LEXINGTON, Mass., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Microbia Precision Engineering, Inc. (Microbia) announced today that it has expanded its senior management team and bioproduct commercialization capabilities with the appointments of Gaye Bok as Senior Director of Commercial Development and Sam Zeller as Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs.
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Microbia's initial focus is on developing specialty chemicals based on a proprietary biomanufacturing platform. The company's pipeline includes two carotenoid products for use in human and animal nutrition markets that are traditionally manufactured from petrochemical-derived raw materials. Currently at the commercialization stage, Microbia believes its natural fermentation-based processes for these products offer significant cost advantages over traditional chemical synthesis methods, with the additional advantage of being based on renewable raw materials.
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"The recruitment of Gaye Bok and Sam Zeller to fill these important new senior management positions is a key step as Microbia moves rapidly toward market introduction of its first products," said Richard Bailey, Ph.D., CEO of Microbia. "Gaye will play a pivotal role in building the Microbia product portfolio, formulating commercialization strategy, and bringing Microbia's products to market in a way that maximizes the commercial potential of our innovative metabolic engineering platform. Sam will be responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance and overseeing approval of our novel bioproducts in U.S. and international markets."
Gaye Bok brings to Microbia an accomplished management record, with more than 13 years of experience leading business development, strategic planning, and new product development, and particular expertise in global specialty chemicals and bio-energy. Ms. Bok was most recently Director of Business Development at Synthetic Genomics, where she developed and negotiated research collaborations. Prior to that, Ms. Bok held various senior management positions including managing business development for Cabot Corporation, a global specialty chemical company. She holds an M.B.A. in Finance and International Management from MIT's Sloan School of Management.
Sam Zeller joins Microbia with a wealth of U.S. and international regulatory experience gained over two decades working with companies that produce biotechnology-based nutritional products. Prior to joining Microbia, he served as Director of Regulatory Affairs at Martek Biosciences Corporation, where he directed pre- and post-marketing activities and submissions for a variety of food ingredients, dietary supplements, and animal feed ingredients. Previously, he held various positions with responsibility for developing and implementing global regulatory strategy and ensuring quality, labeling, and advertising compliance for companies including OmegaTech and Nutrasweet Kelco. Dr. Zeller received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota.
ABOUT MICROBIA PE (www.microbia-pe.com)
Microbia is an industrial biotechnology company applying proprietary metabolic engineering approaches to create novel, commercially valuable specialty ingredients and biomaterials. Microbia's products are generated from renewable raw materials and either replace existing petrochemical-derived counterparts in a cost-effective manner, or introduce new industrial chemicals with applications as novel biomaterials. Microbia is commercializing its technology through internal product development programs as well as strategic alliances, including an ongoing multiproduct joint development and commercialization agreement with Tate & Lyle Investments, Ltd. Microbia was established in 2006 as a majority-owned subsidiary of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and is based in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Contact: Mary Moynihan M2Friend Biocommunications 802.951.9600 [email protected]
SOURCE Microbia Precision Engineering, Inc.
