Dr. Irena King

Dr. Irena King, PhD founded Surgicure Technologies after seeing how many lifesaving medical breakthroughs never make it out of the lab. She began her journey at just 20 years old while studying neuroscience at American University. After discovering a shelved airway technology developed at Brooke Army Medical Center, she cold-called the Army’s tech transfer office and spent nearly two years securing a license, founding Surgicure in 2020. Today, Surgicure is a medical device platform transforming military medical breakthroughs into the new standard of care. Its first device, the HORSESHOE™, is the first face-free airway security device, with zero adverse events across patients treated at Mass General Brigham and on the frontlines in Ukraine. Irena took the HORSESHOE™ from military lab to market in six years on less than $2.4 million, versus an industry standard of 10–15 years and tens of millions of dollars, while building nationwide distribution, federal procurement access, and a 120+ hospital pipeline. With the model validated and infrastructure in place, Surgicure is scaling across its next cohort of military-born devices, repeating the playbook with a target of moving each from license to market in two years. Surgicure has completed Techstars, MassChallenge, and Tampa Bay Wave, among other accelerators. Irena built Surgicure as a solo founder while earning her PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from MIT and Harvard Medical School as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, with research spanning Alzheimer’s vaccine development and HIV biomarker discovery. She also holds a Healthcare Certificate from MIT Sloan. Her honors include MedTech World Startup of the Year for North America, SXSW Pitch Healthcare winner, TechCrunch Disrupt Top 200 and Top 9 in Biotech, Becker’s Great Leaders in Healthcare and Rising Stars, and the Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. Beyond Surgicure, Irena founded Sovereign Solutions, mentors through MassChallenge and TiE Boston, serves on the SXSW Advisory Board, and writes a newsletter for the next generation of interdisciplinary founders. She is a classically trained pianist, equestrian jumper, avid baker, and Boston Marathon finisher.