TEAM
Meet our inquisitive team of scientists, engineers & business professionals!
Leadership Team
Chief Executive Officer
Melissa Mugambi, MD, PhD
Dr. Melissa Mugambi is a physician, implementation scientist, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington with more than 15 years of experience advancing health technologies in primary care and low-resource settings. Her work focuses on translating innovations in diagnostics and preventive health into scalable, real-world solutions, with expertise spanning implementation science, health economics, market assessment, and commercialization. Through previous roles at the CDC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she developed deep experience in infectious disease modeling and diagnostic development. Her current work supports entrepreneurship and technology translation while advancing solutions for HIV, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted infections.
Co-Founder & Senior Scientific Advisor
James Lai, PhD
James Lai is Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor of Truly Technologies and an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech). He is a co-inventor of Truly’s osmosis-driven specimen processing technology, developed during his tenure in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. His research focuses on developing bioprocessing technologies, reagents, and devices for clinical diagnostics, biomolecule separation, therapeutic biologics manufacturing, and life science research. With more than a decade of experience leading collaborative and translational R&D, he has worked extensively with academic, medical, and industry partners to advance technologies toward practical applications. Dr. Lai received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, where he specialized in magnetic nanoparticle synthesis and characterization.
Co-Founder & CTO
Samuel Chen, MS, MBA
Samuel Chen is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Truly Technologies and a PhD candidate in Bioengineering at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on developing fluidic processing platforms for cell engineering, bioprocessing, and cellular analytics. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, and an MBA from Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business.
Co-Founder & CSO
Abe Wu
Abe Wu is Scientific Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Truly Technologies and a PhD student in Bioengineering at the University of Washington. His research focuses on developing biomaterials and bioprocessing technologies for cell therapy manufacturing, with an emphasis on improving the scalability, consistency, and performance of advanced cell-based therapies. He received his BS in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.
Board of Advisors
Scientific Advisor
John Hill, PhD
John Hill is a preclinical development, and development scientist with over twenty years of leadership experience in managing and applying analytical, biophysical, bioanalytical, biochemical, and bioengineering approaches to interdisciplinary research and development problems in the biopharma and academic settings. He is highly experienced in establishing, characterizing, and managing the critical quality attributes of biologic, small molecule, and cellular therapeutics; including their mechanism of action, potency, purity, and stability in support of process development, pre-formulation, formulation, drug delivery, PK/DM, and diagnostics operations.
Clinical Advisor
Paul Drain, MD, MPH, FIDSA
Paul Drain is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Global Health, Medicine (Infectious Diseases), and Epidemiology at the University of Washington, a practicing Infectious Disease physician at Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington Medical Center, and the Associate Director of the Tuberculosis Research and Training Center. His expertise is in the development, evaluation and implementation of diagnostic testing and clinic-based screening, including novel point-of-care technologies, to improve clinical care and patient-centered outcomes for tuberculosis and HIV in resource-limited settings.
Business Advisor
Christine Rousseau, PhD
​Christine Rousseau a business advisor at Truly Technologies. As an accomplished life science and innovation executive, she is skilled in business development, strategic planning, and global partnerships. Christine has experience with infectious disease diagnostics and biotechnology innovations. She has developed and implemented international strategies to drive product development, regulatory approval, supportive policy and global scale. From her experience fostering public and private sector collaborations, she has generated revenue both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
Scientific Advisor
Paul Slowey, PhD
Dr. Slowey is the Founder and Owner of Oasis Diagnostics® Corporation and its subsidiary Company, Bamburgh Marrsh LLC, each are pioneers in the area of oral fluid diagnostics and testing. He has over 36 years of experience in the clinical diagnostic and pharmaceutical industries combined. Over the years he has held positions as Director of International Sales and Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for companies that were the original pioneers in the development of saliva diagnostic rapid tests for infectious diseases, and oral fluid collection devices. He also has extensive experience in structuring strategic alliances and license agreements with both start-up and Fortune 500 companies.
Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor
Ruby Lunde
Ruby Lunde is a co-founder & scientific advisor of Truly Technologies and an Associate Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Her expertise is in bioprocessing and cell therapy product development. She received her BS in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.