Written by Natalie Harms Apr 14, 2022, 10:56 am CST
Earlier this year, a new synthetic biology-focused venture capital fund launched in Houston, and now its added to its esteemed set of advisers.
Veronica Wu, former Apple and Tesla exec, founded First Bight Ventures, a new VC firm focused exclusively on early-stage synthetic biology startups, in January and named her initial board members. This month, she's added to those ranks with two Houstonians joining the advisory board — Gaurab Chakrabarti, co-founder and CEO of Solugen, and Kevin Coker, co-founder and CEO of Proxima CRO.
"We are excited to announce the addition of Dr. Gaurab Chakrabarti and Kevin Coker," Wu says in a press release. "These two advisors are experts in their respective fields of medicine and biotechnology. They are proven leaders of Houston-based companies, which is key to our overall growth strategy, as we seek to establish Houston as a geographic center for innovation in Synthetic Biology."
Gaurab co-founded Solugen, a Houston unicorn that creates enzymes that can turn sugar into chemicals, in 2016. He studied computational neuroscience at Brown University and received his master's and PhD in cancer biology and enzymology at the University of Texas.
Representing the health care side of synthetic biology, Kevin Coker runs Houston-based Proxima CRO, a regulatory and clinical partner for the emerging biotech and medical device industry. He is also the founder and partner of the M1 MedTech accelerator and the Host of the Inventing Tomorrow podcast.
"I couldn't be more excited to work with Veronica and First Bight Ventures," Coker says in the release. "The time is now for companies developing Synthetic Biology products and platforms. Much of this technology has reached commercial level maturity and we are beginning to see exciting things happen, particularly in Houston."
The two join six other advisers on the board:
- Dr. Ethel Rubin, an experienced life sciences executive with commercialization and investment experience across multiple therapeutic areas and modalities.
- Lekan Akinyanmi, founder and CEO of Cambridge Growth Partners, a holding company with interests in mining, finance, oil/gas, and renewable energy.
- Dr. Guochun Liao, founder of IDbyDNA, which focuses on utilizing next-generation sequencing and AI/ML for infectious disease management.
- Mario Maia, leader of the corporate investment arm of Novozymes.
- Peter Oleksiak, former CFO senior vice president for DTE Energy Co., a Fortune 500 diversified energy company.
- Davy Wang, senior director at Oracle Cloud.
About Proxima Clinical Research
Proxima CRO provides regulatory, quality, and clinical research expertise to life sciences companies of all sizes and stages, including inventors, emerging companies, and Fortune 500. With headquarters in the Texas Medical Center (“TMC”), the largest medical center in the world, Proxima CRO brings its expertise to hundreds of medical device, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies in 17 countries across five continents to further advance the $130 billion industry. Launched in November 2017, Proxima CRO is a registered Delaware C Corporation. For more on Proxima CRO and its growing team, visit ProximaCRO.com.
# # #
Media Contact
Jennifer Horspool
(949)-933-4300
Jennifer.Horspool@proximacro.com
