About

Yuji Suzuki graduated from the Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Liberal Arts, University of Tokyo, and holds an MPhil in East Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge.

He is a certified bioinformatics engineer by the Japan Society of Bioinformatics (JSBi).

After working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Financial Services Agency, he worked at McKinsey & Company’s Tokyo branch and Shanghai branch, where he led strategic, organizational, and operational projects mainly in the medical equipment and manufacturing industries. After that, he was Global Head of Strategy Development and IPO preparation at Macromill, a Bain Capital portfolio company (at the time), Executive Vice President of Human Metabolome Technologies, a bio-venture company from Keio University, and CEO of Rakuten Group, Inc., Strategy and Innovation Office. Mr. Suzuki joined bitBiome as COO in October 2021 and assumed his current role as CEO in July 2022.

Masahito Hosokawa completed his Ph.D. at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Graduate School of Engineering. He served as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Special Researcher DC2 in 2008, a Special Researcher PD in 2010, and a JST PRESTO researcher in 2015.

After conducting research at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and Shizuoka Cancer Center, he started research at Waseda University in 2013 and engaged in the development of single cell analysis technology. Based on the results of this research, bitBiome Inc. was founded in 2018.

Major awards include the 2019 Young Scientist Award from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the 2019 JST PRESTO Innovation Award. He is also an associate professor at Waseda University (https://www.hosokawa-lab.com/en).

So Tsuda has a Ph.D. from Kobe University Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology.  He joined bitBiome in October 2020 and assumed his current role in September of 2022.  He has over 10 years of expertise in interdisciplinary research across biology, engineering, and mathematical modeling.   Previously, he worked as a Lord Kelvin-Adam Smith Research Fellow (2012) at the University of Glasgow in the UK, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Outstanding Research Fellow (2019), and the Director of Application Development at OnChip Biotechnologies Co., Ltd.  At bitBiome he is leading new application developments using microbial single-cell genome sequencing and enzyme discovery and engineering from our database.

Atsushi Usami received a doctorate from the Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, and is a pharmacist.

After engaging in consulting work at Mitsubishi Research Institute, he joined UTEC in October 2013 and is currently a director at UTEC. He is responsible for seed/early stage investments mainly in the life sciences field.

Currently, he is an outside director of additional portfolio companies such as Goryo Chemical Co., Ltd., Edit Force Co., Ltd., Epigeneron Co., Ltd., BUGWORKS RESERCH, INC., Orisilogenomics Co., Ltd., Ceride Therapeutics Co., Ltd., PURMX Therapeutics Co., Ltd., United Immunity Co., Ltd., and Regcel Co., Ltd. etc.  He is a supporter of the Life Science Innovation Network Japan (LINK-J).

After graduating from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo, he joined the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). In 2008, he retired from METI, served as vice president of a distribution company, and received an MBA from Columbia University.

He joined UTEC in August 2014 after working at McKinsey & Company. Currently, he is a partner/managing director at UTEC.

Previously, he has served as an outside auditor for ACSL Co., Ltd. (listed on TSE Growth in December 2018: 6232), Neural Pocket Co., Ltd. (listed on TSE Growth in August 2020: 4056), and JDSC Co., Ltd. (listed on TSE Growth in December 2021: 4418), Finatext Holdings Co., Ltd. (listed on TSE Growth in December 2021: 4419), and Institution for a Global Society Co., Ltd. (listed on TSE Growth in December 2021: 4265), among others.

Howard Pollack joined bitBiome as VP of Business Development in December 2023. He brings over three decades of experience with enzyme applications, corporate strategy and business development leadership roles spanning a broad range of industry verticals. He previously headed up the Americas business development at Codexis, where he played a pivotal role in the success of its food and industrial enzyme business. Mr. Pollack also led sales and marketing efforts at Amano Enzyme and Novozymes. He holds a B.S. in Food Science from Rutgers University.

Lalonde received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Texas A&M and continued to explore biocatalysis as a postdoctoral researcher within then-Texas A&M chemist Dr. Chi-Huey Wong’s group. Lalonde has had a pioneering three-decade career in enzyme engineering and biocatalysis that has revolutionized a host of industries and processes, including chemical production, protein engineering, and drug discovery and development.

After initial stints with Vista Chemical and Altus Biologics in Cambridge, MA, Lalonde joined Codexis Inc., in 2004 as director of Biocatalysis and Chemical Development. During his next 15 years as VP and SVP of R&D, he helped build a powerhouse research organization focused on the engineering and commercialization of novel enzymes for biocatalysis, oral enzyme replacement therapies, food and nutrition, and molecular diagnostics. Lalonde’s Codexis team developed routes to more than 25 pharmaceutical actives, leading to such commercial blockbuster drugs as atorvastatin (Lipitor®), sitagliptin (Januvia®), simvastatin (Zocor®), sacubitril (Entresto®), montelukast (Singulair®) and dolutegravir (Tivicay®) along with three related U.S. Presidential Green Chemistry Awards for their efficient manufacture. He also led development for the best-in-class CodeEvolver® Protein Engineering technology platform combining big data, machine learning, protein modeling, high throughput expression, and assay and next-generation sequencing to create enzymes for major drug companies, such as Merck, Novartis, and GSK. The teams at Codexis and Tate & Lyle codeveloped continuous flow process to the rare sugar Allulose and the natural, zero calorie sweetener Rebaudioside M. Lalonde also was the principal investigator for a U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E-funded project that engineered an enzyme for carbon capture from flue gas at coal-fired power generation plants, establishing the standard approach to enzyme-directed evolution.

In 2019, Lalonde moved to Inscripta Inc. to support fundraising and commercialization of automated high throughput genome engineering using their intellectual property based on CRISPR technology, microfluidics instrumentation, and machine-learning-based software. At present, Lalonde serves as a consultant and senior scientific advisor for several synthetic biology start-ups, helping them with fundraising (more than $300 million combined and counting) and in establishing top-performing R&D organizations. To date, Lalonde has led the hiring and training of more than 250 scientists and engineers —a research team that has produced than 400 patents and publications. Dr. Lalonde was inducted into the Texas A&M Academy of Distinguished Former Students in April of 2022.

Gjalt’s career spans the world of synthetic biology broadly, with a track record of developing biological processes for various applications, including commodity chemicals, pharmaceutical manufacture, and therapeutics. He has more than 20 years of experience building highly productive R&D organizations focused on advancing scientific innovation to commercialization.

During his career, Gjalt developed both microbial and enzymatic biotechnological processes, first at Metabolix Inc., where he developed recombinant bacteria for the fermentative production of biodegradable polyesters that were commercialized as bulk plastics and surgical meshes for soft tissue repairs, and later at Maxygen and its spin-out Codexis. At Codexis he led the discovery of enzymes for the commercial-scale manufacture of pharmaceuticals such as atorvastatin (Lipitor®), sitagliptin (Januvia®), and nirmatrelvir (PaxlovidTM). Subsequently, Gjalt initiated and built Codexis’ Biotherapeutics business, leading to a rich pipeline of therapeutic enzymes with two programs in clinical development.

Throughout his career, Gjalt has formulated project, pipeline, and business plans for close to 100 programs, conducted due diligence on technologies and assets, and negotiated business deals potentially worth $300+ million.

Gjalt earned his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He pursued post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and was a visiting scholar at MIT earlier in his career. In his free time, he enjoys hiking the local hills and spending quality time with his family. Gjalt is a visionary scientist and a seasoned business leader whose dedication and passion have helped shape the synthetic biology landscape.

K.H. Maurer represented Henkel and AB Enzymes in AMFEP (European Association of the Enzyme Producing Industry) as a member of the executive committee from 1993-2019. He is founder and was chairman of the Industrieverbund Weiße Biotechnologie e.V. (IWBio) from 2007 until 2017 and since 2023 serving as an honorary member.

In 2009 he was awarded the title of honorary professor by the University of Greifswald and in 2010 the Biocat Award 2010 in the field Industrial Research.

K.H. Maurer is author or coauthor of publications in the field of technical enzymes ranging from screening and characterization of enzymes to functional genome research of microbial production systems. He is inventor or coinventor of more than 150 patent families.

Nathan has more than 30 years of experience in industrial biotechnology. Currently, Nathan is a principle at BioCognito, a consultancy that helps firms in agricultural and industrial biotechnology to bring new technologies from the lab to commercialization. Clients have included Arzeda, Bayer, Exopolymer, the National Corn Growers Association, Primient and others.

Prior to BioCognito, Nathan was at DuPont in business development in their Applied Biosciences group. In this role he initiated or assisted in bringing new biopolymers and enzymes to commercialization.

Mr. Danielson graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Science degree in molecular biology and biochemistry. He earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Colorado for his work on metabolic engineering in ethanol producing organisms. He has an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Mr. Kazuhiko started his career at Ajinomoto in 1981 where he remained for his entire career.  He was the Former Ajinomoto R&D strategy and corporate strategy senior director and a senior figure of JBA (Japan Bioindustry Association).

Mr. Kazuhiko is an advisor for our internal self-funded R&D projects.

Under this joint research agreement, bitBiome will conduct a comprehensive search and screen new enzymes from bit-GEM, and Ajinomoto Co., Inc. will evaluate and verify the usefulness of the enzymes.

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is promoting its research and development to further contribute to solving health issues by utilizing the knowledge and technology cultivated through more than 100 years of amino acid research. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is focusing on its resources on the four growth areas of “Healthcare,” “Food & Wellness,” “ICT,” and “Green,” under the purpose of “contributing to the well-being of all human beings, our society, and our planet with AminoScience.”

Through this collaboration, bitBiome and TOK aim to utilize bitBiome’s enzyme discovery and engineering platform technology to develop a bio-process cascade comprising multiple enzymes. This initiative seeks to replace a portion of TOK’s petroleum-derived raw materials with biomass-derived raw materials. The transition to bio-processes through this joint development is expected to significantly reduce environmental impact.

View our full press release here.

Under this joint research agreement, bitBiome will utilize their microbial single-cell genome analysis technology to search for novel bacterial species and enzymes with the capability to degrade plastics and other non-biodegradable components by evaluating the sequences of various composting site samples (both raw and post-enriched in bioplastics such as PHB and PLA). The overall goal will be to identify novel markers of composting capacity and key enzymatic functions that can be isolated and utilized synthetically to recover monomers and re-valorize this waste stream. Utilizing the expertise in Dr. Alper’s laboratory, approaches such as bioinformatic analysis, comparative genomics, and genome mining will be employed to identify key marker sequences and potentially novel enzyme efficiencies.