr. Julia van Kessel and Dr. Laura Brown 
Developer of small-molecule therapeutics that target bacterial quorum sensing to disrupt pathogenic behavior without directly killing bacteria. The company’s approach aims to reduce antimicrobial resistance while addressing infectious disease challenges in human health and aquaculture. Quornix is based in Bloomington, Indiana, and was formed around Indiana University–derived research. 

Delta Ops AI 
AXIS Mentee: Dr. Pengyi Shi 
Operator of workforce management intended to optimize staff allocation in healthcare settings. The company’s platform uses advanced optimization algorithms to assign nurses effectively across daily shifts and long-term schedules, considering factors such as unit needs and medical campus requirements, enabling healthcare organizations to maximize operational efficiency, reduce labor costs, and improve care delivery by ensuring the right staff are in the right place at the right time.  

GoldiloxBio 
AXIS Mentee: Dr. Milos Marinkovic 
Developer of physiologically relevant preclinical testing platforms that replicate tissue-specific extracellular matrix environments to improve cardiomyocyte function and cardiac toxicity assessment. The company’s technology is designed to generate more predictive safety and efficacy data earlier in the drug development process. Its platform serves biopharmaceutical companies seeking to reduce late-stage clinical failures. 

Peak Mind
AXIS Mentee: Alicia Mckoy 
Operator of an employee well-being application designed to help businesses build connections and a culture of care for their employees. The company’s application measures stress levels and offers coping mechanisms through a library of tools, enabling organizations in education and public safety to improve employee well-being and reduce stress-related expenses. 

Amplicore, Inc.
AXIS Mentee: Dr. Stacey Gruber 
Developer of injectable therapeutic drugs designed to treat degenerative musculoskeletal disorders to serve unmet medical needs. The company’s drugs promote cartilage regeneration and suppress enzymatic activities to treat degenerative musculoskeletal disorders, enabling healthcare organizations to seamlessly provide relief to patients from joint pain.  

Cohort 2 
 

ReactRX
AXIS Mentee: Dr. Emma Tillman 
Developer of an AI-enabled pharmacovigilance platform designed to transform passive adverse drug reaction reporting into a real-time, interactive safety monitoring system. The company’s platform engages patients beyond pharmacy pickup to collect denominator-aware safety data, enable early signal detection, and deliver actionable insights to pharmaceutical companies, CROs, and regulators.  

Vasculonics
AXIS Mentee: Brad Lawson 
Developer of a disease-modifying therapeutic platform designed to reduce progression and mortality in pulmonary arterial hypertension. The company offers a novel selective aryl hydrocarbon receptor modulator that targets inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis, and vascular toxicity, enabling treatment of individuals with pulmonary arterial hypertension, improved quality of life, and survival.  

Narrow-Spectrum Antibiotics Targeting Bacterial Carbonic Anhydrase 
Faculty-Led Research | Company Formation Opportunity
AXIS Mentee: Dr. Daniel Flaherty   
Developer of a novel narrow-spectrum antibiotic platform targeting bacterial carbonic anhydrase enzymes to selectively treat drug-resistant pathogens while preserving the gut microbiome. The underlying faculty-led research demonstrates potency against high-priority indications including vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, with applications in both treatment and pre-exposure decolonization. The technology represents a differentiated antimicrobial mechanism with no known competitors in this enzyme class and is currently positioned for startup formation and translational development.  

echoSURE
AXIS Mentee: Raishma Anwar 
Developer of a bedside medical device that verifies nasogastric feeding tube placement using proprietary acoustic sensing and signal-processing technology. The solution enables rapid, point-of-care confirmation without reliance on radiographic imaging. The technology is intended to improve patient safety while reducing delays and costs associated with X-ray confirmation.  

TruePulse Health
AXIS Mentee: Dr. Sujata Punait 
Developer of a software platform that provides continuous, real-time monitoring of autonomic nervous system activity to deliver personalized stress and recovery insights to clinicians. The company’s ANSense platform integrates multi-signal physiological data with advanced analytics to enable earlier detection of autonomic dysfunction and proactive intervention, particularly in maternal care settings. TruePulse Health monetizes its platform through a B2B subscription and setup fee model, with plans to expand into value-based care and broader high-acuity clinical markets.