Mount Sinai's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, where she was enrolled in the PhD in Biomedical Sciences program (Genetics and Genomic Sciences), would be the ideal platform for this ambitious and resourceful student to change that track record. Today, Amy Divaraniya, PhD, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oova, Inc., a hormone testing diagnostic company she launched in 2017.
Amy Divaraniya, PhD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oova, Inc.
Dr. Divaraniya says she found unerring support from two faculty advisors: Eric Schadt, PhD, and Joel Dudley, PhD. “Mount Sinai does extremely well in fostering curiosity,” says Dr. Divaraniya, “and Eric and Joel took that to the next level by encouraging questions, even at lab meetings.”
Dr. Schadt currently is Dean for Precision Medicine, and Professor (and former Chair) of Genetics and Genomic Sciences. Dr. Dudley is the former Executive Vice President for Precision Health for the Mount Sinai Health System and the first director of Mount Sinai’s Institute for Next Generation Healthcare.
Dr. Divaraniya says Dr. Dudley further challenged students by holding an “Innovation Shark Tank” retreat. At the event, several dozen graduate students pitched their most innovative and enterprising ideas to a panel of faculty judges. They were given two days to create a plan of execution and the chance to win $10,000 to help launch their brainstorm.
“We drew from an enormous pool of talent to assemble a team of colleagues that included a clinical researcher, a mechanical engineer, a machine learning specialist, and an MD-PhD candidate who would later become an amazing cardiologist,” recalls Dr. Divaraniya, who had previously worked in the biotech industry. “Each brought a different perspective to solving the problem and on how to build an effective execution plan.”
That blueprint won the pitch contest, becoming the Institute’s first commercial spin-off. Significantly, it also spawned the birth of Oova, Inc., in August 2017, led by Dr. Divaraniya.
Some of her colleagues would remain as advisors when the start-up, with the assistance of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, began building the infrastructure—studies, marketing, production, and business plans—to turn Oova into a viable, marketable product with a distinct clinical advantage. A compelling target for the team was the rapidly growing population of women with busy lifestyles trying to conceive at a later age. As part of that pursuit, Dr. Divaraniya would make advanced science Oova’s competitive edge.
“Traditional fertility kits are difficult to interpret and give vague ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ results,” she explains. “Oova became the first at-home testing system to use the latest medical technology to measure luteinizing hormone, estrogen, and progesterone with lab-quality sensitivity. Moreover, it uses nanotechnology to filter specific binding, adjust for pH, and normalize hydration levels before measuring the hormones. If you’re a woman trying to conceive, Oova pinpoints your fertility window and ovulation with great precision, an approach that boosts your ability to get pregnant.” Another key advantage is the product’s ability to report results to users via their smartphones.
“My goal, frankly, isn’t to make a lot of money, but to raise the bar for women’s health to where we become the new standard of excellence, and anyone who comes after us has to at least meet or exceed what we’ve achieved.”
— Amy Divaraniya, PhD
Dr. Divaraniya spearheads the research at Oova to continually collect and mine troves of data for additional insights on reproductive disorders, hormone trends, and more. Backing this research have been US Fertility, the leading fertility network in the country, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, both of which have invested in Oova. Their work has been presented at professional conferences, where one of Dr. Divaraniya’s goals is to debunk the “false and outdated standard of a 28-day cycle,” which, as she tells her audiences, applies to only approximately 13 percent of women today.
Dr. Divaraniya reports that business results to date “have been great,” with more than 10,000 women receiving support. What’s more, Dr. Divaraniya firmly believes Oova has the energy and boundless potential to replace conventional lab work for hormone trend monitoring. Confirmation for that goal, and for the herculean effort she has put in over the past eight years to give the venture traction, recently came from Crain’s New York Business, which recognized her as one of 53 Notable Leaders in Health Care.
“It’s really humbling and validating to see that what we’re doing is making a difference,” says Dr. Divaraniya, who gave birth to a son in June 2018. “My goal, frankly, isn’t to make a lot of money, but to raise the bar for women’s health to where we become the new standard of excellence, and anyone who comes after us has to at least meet or exceed what we’ve achieved.”