Eldin Rostom is the CEO and Co-Founder of Diag-Nose.io, a Melbourne based company improving clinical management and drug discovery for chronic respiratory diseases.
How did Diag-nose.io come about?
Diagnose started from a deeply personal place for me. I was born with a rare disease called Toxoplasmosis, which meant I spent a lot of my childhood in and out of hospitals in Mauritius. I saw, early on, how painful and isolating chronic illness can be—especially when access to care is limited or ineffective. That experience gave me a sense of responsibility: if I could ever do something to stop others from going through what I did, I would.
After studying engineering at Curtin University and working in several medical device startups, I was selected for the Stanford Biodesign program. That was a turning point. Alongside my co-founders—three incredibly experienced neurosurgeons—we focused on identifying an unmet need in healthcare. We looked into respiratory disorders, which affect 1 in 3 Australians and cause thousands of preventable deaths each year. As someone who also lives with mild asthma, the stories we heard from patients really hit home.
We came away with a key insight: patients may look the same clinically, but they’re biologically different. And unless we can understand their biology—DNA, RNA, proteins—we’ll never be able to accurately predict treatment response or personalise care. That’s where Diagnose began.
What is your why?
My "why" is simple: I don’t want people to suffer when they don’t have to.
Growing up, I saw children worse off than me—some in wheelchairs, some deaf and mute—all fighting the same disease. I was one of the lucky ones. That left me with a deep desire to use whatever skills I have to make a difference.
I’ve learned I have two strengths: I can learn complex information quickly and speak the language of both scientists and everyday people. That’s helped me bridge disciplines and push forward ideas that might otherwise get stuck in translation.
At the end of the day, I want to build tools that help people get the right treatment faster—so they can breathe easier, live longer, and enjoy life.
What could Diagnose achieve in the future?
Our big mission—the moonshot—is to eliminate respiratory disorders forever.
That’s ambitious, but we’ve broken it down into three horizons:
- First, we’re working with researchers and pharmaceutical companies to help them better understand how and why therapies work—or fail.
- Second, we’re developing diagnostic tools for clinics, so doctors can personalise treatments and reduce therapy failure rates.
- Third, we’re using the data we collect to help discover new, life-saving medicines. If we succeed, we might one day develop a vaccine for asthma and other respiratory diseases.
We’re not there yet, but every step we take gets us closer.
How is Breakthrough Victoria helping?
Breakthrough Victoria has been game-changing for us. Their investment is helping us grow our team, scale our research, and keep our operations rooted in Victoria. Thanks to them, we’ve got scientists, engineers, biostatisticians, and more—all working together in our lab. And we’re planning to double or even triple our team in the next few years.
But BV has done more than write a cheque. They believe in the power of patient, science-driven capital to tackle society’s hardest problems—like healthcare, climate, and food security. That philosophy aligns perfectly with how we see the world and our role in it.
Their due diligence process was intense, but it made us stronger. It also gave us a level of credibility that made raising the rest of our funding round much easier. With their support, we’re not just building a company—we’re laying the foundation for something that could truly change the world.