Microbiome Biotech Company BiomEdit Appoints Chairman and Board of Directors

Board composed of executive leaders with deep expertise across animal health, human health and financial sectors

FISHERS, Ind. (Feb. 9, 2023) – Today, Animal Health’s most advanced microbiome company, BiomEdit, announced the appointment of its first full Board of Directors, led by longtime Animal Health executive leader, Patrick James, as Chairman. The board is comprised of five senior executive leaders with a diverse mix of experiences across Animal Health, Human Health and Financial sectors, as well as previous board and governance experience.

The BiomEdit Board of Directors will provide oversight and guidance on the strategic direction of the company. BiomEdit, established in April 2022 in a carve-out from Elanco Animal Health (NYSE: ELAN), is a venture-backed start-up focused on the discovery and development of animal health products that leverage microbiome science to improve animal health, animal protein production and livestock disease monitoring. It began with contributions of assets and technology from Elanco and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) and a successful $40M Series A funding round with Ferment, Viking Global Investors, and Anterra Capital.

“We are delighted such a distinguished group of insightful leaders have agreed to help us shepherd in the next era of microbiome innovation as members of the BiomEdit Board of Directors,” said Aaron Schacht, president and CEO of BiomEdit, also serving as a board member. “Their top-tier public company, start-up and board experience will further accelerate our growth and innovation of solutions to some of the most important problems in animal agriculture, food security and pet health by leveraging the potential of the microbiome.”

Pat James, former chairman and CEO of Micronutrients at The Heritage Group, former president of Elanco Animal Health and a former executive at Eli Lilly and Company, leads the BiomEdit Board of Directors in the role of Chairman. He also currently serves as a board member for The Nature Conservancy, formerly served on the board of Epogee, an Indiana-based food technology company, and co-founded Teichos Laboratories, a technology company dedicated to improving animal health vaccine effectiveness.

“The BiomEdit scientists are on the leading edge of breakthrough microbiome science using a unique platform to innovate novel products to revolutionize Animal Health and Nutrition. I’m honored to lead this insightful and deeply experienced group of board members to contribute at a key moment for innovation in the Animal Health and Nutrition industry,” said James.

Joining James and Schacht on the BiomEdit Board of Directors are:

Barbara Bodem

Bodem currently serves on the boards of medical technology company Enovis  (NYSE: ENOV) and the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical solutions organization, Syneos Health® (Nasdaq: SYNH). She was formerly on the board at Turning Point Therapeutics (now a Bristol Myers Squibb company) and Invacare Corporation. Bodem spent her career serving in financial leadership roles in the Human Health sector at Dentsply Sirona, Hillrom, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Hospira, and Eli Lilly and Company. Most recently, she served as interim CFO of Dentsply Sirona.  Prior to that, she served as CFO of Hillrom, a medical technology company that was acquired by Baxter (NYSE:BAX) in 2021.

Paul Casady

Casady currently provides expertise and consulting services for the Animal Health industry at Brakke Consulting. His background includes decades of executive leadership at animal health giants Merial (Boehringer Ingelheim) and Intervet/Schering-Plough (Merck). During his career in the industry, he worked nearly 25 years in various international regions across the world. He also worked with Kansas State University as an Executive in Residence – Professor of Practice, to strengthen their leadership in research and education for the Animal Health industry.

Brett Wong 

Wong serves as a Principal at Anterra Capital, investing in entrepreneurs who are making a positive impact in global health and nutrition. Anterra is an initial investor in BiomEdit’s Series A financing round. Wong has 18 years of experience in the Agriculture industry, and previously worked at Piper Jaffray (Piper Sandler), CiBO Technologies, and Aventine Renewable Energy (Alto Ingredients).

Today’s announcement of BiomEdit’s Board of Directors marks another milestone for the new company. In November 2022, the company announced a research collaboration with Atarraya to increase the sustainability of shrimp farming and improve global food security closely followed by the company’s 2022 Best Start-up in Animal Health award from S&P Global Animal Health. Earlier this month, the company announced its ground-breaking, long-term strategic research and commercial partnership with animal nutrition and aquafeed global leader, Nutreco, to bring livestock producers innovative and truly novel feed additives, called Biome-actives, developed through microbiome technology. The collaboration covers the discovery, development and commercialization of Biome-actives developed using BiomEdit’s advanced microbiome science. These novel feed additives address the health and sustainability challenges of today’s animal producers, for aquaculture, poultry, swine and cattle.

About BiomEdit
BiomEdit is Microbiome Innovation for Animal Health. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Fishers, Indiana, BiomEdit discovers, designs and develops novel probiotics, microbiome-derived Biome-actives and engineered microbial medicines to address unmet needs in animal health. We partner with Ginkgo Bioworks to amplify and accelerate product discovery and development with a goal of introducing breakthrough innovation for livestock producers and veterinarians.

The company’s industry-leading, state-of-the-art cell programming platform forms the foundation of its R&D program, utilizing high-throughput sequencing and data analytics to rapidly discover and screen novel beneficial bacteria, peptides and metabolites. BiomEdit’s products will be manufactured via fermentation, a safe and natural production method. Forming the backbone of BiomEdit is its diverse team with a balanced mix of both experienced executives and new talent. This includes more than 20 Ph.D. scientists occupying positions in Discovery, Development, Compute & Analytics, Regulatory and Marketing. Collectively, the team has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and more than 50 patents.

In 2022, BiomEdit was recognized by S&P Global Animal Health as Best Start-up in Animal Health in its annual Animal Health industry awards.