William Ona

William Ona is a University Innovation Fellow pursuing his Masters Degree in Biomedical Engineering at St. Louis University. He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Sim Solutions LLC, a medical device company that specializes in creating synthetic skins used to help train medical students in learning how to perform certain surgical procedures. Ona is originally from Houston, TX and moved to St. Louis, MO in 2013. He was exposed to the University Innovation Fellows in 2017.

At Saint Louis University, William has worked several jobs for the University both in his undergraduate and graduate careers. Much of his time was spent doing research in Organic Chemistry and Tissue Engineering labs. In 2016, he took an Engineering Entrepreneurship class, and he suddenly became aware of the startup related oppertunites in St. Louis. He then worked with MEDlaunch, a local group of students who helped support other students trying to start medical startups, to start a medical device company called Sim Solutions LLC. Using connections he made with MEDlaunch, William and his team were able to develop a skin substitute product used for training medical students, and have since been able to make their first sale to the Saint Louis University Medical School.