Aparna Agrawal, PhD, is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Auxilium Health, a Cleveland-based medtech startup pioneering next-generation smart biomaterials for hard-to-heal wounds.

Aparna earned her PhD in Polymer Engineering from the University of Akron, where she conducted the foundational biomaterial research that became the basis for Auxilium Health, also holding a Bachelor of Technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai.

Aparna served as an Entrepreneurial Lead at the NSF I-Corps Teams Program in 2022 and has been featured on the She's Ambitious AF podcast discussing her journey from academic scholar to startup founder in the medtech space.

She also serves as a Senior R&D Chemist in the Technology Leadership Development Program at Avient Corporation, and previously interned at BASF and conducted research through the Bombay Technologist Undergraduate Research Program.

Auxilium Health's technology, exclusively licensed from the University of Akron, has attracted national and international interest, secured a $275K NSF grant, raised $3.4M in seed funding, and targets over 6.5 million Americans affected by non-healing wounds.