Rising Leader Therese Liechtenstein is playing an integral part in the creation and financing of multiple companies in the M Ventures portfolio, guiding them towards key value inflection points that a potential partner or acquirer would like to see.

This Month's Profile Group: Closing In On An Artificial Pancreas, features profiles of Beta-O2, Defymed, and Pancreum. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Biogelx, COTA, Kesios Therapeutics, and OtoKinetics.

Medtronic may be the front-runner in the race to market, but a number of medtech start-ups hope investors will find merit in their innovative technologies. Profiles of Beta-O2, Defymed, and Pancreum.

Defymed Inc.’s MAILPAN (MAcro-encapsulation of PANcreatic Islets) is a bioartificial pancreas that can use a broader pool of cell types while protecting the cells from rejection by the immune system.