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Team SafeBite Technologies Wins 2026 EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Award

A promotional graphic on a blue gradient background celebrating the winners of the 2026 EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Award. On the left, a professional group photograph shows UCLA Fielding Executive MPH students Emily Brown, Maite Medina, and Trishna Singh standing side-by-side in matching dark blue suits. To the right, white text displays the article headline and a congratulatory message outlining their winning food safety project, SafeBite Technologies. The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Executive Programs logo sits in the bottom left corner.

19 May Team SafeBite Technologies Wins 2026 EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Award

Posted at 15:28h in News by

Congratulations to UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Executive MPH Students Emily Brown, Maite Medina, RN, and Trishna Singh, this year’s winners of the UCLA EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Competition.

Their innovative idea to launch SafeBite Technologies and develop a risk-management screening tool to help food vendors identify and stop potential contamination before it reaches the customer placed them as the 2026 winning team.

As the first commercially viable rapid, multi-pathogen lateral flow assay (LFA) strip, SafeBite™ screens for indicators of the six most consequential foodborne pathogens: Salmonella, STEC E. coli, Shigella, Listeria, Norovirus, and Campylobacter. Using the same methodology as an at‑home COVID test, a quick swab of ingredients delivers results in five minutes, giving staff real‑time risk insights without lab equipment, specialized training, or delayed off‑site testing.

The Sinaiko Business Plan Competition, which takes place during winter quarter in the second year of the EMPH program, challenges students to complete a comprehensive business plan project that draws on the program’s core business classes in Healthcare Financial Management, Healthcare Marketing, and Healthcare Strategy.

The project provides a rewarding opportunity for students to work with alumni mentors and synthesize their academic learning and professional experience to address real-world issues and opportunities.

As the students develop their business plans, each group is assigned alumni mentors, all of whom are past winners of the EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Award. A special thank you to Natalie Yragui, MPH (EMPH ‘20, Business Consultant at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine) and Aneliese Castro, JD, MPH (EMPH ‘20, Associate at Hooper, Lundy & Bookman Health Law Attorneys) who were assigned to this group as their alumni mentors.

Student teams then present their business plans during winter quarter to a panel of guest judges, first year EMPH students, alumni mentors, faculty, and staff.

Maite Medina, Trishna Singh, and Emily Brown were presented with the EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Competition Award at UCLA Health Policy and Management Alumni Association’s (HPMAA) “Leaders of Today, Leaders of Tomorrow” Annual Gala Dinner on May 18, 2026.