Twist Bioscience Appoints Drug Discovery Leader Melissa Starovasnik, Ph.D., to Board of Directors
August 06 2021 - 6:30AM
Business Wire
Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling
customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic
DNA using its silicon platform, today announced it appointed
Melissa Starovasnik, Ph.D. to its board of directors. Dr.
Starovasnik most recently served as Senior Scientific Advisor,
Research at Genentech, Inc. and brings nearly three decades of
experience in protein and antibody drug discovery and
development.
“Melissa’s extensive leadership and scientific experience will
be valuable to Twist as we leverage our DNA platform to support our
broad base of customers across the synthetic biology and
biopharmaceutical industries,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO
and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “Her specific expertise in
protein therapeutics as well as small molecule drug discovery and
development will allow her to provide strategic guidance as we
continue to expand our biopharma business and maximize the value of
our portfolio of high value antibodies.”
Dr. Starovasnik spent nearly three decades at Genentech in roles
of increasing responsibility and was an integral member of the
research leadership team. As vice president, protein sciences and
head of large molecule drug discovery from 2011 to 2017, she was
responsible for protein and antibody therapeutics discovery,
overseeing an organization of nearly 200 employees. In this role,
she led a major organizational transformation in the way Genentech
discovers protein therapeutics to improve its competitive position,
while overseeing the discovery and optimization of more than 20
protein therapeutic candidates. Prior to that, as vice president,
research operations, she coordinated all operational activities for
the more than 1300-member research organization, while also leading
the structural biology department, and was the first woman to hold
a vice president title in the research organization. Most recently,
as senior scientific advisor, research, she has focused on
mentoring scientists and leaders, advancing diversity and
inclusion, and evolving Genentech’s informatics infrastructure in
support of large molecule discovery. Dr. Starovasnik earned a B.S.
in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of
Washington, and throughout her career has contributed to over 70
scientific publications and patent applications.
“With its silicon platform, Twist has revolutionized the use of
synthetic DNA to facilitate and accelerate scientific advancements
across a number of industries. It is an exciting time as Twist’s
proprietary technologies have been shown to enable rapid and
successful antibody discovery against even the toughest targets. I
look forward to working with the Twist leadership team and my
fellow board members as the company seeks to further expand and
capitalize on their biopharma business, in addition to extending
its overall leadership position in synthetic DNA-based
technologies,” said Dr. Starovasnik.
About Twist Bioscience Corporation
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic
biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA
synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The
core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a
new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a
silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to
manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products,
including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing
(NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and
development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in
digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist
makes products for use across many industries including healthcare,
industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210806005098/en/
Angela Bitting SVP, Corporate Affairs 925- 202-6211
abitting@twistbioscience.com
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