Ishita M. Shah, PhD is the CEO and co-founder of Matrubials, a spin-out from UC Davis, Foods for Health Institute and an infectious diseases scientist by training. As the Associate Director (Microbial Programs) at FFHI, she investigated the role of milk components in human health, specifically in terms of infectious diseases, leading to the founding of Matrubials. Previously, Dr. Shah has worked at Genentech (Senior researcher, infectious diseases) and Columbia University (Postdoctoral scientist), receiving several awards (PhD thesis prize UMBC '05, Nat Sternberg outstanding thesis award/ key researcher Genentech/ speaker).