Humans of HealthTech: In Conversation with Maria Chatzou Dunford, CEO & Co-Founder of Lifebit

In the rapidly evolving world of HealthTech, few leaders embody both the scientific depth and human-centred vision shaping the future as clearly as Dr. Maria Chatzou Dunford, CEO and Co-Founder of Lifebit. Her company has grown exponentially in recent years, pioneering secure, AI-powered platforms that make complex biological data usable for research, diagnostics, and drug discovery.

As part of the Humans of HealthTech campaign, we sat down with Maria for a candid conversation about her inspiration, the breakthroughs driving her work, and her bold vision for a future where every person—including every grandmother, as she puts it—can benefit from personalised, preventative healthcare.

“First and foremost, Lifebit is a security company.”

When asked how she explains her work to older family members, Maria laughs softly before offering a remarkably simple definition for such a complex field:

“Above all, we ensure that human data is safe. That’s the number one thing we do.

After that, we make the data usable—so researchers, clinicians, and drug discovery teams can securely access it and turn it into action.”

Lifebit sits at the intersection of data security, artificial intelligence, and biomedical research. The company does not simply store or analyse data; it creates the infrastructure that allows experts to responsibly harness sensitive human information for discoveries that can transform lives.

A childhood fascination that led to a breakthrough career

Maria’s path to biotechnology didn’t begin in a lab—it began with the stars.

“As a child, I was fascinated by the mysteries of the universe. I wanted to be an astronaut or astrophysicist. Eventually I realised that there is a whole universe inside each cell of our body—one we understood even less than outer space.”

This fascination led her to computational biology, and later, to identifying a major problem during her PhD:

researchers were spending more than 80% of their time wrestling with data, not analysing it.

She and her co-founder began building open-source tools to solve this. Their adoption spread from their research group, to academic communities, to industry—and soon, companies were asking to collaborate. It became clear that the world was unprepared for the explosion of biological data ahead.

“That was the insight that made me realise we needed Lifebit. The data was coming—and no one had the technology to handle it.”

Impact that can save thousands of lives

For Maria, the heart of her work is deeply human.

She speaks with palpable emotion about a recent breakthrough Lifebit helped enable—developed with Genomics England, Cambridge University, and Professor Serena Nik-Zainal. The study, now published and widely covered, supports one of the most significant advances in precision oncology to date.

“This research can already help save more than 15,000 women every year in the UK by tailoring their cancer treatment. Knowing we played a part in that… that’s what motivates me the most.”

But the impact is not just in outcomes; it’s also in the people she works alongside.

“I get to collaborate with some of the smartest, kindest, most brilliant humans—people genuinely transforming life as we know it. That is a privilege I never take for granted.”

The future of healthcare: four waves colliding

Maria describes the present moment in healthcare as a convergence of four massive revolutions:

1. Data generation (from genomics to wearables)

2. Artificial intelligence

3. High-performance computing (GPUs, CPUs, quantum computing)

4. Human knowledge, growing faster than ever in history

“For the first time, we have enough knowledge. More than any generation before us—and it's increasing exponentially. When these four waves collide, imagination itself falls short.

We can now act on more ideas than we can imagine.”

She draws a parallel to the early days of Apple, Google, and Microsoft—when several technological shifts converged to redefine the world.

But for her, one guiding principle matters above all:

“Steve Jobs understood that technology only matters when it becomes usable for everyday humans.

My dream is that one day every grandmother can use an application that helps them take charge of their health—not just treating disease, but preventing it.”

From treatment to prevention: a new paradigm

Today, 95% of healthcare focuses on treating disease rather than preventing it. Maria hopes her four-year-old daughter will grow up in a world where this is reversed.

“I want a future where 80–90% of healthcare is prevention.

A future where people have personalised tools to understand and manage their health long before disease appears.

Ten years ago, this sounded like science fiction. Today, with the technologies emerging, it’s becoming achievable within our own generation.”

The role of AI: usability, security, and democratisation

Looking ahead to the HealthTech Global Summit, Maria highlights four AI-driven areas she believes will spark meaningful conversations:

• AI for making data usable:  The biggest bottleneck in biomedical research is not analysis—it’s preparing data in the first place.

• AI for trusted, secure research: “If we’re not a security company first, nothing else matters. Humans must trust their data is safe.”

• AI for faster drug discovery: Accelerating the journey from insight to treatment.

• AI for democratisation: Perhaps the subject closest to her heart. “No one needs yet another powerful AI for experts, what we need is AI that empowers non-experts—the everyday clinicians, the first-line practitioners, the people who need these tools the most.”

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A closing reflection

Speaking with Maria feels like catching a glimpse of the future—not a distant, speculative one, but a rapidly approaching reality shaped by people who believe technology must ultimately serve humanity. Her vision is not only ambitious; it is deeply personal.

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