Ryla<\/a> in 2024 with one mission in mind: building community. This year, she showed up for the Philly ecosystem in more ways than just her app, participating in community events such as Founders Alley, the Lion Cage pitch competition and Founders Live.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cThis past year, through countless conversations with community builders, I\u2019ve seen just how urgent and widespread this need [for community] is,\u201d Tretiak said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She is building Ryla to help businesses, community groups, clubs, schools and other orgs plan in-person opportunities to connect and keep in touch with each other. Tretiak believes community building can lead to meaningful returns on investment, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2026, her focus will be on getting more people to use her platform and encouraging company leaders to embrace the need for community.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bob-christmas-final.jpg\")
Robert Christmas (Courtesy Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center)<\/p>\n
Christmas is an active advocate for the life sciences ecosystem in Pennsylvania, both online and in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, I am most proud of being part of a scientific community that is built on the idea of helping others live longer and healthier lives,\u201d he told Technical.ly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his role as COO of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center, he provides guidance and support to early-stage companies developing treatments and therapies through events and programming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the coming year, he is looking forward to seeing some behind-the-scenes ideas come to fruition and supporting the commonwealth\u2019s life sciences community, he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/HiveBio-Showcase-scaled.jpg\")
HiveBio Accelerator 2025 cohort at its Investor Showcase (Courtesy HiveBio) <\/p>\n
Launched in 2025, this accelerator for Philly region-based underrepresented life sciences founders selected its first cohort \u2014 and HiveBio participants are already seeing results.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The nine-month program concluded this month with an investor showcase, where it shared that 8 out of 10 of the cohort\u2019s companies raised funding, half of which were at least $500,000 checks, according to Becky Beattie, CEO of LaunchBio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the accelerator, founders repeatedly met with investors and mentors, building long-lasting relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to expand our offerings and provide additional resources, like no-cost shared lab space for startups participating in HiveBio,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DavidWest-Proscia.png\")
David West (Courtesy Proscia)<\/p>\n
Digital health company Proscia raised $50 million this spring, which it partially used to solidify its presence in Philadelphia by expanding its Center City team, according to CEO David West.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year, the company also added new customers, incorporated AI into its tools and launched a new product that uses pathology data to inform drug development, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Philly, that builds up the ecosystem\u2019s healthtech workforce and boosts the region\u2019s life sciences reputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2025, we\u2019ve had a record number of go-lives,\u201d West said. \u201cIn 2026, we get to watch our customers realize the full power of pathology AI at scale across therapeutic development and diagnostics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grab the confetti, Philly. It\u2019s time to celebrate the tech ecosystem\u2019s wins from 2025.\u00a0 For this year\u2019s Technical.ly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9747,69,71,70,22949],"class_list":{"0":"post-55861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","11":"tag-philadelphia-news","12":"tag-technical-ly-awards"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/STEMEd-directory.png\")
The Philadelphia STEM Education Directory showcases science programming across the city (Screenshot)<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Michael-Bertoni-and-Liam-Fitzgerald-Saas-and-Tech-scaled.jpg\")
Michael Bertoni and Liam Fitzgerald (Courtesy SaaS Talent)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Meredith-Tretiak_headshot.jpeg\")
Meredith Tretiak (Courtesy)<\/p>\n