Experienced, Expert, Elite

Debra Toburen leads product at TLR+, translating customer needs into what engineering builds, and has driven the Envision platform from concept through launch, building the product management function and aligning engineering, AI/ML, and scientific teams around customer priorities. That focus on usability helped drive a 100% pilot-to-commercial conversion rate, and Envision has drawn consistent praise for how easy it is to use, a rare compliment in a category defined by complicated data. With 15+ years building scientific software and AI/ML-enabled SaaS platforms across bioinformatics, spatial biology, and preclinical research, including roles at QIAGEN, Agilent, and Amgen, Toburen is known for breaking down complex technical problems into solvable pieces that create real customer value. She holds an MBA from Saint Mary’s College of California and a BS in Microbiology from Washington State University. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, backpacking, and traveling.

Manny Ruidiaz leads the technical strategy behind TLR+’s machine learning and data platform. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and now based in Davis, California, he spends time outside of work cooking, hiking, and traveling with family. At TLR+, Ruidiaz has taken computer vision and data infrastructure from early prototypes to enterprise-scale systems, and has driven Envision’s evolution from proof of concept into a platform spanning 20+ ML pipeline components and the validation framework proving its outputs are scientifically accurate. With 25+ years spanning life sciences, agriculture, and scientific computing, including roles at Corteva Agriscience, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and Sanford Burnham Prebys, Ruidiaz describes his strength as creating momentum and moving projects from ambiguity to production while building for scale, guided by his favorite quote from Voltaire: “Il meglio è l’inimico del bene”—“The best is the enemy of the good.” He holds a PhD in Bioengineering from UC San Diego.

Natalie Bratcher-Petersen leads partnerships at TLR+, building collaborations across pharma, biotech, and academia, with a primary focus on managing the Digital In Vivo Alliance (DIVA), a consortium advancing digital measures in preclinical research. She is proudest of growing DIVA into a trusted community delivering real value to its members, work rooted in 20+ years at Abbott and AbbVie building the company’s global 3Rs program. She holds a Master’s in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences from Illinois State University and she excels at connecting people, science, and strategy, guided by a philosophy to stay curious, ask questions, and be kind, a lesson reinforced daily by parenting her four-year-old son. She is most excited by the goal of revealing biological responses as dynamic trajectories rather than isolated snapshots, improving reproducibility and translational success across preclinical research.

Laura Schaevitz leads data quality at TLR+, focused on delivering the best possible data to users, and she reframed how validation works in the digital in vivo platform space through the creation of LENS. Schaevitz’s expertise is recognizing patterns in data and processes to extract key signals, and simplifying complex ideas so others can act on them, skills that shaped her prior work leading Recursion’s internal R&D across neuroscience, immunology, and oncology, and co-founding Vium to bring Envision-like technology to basic science and drug discovery. She holds a BA in Neuroscience from Wellesley College and a PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University. Schaevitz is motivated by multiomics data’s potential to unravel the mysteries of biology in order to move beyond treating symptoms and toward actually curing diseases. Outside of work, she is a trail runner who coaches Girls on the Run, raises puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and is training to become a Search and Rescue volunteer.

Beena Agarwal leads the team building and operating Envision at TLR+, turning continuous animal-behavior data into insights researchers can act on, and joined mid-launch with an early focus on de-risking the release and ensuring a stable, timely rollout. Agarwal’s approach to complex problems is to break them apart, dig into the why, and truly understand the details before committing to a solution, then iterate and adjust from there, favoring progress over perfection. That mindset comes from 13+ years as an engineering leader scaling teams at Electronic Arts, Discord, Clover Health, and Collective Health, where Agarwal led the machine learning product that surfaces patient insights to providers at the point of care. She has a background in computer engineering and is guided by the belief that great leaders are “clock builders, not time tellers.” Originally from Mumbai and Cincinnati, Agarwal now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and five-year-old son, and can often be found testing new recipes on her family.

Kevin Harada leads hardware at TLR+, bringing a startup mentality built over 12 years in preclinical mouse rack device development, including as employee number one at TLR Ventures, where he helped shape every generation of DAX from Gen1 through Gen3, with Gen2’s scalable architecture standing out as a particular point of pride. Harada describes his strength as pairing technical depth with the ability to connect information in novel ways, letting him move quickly across a wide range of needs and stakeholder priorities to find solutions fast, a mindset reflected in his approach to problem-solving: “falling through the problem,” testing quickly and learning from failure rather than over-planning around assumptions that might be wrong. Before TLR+, Harada was employee number five at Mousera/Vium, rising to Head of Hardware before its sale to Recursion, and earlier founded Applied Exergy, using low-grade heat and an ice slurry to power a grid-level battery system. Harada holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University with a specialty in power systems. Originally from Junction City, Oregon, Harada now spends his time outside of work exploring the Bay Area’s food scene, 3D printing, and enjoying the outdoors with family.