Michael McRae, PhD

Dr. Michael McRae is a bioengineer focused on developing of next-generation point-of-care diagnostics and artificial intelligent (AI) biosensors. With a background in bioinstrumentation, optics, electronics, computer vision, statistical and machine learning, and software development, his goal is to enable a new standard of patient care through improving clinical decision making, establishing more efficient and automated workflows, and advancing personalized disease/wellness testing capabilities.

Michael is the co-founder and chief technologist of Custom Diagnostic Solutions, LLC, an in vitro diagnostic company that provides customers with simple, low-cost, and reliable devices for a broad range of assays and applications, including influenza A/B, respiratory syncytial virus, Lyme disease, adenovirus, strep A, legionella, and more. Based in Houston, TX, Michael is a consultant for clients seeking to develop hardware and software for AI-linked in vitro diagnostic devices. Michael has developed point-of-care diagnostics through numerous technical consulting relationships in academia and industry, has co-authored over 20 publications and patents related to in vitro diagnostics, and has given several presentations at domestic and international conferences.

Michael has served technical roles as a consultant on numerous federal grants and contracts, including several SBIR/STTR Phase I and Phase II awards. Through postgraduate research as a consultant and Visiting Scholar at New York University College of Dentistry, Michael developed a cloud-based point-of-care cytopathology brush cytology test for oral cancer, a device that combines a non-invasive oral cell sampling, multi-spectral fluorescence imaging, and machine learning to detect early stages of dysplasia and malignancy. Michael received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Rice University in 2016 under Dr. John T. McDevitt and was a 2-time Business Plan Competition awardee and a 2-time XPRIZE Finalist for his research which involved the novel integration of bioinstrumentation and clinical predictive modeling for a spectrum of cardiovascular diseases. Michael received his B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Saint Louis University. He spent 3 years at NASA Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, OH) and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) (Houston, TX) where he developed probabilistic risk models for 12 medical events that may be encountered en route to Mars.