Born into a family of physicians, Michael Chang always thought he’d follow in their footsteps. But after struggling with his first pre-med classes at Johns Hopkins University, he quickly realized an MD wasn’t in his future. 

Instead, he became an investment banker, and used his business acumen to connect people with care in different ways. At the Gates Foundation Venture Capital Fund, he worked with biotech companies treating high-burden infectious diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. He later helped found and launch Adjuvant Capital, a venture fund that makes drugs and vaccines accessible to people with limited resources. 

In 2021, Michael was introduced to NobleReach through Phil Santangelo, a Georgia Tech researcher developing inhalable treatments for infectious diseases with help from DARPA. Together, they launched Tether Therapeutics, which Michael still runs with Dr. Santangelo.

“In my experience, attempts to turn academic science into a commercial product succeed when you’re able to bring your academic collaborator along with you on that journey,” Michael says. “Sometimes that shift is as simple as reorienting the product’s positioning; other times it’s generating more data to answer investors’ questions.” Real expertise lies in identifying those gaps and finding the right solution—work that Michael and other embedded entrepreneurs pursue with help from NobleReach.