A co-founder of chipmaking giant Arm has been appointed chairman of Cambridge MedTech bit.bio.
Dr Hermann Hauser is a serial entrepreneur, having also co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners and gene-sequencing company Solexa, now known as Illumina.
He will help guide the company as it scales its synthetic biology cell programming technology platform.
bit.bio aims to create products and solutions based on human cells that can transform healthcare from basic research and drug discovery to cell-based therapies.
“I see world-changing potential in their technology and look forward to bringing my experience and expertise to the leadership team,” said Hauser.
“I want to see bit.bio grow into an iconic Cambridge company, creating jobs and new industries, and most importantly, bringing the next generation of medicines to patients.”
Sir Greg Winter, Nobel-winning scientist and known for his work on monoclonal antibodies, is the founder of multiple successful BioTech companies and will also join the board of directors.
His inventions underpin many of the therapeutic antibodies in development and on the market, including drugs such as Humira, Herceptin, Avastin and Keytruda.
More recently, through Bicycle Therapeutics, he has been helping to develop another invention – the use of bicyclic peptides as a platform for novel therapeutics.
“I think we are still in the foothills when it comes to the use of human cells for therapeutic applications, and I am excited to join bit.bio on their journey to the peaks,” he said.
“With access to potentially unlimited numbers of human cells at defined states of differentiation, we could do so much more for patients – whether researching difficult to treat, complex diseases, screening potential drugs on human cells, or developing precision cell therapies at an affordable cost.
“And the opti-ox technology seems to offer a realistic path to scale those peaks.”
Gooch joins AI software company Aveni as chief revenue officer
A further addition is Alan S. Roemer, a biotechnology entrepreneur who launched Pharmasset and Roivant Sciences, and has raised over $1.75 billion in private and public capital – and consummated five IPOs.
He said: “bit.bio is at that exciting stage of growth and evolution that I have been through several times before.
“It fuels my entrepreneurial spirit with the ‘fun factor’ of company expansion and cultural impact. I am excited to help the leadership team ‘see around corners’ using my experience from my other high-growth companies.
“Most importantly, I want to provide meaningful guidance to finance and scale the business, exploit the full potential of bit.bio’s core technology and have the potential to positively impact patients’ lives.”