Inspiring Conversations with Franco Kraiselburd of Asclepii

Today we’d like to introduce you to Franco Kraiselburd.

Hi Franco, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today. 
I was originally born in Boston but moved around a lot as a kid. Having spent time living in Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and the United States, I had a really international upbringing. Every new place brought me a unique perspective and language, which translated into a very useful skillset, both personally and professionally. Growing up, I never saw borders, languages, stigmas, or cultures as “limitations” – more so, I saw them as challenges in a world where anything is possible. Despite going through heavy financial and emotional hardship, this deep ambition and desire to make an impact stuck with me. Additionally, the professional opportunities I was so fortunate to receive from an early age thanks to mentors and professors also helped push me into my passion for healthcare and creating a social impact through medical devices. 

My story started around February 2015 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. I was a young 13-year-old boy who had recently moved to São Paulo from Zaragoza, Spain. I had a heavy language barrier and struggled to pay attention in school because of it. Eventually, as I became more comfortable with Portuguese, it seemed as though I had also become comfortable with zoning out during any lecture that seemed boring… Fortunately, this meant I would hyper-focus on the lectures I found interesting – which would later fire my passion for Biology, Medicine, and the complex workings of the Human Body. I would spend countless hours (both in and out of class) drawing the body’s different systems and trying to understand complex diseases – Diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Cancer, etc… A middle school teacher noticed this and eventually selected me for a scientific pre-initiation program that would honestly change my life. 

The program gave me a mentor and a chance to focus all of my energy into a project, which I gladly did. Thanks to an episode of The Flash and some conversations with my sister, I gained deep interest in the fields of Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, which is what I decided to take on in my project. I wanted to design a prototype to, perhaps, duplicate a human being (or something of the sort). There was something about regeneration and cell growth that really interested me. As I progressed through studying the literature, I felt a deep gap between my knowledge and experience. In other words, it felt really hard to understand what I was reading in the scientific articles without physically SEEING it. This pushed me and my mentor to help find a hands-on research experience that could satisfy my never-ending thirst for experience. After emailing 137 labs, I received 1 positive response from a lab at the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, who gladly took me in as a student researcher. The lab, Nucel, was great for me to not only learn science hands-on but to really understand clinical needs within the greater medical community. Although most of my time was spent around top biomedical researchers, I also had the chance to interact with physicians, patients, and researchers of other fields as well. That’s why, while standing in the shoulders of former Harvard Graduates and some of the top researchers in Brazil and LatAm, I was able to make my goal of “duplicating a human” more realistic and decided to focus on skin healing. After 3 years of working there, I created a 1.0 prototype of a wound healing hydrogel that was based on growth factors present in your blood. The idea was that the hydrogel would stimulate your body’s own Mesenchymal Stem Cells (a type of stem cell present in your body) into creating a more efficient healing response. The focus was for diabetic foot ulcers, which I came to learn were extremely worrying complications that diabetic patients experienced almost daily. 

The prototype turned into a scientific article, and this article turned into a full-blown project. Thanks to my mentors, I was able to conduct both in-vitro tests (in cells) and in-vivo experiments (in rats) and receive positive results. This project eventually took me around LatAm and the world, having been able to get scholarships to compete in fairs throughout Brazil and the United States. I was awarded a Gold Medal (awarded to around 5% of applicants) at the 2019 GENIUS Olympiad. Unfortunately, due to some unfortunate family circumstances, I had to live alone at the young age of 16 while pursuing this project, attending school, and helping my family afford rent by working late nights at a bar. I eventually collapsed due to feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and had to take some time to recollect myself and stabilize back into family life. This meant I had to put a pause on science and on achieving my goals of attending a top college and focus on myself. 

What I later came to realize, though, is that the scientific experiences I had from an early age really gave me a head start into the tissue engineering realm, which eventually got me into Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland. At CWRU, I was selected by “the Father of Mesenchymal Stem Cells,” Arnold Caplan, who originally described these cells in 1991. He is an internationally recognized leader in the Tissue Engineering space and has done extensive work in wound healing. I emailed him wanting to get involved in his lab, receiving a positive response. I was fortunate to be the first undergraduate student in 8 years to have worked in his lab, the Skeletal Research Center (SRC). My experiences at the SRC were nothing short of amazing, having learned deep cell and tissue culture skills. Dr. Caplan and Dr. Rodrigo Somoza (a Senior Researcher at the SRC) pushed me to explore alternative applications of these Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) as opposed to only focusing on skin. I dove deep into cancer and its potential interactions with MSCs, but my passion for wound healing remained. Dr. Somoza w0uld always let me ask him questions and teach me about different quirks of MSCs. He was an extremely influential scientific mentor who, nowadays, I even consider family. My current Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Miguel Fuentes, had begun working at the SRC around this time as well. Little did I know that Miguel had worked with the University of Valparaiso (Chile) on designing a highly impactful cell therapy for wound healing in his past experiences, but like myself had to let go of them to focus on other projects… This would eventually become the heart of Artemis, our champion product. 

My wound healing projects returned around March 2021 when I got an unexpected call from my father. He had spoken to Robin Wiscovitch – the creator of the diabetic blood test strip, a true legend in medicine – who had read my paper and was interested in working together through his company, PBW Biologica. This call would essentially give me all of the confidence I needed to decide that I wanted to pursue something more serious in the wound healing realm. The fact that someone so important (who did not know me) was able to read my science, understand it, and see potential in its future was so empowering… Especially in those times when I had a hard time believing in myself as I struggled with my academics due to ADHD. 

This really helped me create the project of my lifetime – Asclepii Inc. Asclepii is a US-based medical consortium of top universities, companies, hospitals, entrepreneurs, and governments from around the world who got together to solve pressing clinical needs by connecting and employing a borderless interdisciplinary R&D force. Our current focus is on Diabetic Foot Ulcers, who affect over 30 million Americans every year and cost, on average, $4 thousand USD per wound, leading to an overall yearly burden of ~$9-$13 billion USD to the American economy. In collaboration with PBW Biologica, the University of Valparaiso (Chile), and the Technological Institute of Monterrey (Mexico), Asclepii created Artemis – a low-cost treatment for Diabetic Foot Ulcers featuring a unique patented antiseptic nanoparticle technology that can provide similar antibiotic effects at a fraction of the cost. We are now fundraising and plan to hit market by 2025. 

By combining our stories into a greater goal, we have created an international network that reaches into over 5 countries and empowers researchers, physicians, and patients alike to improve overall quality of life. 

What I particularly like about Asclepii is that we’ve shown that you don’t NEED to have a Ph.D. to create a disruptive medical innovation. Moreover, you don’t need to be the top of your class or to have earned a Nobel prize… 

In my personal opinion, and the takeaway I wish you can get from my story, is that the single most important element of success is authenticity. 

No one can do it alone, and that is okay as long as you are AUTHENTIC about it. Because that’s when we ask for help, and in that collaboration, we achieve greatness. We work best in teams, but especially in teams where each teammate can bring a unique perspective and effort to achieve a common final goal. 

At Asclepii, of course, I do science, of course, I come up with ideas, and of course, I am part of our scientific discussions… But that is not the ONLY thing I can bring to the table, as what I am particularly good at is connecting moving parts in an R&D operation to achieve a realistic operation. And EACH person in my team knows EXACTLY what they can bring and are PARTICULARLY good at bringing that one aspect. None of us can do it alone, but together we make a kickass team. 

In a very resumed form, our team can jointly IDENTIFY A NEED. Our Scientific team (which features some PhDs but intentionally has young creatives as well) can PLAN A REALISTIC SOLUTION that could help solve this need; my job in all of this is to MAKE IT HAPPEN. What partner is best for what element of our product? Where can the research happen? How much/how long do we need? And this is kind of how Asclepii works… 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
At different points in my life, I experienced homelessness and bullying that really made it hard for me to pursue my goals without feeling judged. Not knowing the next meal resulted in a bad relationship with food which was hard to overcome. Additionally, I would overwork myself to avoid the emotional burden I was experiencing due to my parent’s divorce. 

Eventually, the overworking lead me to feel disconnected from my family, which is a bit of the “darker” side of entrepreneurship. It’s important to take time for family and personal well-being, as entrepreneurship (especially in healthcare) is a marathon and not a sprint. 

Additionally, I’ve noticed that I’ve unintentionally had to sacrifice a lot of friendships and sometimes even relationships due to lack of time, emotional and professional stability, and just overall incompatibility. In short… When you’re doing something different, not everyone is going to agree or support it. And while that’s OKAY, sometimes you really have to sit down and evaluate if this person is worth spending energy on or if you’re better off focusing on your passion. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
Asclepii is a US-based medical device company that is powering a pipeline of wound-healing products that will change how you heal your wounds. 

We are particularly good at connecting researchers and opportunities internationally. If you have an idea, we can make it happen. 

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I would TOTALLY consider myself a risk taker. 

I think risk is an absolute necessity in life – especially in disruption. 

When you are doing something that is DIFFERENT – whether that is because you are not “supposed” to be the person to do it or because what you’re trying to do is not “supposed” to be a certain way – every action you take is a risk. You can never KNOW for sure if your future client will like your product or if an investor will share your vision. Startups are risky because that’s the point. 

Now, risk is not necessarily bad… It’s just uncertain. Because you don’t KNOW if someone will love or hate your product, all you can do is guess. And the more you gather information (either by LITERALLY interviewing potential customers or by conducting a deeper market analysis that identifies market needs), the better your guess will be. 

I have taken countless risks for this company that, looking back, I would completely do again. I moved out of my mom’s house at 16 because I wanted to keep doing research. I got suspended from school. I moved out to Guadalajara (Mexico) for a Summer to do research for a product that most of my professors told me was a waste of time despite having no money and no certainty that it would work. 

The thing about risk is that it puts you out of your comfort zone. And when you’re out of your comfort zone, you learn whether you like it or not. And then no future situation will ever be the same because YOU’RE not the same. Every time you fail, you learn how to do it better. And although it may not work EXACTLY the way you want it to, what you need to know is that risk can be awesome as long as you’re AUTHENTIC, REALISTIC, and PROACTIVE about it. 

Contact Info:

• Website: asclepii.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francokrais/