BioTech firm Nuclera has appointed a new non-executive chairman in Dr Jonathan Milner.
The Cambridge company is a pioneer in rapid protein prototyping through its eProtein Discovery benchtop system.
The firm’s technology aims to accelerate breakthrough improvements in human health by enabling pharmaceutical companies to rapidly produce high-quality, soluble and active proteins.
Nuclera is also based in Boston, Massachusetts, with a team of 100+ employees including scientists, engineers and software developers.
Dr Milner joins Nuclera’s board with a wealth of experience as the founder and former CEO of Abcam, an eCommerce company specialising in antibodies.
That firm expanded to become one of Britain’s most successful BioTech companies and was recently acquired by Danaher, a US conglomerate, for $5.7 billion.
Dr Milner, 58, is also an experienced life science investor who participated in Nuclera’s Series B financing round in 2021.
Working directly with co-founders Dr Michael Chen, Dr Jiahao Huang and Dr Gordon McInroy, he joins Nuclera after it announced partnerships with Google Cloud’s AlphaFold2 and AI partner DeepMirror – collaborations which it hopes will accelerate the start of the drug discovery process by more than 20x, saving companies millions of dollars every year.
“We are thrilled to have Jonathan join the Nuclera team. He is a titan in the life sciences industry and we are delighted to have him on board as we grow from strength to strength,” said Dr Chen, CEO.
“I look forward to working with him and sharing our ideas on how Nuclera’s technology can be best used to accelerate breakthrough improvements in human health.”
Dr Milner added: “Nuclera is pioneering a solution which has been long sought after. The ability to screen multiple protein expression and purification profiles and deliver reliable proteins in-hand in less than 48 hours will revolutionise laboratory workflows and make a demonstrable impact in terms of time to publish in academia and drug discovery timelines.
“I am delighted to join the Nuclera team as they bring the eProtein Discovery to the market.”