Harsimran Kalsi: Inno Under 25

Harsimran Kalsi describes his startup, Otto Sciences, as "the Amazon and Airbnb of science."

Alongside his brother, Otto Sciences co-founder and academic lead Satvir Kalsi, Harsimran is building a marketplace designed to connect researchers with lab services, space and equipment. The brothers came up with the idea in summer 2019, after experiencing firsthand the inefficiencies of medical research and development.

Harsimran, who's now a first-year medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), has more than 2,000 research hours in cardiovascular regenerative engineering and biomedical nanotechnology. Satvir, 25, is a fourth-year MCW medical student who has done research in neurosurgery, machine learning and diagnostic radiology.

Otto Sciences is designed to make it easier for early-stage biotechnology companies, scientists, physicians and laboratories to get connected with the resources they need to conduct experiments. The company is piloting an initial version of the platform with 15 users and 23 listings valued at nearly $800,000 per month in inventory and services.

"Because we're a two-sided marketplace, you know, our initial focus is solving that chicken and egg problem," Kalsi said. "We're ... focusing on seeding the supply side of the marketplace."

It currently takes an average of 17 years to have research go from a lab to a clinical therapy that can actually help a patient, according to Harsimran. Otto Sciences is aiming to speed up the experimentation process by making the research and development industry more efficient.

As an active member of Milwaukee's startup community, Harsimran has taken Otto Sciences through multiple local entrepreneurship programs, including the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corp. program, the gBETA Milwaukee accelerator, the MKE Tech Hub Coalition's startup workshop series FOR-M and the Milky Way Tech Hub accelerator.

In May, Otto Sciences was among six FOR-M alumni companies selected to receive a $10,000 grant from the MKE Tech Hub Coalition and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

Whether he pursues a future career in entrepreneurship, as a practicing physician or a combination of the two, Kalsi said one of his main ambitions is to leverage science, technology and medicine to improve people's lives.

"If we can get good therapeutics out faster and cure diseases, if we can use science to make the standard of living better ... that's a very good thing," Kalsi said.

Harsimran Kalsi