Bio
Suelin Chen is the founder and CEO of Cake, the largest platform for navigating mortality and honoring life. Cake serves over 2 million people each month and is trusted by top organizations in financial services, insurance, and healthcare.
She has been honored as one of the most influential people in care and Fortune 40 under 40.
For several years Suelin advised life science companies on their M&A, partnering, and commercial strategy at IMS Health. Her knowledge of healthcare systems in different global markets fueled her interest in helping people think about their preferences for medical treatments, particularly near the end of life.
As Director of The Laboratory at Harvard, Suelin mentored hundreds of Harvard students with ideas for startup companies, social impact organizations, and art projects. She was also a technology transfer postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, appointed through the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
After studying biology as an undergraduate at MIT and then engineering at Ecole Polytechnique in France, her Ph.D. research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital combined her research interests and focused on developing medical imaging technologies that could gather prognostic information for cancer. As she developed ways to use imaging to make therapeutic decisions, Suelin was first exposed to the concept that more medical treatment is not necessarily always better for the patient.
Suelin lives in Somerville, MA with her husband and 2 kids. She enjoys dancing, eating, writing music, and contributing to the arts community: she has been an associate member of the MIT Council for the Arts since 2012 and a member of the MIT List Visual Arts Center Advisory Committee since 2008.
She has been honored as one of the most influential people in care and Fortune 40 under 40.
For several years Suelin advised life science companies on their M&A, partnering, and commercial strategy at IMS Health. Her knowledge of healthcare systems in different global markets fueled her interest in helping people think about their preferences for medical treatments, particularly near the end of life.
As Director of The Laboratory at Harvard, Suelin mentored hundreds of Harvard students with ideas for startup companies, social impact organizations, and art projects. She was also a technology transfer postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, appointed through the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
After studying biology as an undergraduate at MIT and then engineering at Ecole Polytechnique in France, her Ph.D. research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital combined her research interests and focused on developing medical imaging technologies that could gather prognostic information for cancer. As she developed ways to use imaging to make therapeutic decisions, Suelin was first exposed to the concept that more medical treatment is not necessarily always better for the patient.
Suelin lives in Somerville, MA with her husband and 2 kids. She enjoys dancing, eating, writing music, and contributing to the arts community: she has been an associate member of the MIT Council for the Arts since 2012 and a member of the MIT List Visual Arts Center Advisory Committee since 2008.