Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash
Photo by Andrea Yip on Etsy

Andrea Yip

Founder & CEO

Luna Design and Innovation

POSITION

Founder & CEO

COMPANY

Luna Design and Innovation

COUNTRY

Canada

SCENE

Technology

SOCIAL

LinkedIn

Twitter

What makes Andrea Yip a Global Shaker?

Design strategist, scientist and public health practitioner Andrea Yip is CEO and Founder of Luna Design and Innovation, which helps biotech companies plan research missions to space.

The Toronto-based company’s goal is to advance human health by “accelerating scientific discovery in space-based environments.”

This will involve working with companies to identify the best approach for investing in space-based research. Luna, set up in 2019, is aided in this respect by its status as global biotech partner for Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ rocket company.

Yip’s connection to space emerged earlier, through her consulting work, in which she worked with Virgin Galactic.

“I was working in pharma for several years, but at the end of 2017, I decided to leave the pharma world and I really wanted to find a way to work along the intersection of pharma, space and design, because I just believe that the future of health for humanity is in space,” Yip said in an interview with TechCrunch.

“We know that cancer cells, for instance, behave differently in short- and longer-term microgravity when it comes to the way that they metastasize.

“So being able to even acknowledge that type of insight, and try and understand ‘why’ can unlock a lot of new discovery and understanding about the way cancer actually functions.”

Yip holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Calgary, and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Toronto.

Tags: biotechnology, Canada, Space

Last updated: April 8, 2020