Press release | bit.bio expands Board of Directors with appointment of entrepreneurs and Nobel Laureate

CAMBRIDGE, Monday 25 October 2021 — Today bit.bio welcomed three new members to its Board of Directors, who bring their respective experience of turning world class science into new industries and company growth. The new directors will provide important guidance as bit.bio scales their proprietary synthetic biology cell programming technology platform, creating products and solutions based on human cells that can transform healthcare from basic research and drug discovery to next generation cell based therapies.

Hermann Hauser will be the chair of the board. He brings valuable experience in creating entire new industries and markets through groundbreaking technologies with his experience as co-founder of Arm Ltd. holdings, a world leading UK computer chip company.

As an early investor of Solexa (now Illumina), Dr. Hauser laid the foundation for the ongoing synthetic biology revolution with technologies to read the human genome. He is also a key member of the Cambridge science and technology community, as well as a trusted innovation advisor of the UK government. Dr. Hauser is a fellow of the Royal Society, KBE and co-founder of the venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners.

 

“I believe bit.bio is well positioned to become one of the defining companies in the synthetic biology field, and I am very excited to take the position of chair of the board. I see world changing potential in their technology and look forward to bringing my experience and expertise to the leadership team. 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.”

Hermann Hauser

Chair of the board | bit.bio

Sir Gregory Winter is a Nobel prize winning scientist who invented technologies for making therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, and was directly involved in their industrial development, notably through the start up company Cambridge Antibody Technology Ltd.

His inventions underpin many of the therapeutic antibodies in development and on the market, including blockbuster 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. 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.”

Sir Gregory Winter

Board member | bit.bio

Alan S. Roemer will bring his entrepreneurial expertise from the biotechnology sector to bit.bio. As a life sciences executive and board director, he will offer meaningful capital markets and operational business building experience to ensure that bit.bio is well-financed and well-positioned to scale.

Mr. Roemer has launched four multi-billion dollar biotechnology companies, raised over $1.75 billion in private and public capital, and consummated five IPOs. He was a founding leadership team member of Pharmasset (acquired by Gilead Sciences for $11 billion ) and Roivant Sciences, a company developing innovative medicines through a novel form of industrial organisation in R&D. His experience at Roivant is particularly relevant to bit.bio’s strategy to build its cell coding technology opti-ox into multiple verticals where human cells are applied to research, drug discovery and cell therapies. In addition to serving as a member of the board, Mr. Roemer will chair the audit and compensation committees.

 

“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.”

Alan Roemer

Board member | bit.bio