Bluestem Biosciences, Inc., is designing biology with the end in mind, to enable existing infrastructure in the Midwest for industrialized synthetic biology. We are leveraging digital biology to facilitate the discovery of biomanufacturing, focused on the sustainable production of chemicals and materials. Bluestem Biosciences was founded in January 2022 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Bluestem believes that building synthetic biology in the Midwest will provide very strategic opportunities around agriculture & infrastructure. Furthermore, public-private partnerships are critical for the success in this industry.
Infrastructure & agriculture are critical components for the commercial scale-up of synthetic biology. These facets of industrial biotechnology are prominently found in the Midwest, and Bluestem is focused on maximizing their future potential.
We believe that public & private partnerships integrating government, academia and synthetic biology will accelerate our path to commercial success with biobased sustainable chemicals. Our focus and partnerships in the Midwest should further support our ambitions.
Synthetic biology presents a very large total addressable market. McKinsey & Co. forecasts a market opportunity of $2-3 trillion whereas BCG analyzes a market opportunity approaching $30 trillion. Eric Schmidt has stated that the synthetic biology revolution will be larger than the computer industry. Bluestem is focused on the biomanufacturing of materials and chemicals.
Billy Hagstrom previously served as Executive Vice President of Strategy & Development for Green Plains, Inc.. Prior to moving to Omaha in 2021, Billy served as Chief Executive Officer of Cannalysis. Previously, Billy was a Managing Director at Highbridge Capital Management. Billy started in investment banking at J.P. Morgan focused on Natural Resources & Infrastructure. Billy earned his BA in Economics from Northwestern University.
A multi-disciplinary entrepreneur with leadership experience across science, technology, operations. Most recently, Tyler served as SVP of Science & Technology at Green Plains and prior to that co-founded Cannalysis Labs. Tyler graduated from San Diego State with a BS in Biology.
Jared Wenger has spent over 10 years in the biotech industry, most recently leading Technical Operations for a vaccine startup in Nebraska. Prior to moving to Nebraska, Jared spent 4 years at Zymergen, initially developing genetic tools for bacterial and yeast strain manufacturing pipelines, and ultimately leading process engineering and continuous improvement efforts across Build and Test capabilities. Jared started his career as a strain engineer at Amyris, after receiving his Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford and B.S. in Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon.
Mark Simon enjoys bringing novel solutions to long standing problems. Mark received his PhD from MIT, where he was the principal inventor of the Automated Fast Flow Peptide Synthesis platform, accelerating chemical peptide synthesis nearly 100 fold while substantially improving yield and purity. Upon graduation, Mark spent 3 years at Ginkgo Bioworks, developing experience in biochemical pathway design.
Youngnyun was trained as a domain expert in microbial molecular biology, metabolic engineering, and fermentation of biochemicals. He has worked at Zymergen and at Amyris for more than a decade. His strong scientific background in microbial synthetic biology and physiology plays a key role at OLAB. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida at Gainesville, FL
Cameron Rylance has a passion for environmental sustainability and people. After receiving his Masters of Biomedical Engineering from Clemson University, Cameron combined his passions with his entrepreneurial spirit to develop more sustainable solutions for single-use medical device kits. While at Clemson, Cameron’s research focused on genome editing of mammalian cells through viral transcription. Cameron earned his BS in Bioengineering from Clemson University.
Bluestem is excited to offer a remote-first working model. Team members can work primarily remotely. Conditions permitting, teams will meet in person every quarter or two at Bluestem’s HQ, in Omaha, NE.