BioSilta Ltd, a developer of advanced, reagent-based microbial growth systems, today announced that it has completed the set-up of operational and commercial headquarters in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, UK.

In addition, the Company has strengthened its Board and senior management team with appointments as follows:

• Mark Bloomfield appointed Chairman.
  Mark has over 20 years of global management experience and has held executive positions in life science companies such as DAKO, Applied Biosystems, Thermo Electron and Agilent Technologies. He has a proven track record in leading commercially-successful, multi-national teams as well as forging channel partnerships and strategic commercial alliances. Mark is currently CEO for Polyplus-transfection S.A.

• Stuart Bradley appointed Commercial Director.
  Stuart has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development within the biotechnology tools supply industry, covering capital equipment as well as reagents, kits and consumables. He has a strong track record in the build-up and  development of commercially-successful, multi-national teams and has held senior management positions in companies such as Accuri Cytometers (Europe) Ltd. (acquired by Becton Dickinson) and Ambion (Europe) Ltd. (acquired by Applied Biosystems).

• Paul Whitaker appointed Finance and Operations Director.
  Paul is a Certified Accountant and General Manager experienced in managing UK and international companies and their related finances and multi-currency operations. He has held senior positions in industries as diverse as aviation services and biotechnology tools. As European Finance and Administration Manager at Accuri Cytometers (Europe) Limited (now part of Becton Dickinson), he was responsible for all aspects of finance and operations. Paul is a Fellow of the Association of Certified Accountants.

Commenting on the move and appointments, Bob Penney, CEO at BioSilta, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Mark, Stuart and Paul to the team. All three are highly experienced in the life science sector. Mark will serve as a strategic resource to drive the development of BioSilta, as the management team focuses on the commercialization of our EnPresso growth systems. We are delighted to have relocated our operational and commercial headquarters to Cambridgeshire, amongst an unmatched cluster of life science activity and innovation.”

Founded in 2007 in Oulu, Finland, BioSilta’s lead product range, EnPresso B growth systems, offer reagent-based solutions that have been shown to increase recombinant protein yields from bacterial cultures by up to 100-fold and improve protein functionality. BioSilta is the only company to offer a guarantee of a minimum 5-fold increase in protein yield. Products in the range include EnPresso B, EnPresso B Animal-free (certified free from animal-derived components), and EnPresso B Defined Nitrogen-free, used to significantly increase the yield of 15N-labeled proteins for NMR analysis. For ease of use the products are supplied as pre-sterilized tablets, which are simply added to sterile, filtered water.

EnPresso growth systems are based on the Company’s proprietary EnBase® technology which offers a novel approach to control the feeding, and thereby growth rate, of microbial cultures. This allows cultures to reach much higher cell densities compared to conventional growth media such as LB, TB or M9, resulting in higher yields of recombinant protein expressed under metabolically favorable conditions.

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