Beyond a first name, Michael Greeley and Michael Cima, Ph.D., share a 30-year friendship marked by innovative ideas and transformative products. During those three decades, they have collaborated in creating four biotechnology companies — T2 Biosystems, Springleaf Therapeutics, MicroCHIPS, and Taris Biomedical.
The duo will headline a special panel at ADA Forsyth Institute’s dentech 2025, where the brightest minds in oral health investment, regulation, advocacy, and research will convene on Oct. 9-10 in Somerville, Massachusetts.
On the surface, Greeley, Co-Founder and General Partner at Flare Capital, and Prof. Cima, professor of materials science and imaging at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are each “outsiders” to the dental space; they invest and innovate, respectively, in many other spaces. A wider view of their journey shows this duo’s unique perspective: Greeley has served on ADA Forsyth’s Board of Directors for nearly six years, while Prof. Cima trained many top dental materials scientists and engineers, including ADA Forsyth COO/CSO Dr. Ben Wu. In the early 2000s, Prof. Cima helped develop an intraoral scanner which was later acquired by 3M.
They will reunite for “M&M: A Conversation Between Inventor and Investor” during Day 2 of dentech 2025 on Oct. 10. ADA Forsyth sat down with these oral health “outsiders” to learn more about their outlook on the oral health investment space, opportunities for medical-dental integration, and the greater industry’s untapped potential.
Parallel worlds
While a large breadth of research has demonstrated many key links between oral and overall health, the medical and dental industries remain decidedly separate.
“[The dental space] is a parallel universe to healthcare,” Greeley said. “I’m surprised how many healthcare investors don’t think of dentistry every day. As we think about our opportunity set, it should clearly include dentistry.”
Medical-dental integration could bring many opportunities to bridge those parallel lines. Dental care provides rich touchpoints with patients, with nearly 20 million Americans more willing to see their dentist than their primary care provider.
Another clear opportunity for connection between oral and overall health care delivery lies with Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialists. While oral health needs can be related to ENT care, the separation of medical and dental care is a barrier.
“It seems like the dental office should be part of the equation when you have various healthcare services involved in treatment of certain conditions,” Prof. Cima said. “New technology could make these things practical.”
Convening the oral health ecosystem
While they are outsiders to the oral health investment space, Greeley and Prof. Cima are consummate experts in investment and innovation. They will share their perspective on opportunities to invest in oral health, how technology can transform oral health, and how barriers in dentistry can be broken.
“The brilliance of these types of events is that you’re elucidating clinical issues, workflow issues, administrative issues, from every point of the compass,” Greeley said. “You have capital, innovators, management, and entrepreneurs trying to solve them. That’s the power of an event like dentech.”
Join dentech 2025 on Oct. 9-10 to learn from these experts and many others. While in-person attendance is completely sold out, registration for virtual participation is still available.
