Mott is among a burgeoning class of women who are changing the face of equity investing in the United States. While men still make up the majority of the nation's venture capital and angel investors, women are beginning to break down the walls of the old-boys' network.

"I see women really exploding into the field both as entrepreneurs and investors, lately, in the biotech/healthcare field," observes Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that educates and supports female entrepreneurs. If women continue to gain leadership roles as equity investors, it could sharply improve opportunities for women- and minority-led start-ups in the life sciences to tap into early-stage funding - or at least that's the hope. Up until now, women just haven't been in the loop.

A recent Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation analysis published in Science underscores the point. Based on a random sample of 4,227 life scientists over a 30-year period and personal interviews with faculty scientists, the study reveals that male scientists secure patents at more than double the rate of their female colleagues. Why such a large gender gap? It's not that women conduct less significant scientific research, but compared with their male colleagues, senior female scientists lack social networks and exposure to the commercial sector, the authors found.

"What we're finding in early innovation and entrepreneurship is that it is much more about social networks than anything else - and mentoring," says Lesa Mitchell, vice president of advancing innovation at the Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation, which works to promote entrepreneurship in the United States. "Women simply don't seem to have the commercial social networks and mentors that men do."

"If they don't have the social networks and they're not participating in commercialization, they're not going to be making progress as investors and entrepreneurs," adds Marianne Hudson, executive director of the Angel Capital Education Foundation and entrepreneurship director of the Kauffman Foundation.