Helge founded Primordial Genetics in 2011 with the goal of building the premier company for genetic improvement of microbes.

Helge is a biotechnology professional and entrepreneur with 14 years of industry experience in technology development, R&D project leadership and IP development/management in early-stage biotechnology companies. He has a passion for early-stage genetic technologies, and has helped launch the operations of multiple biotech startups including Akkadix, Chromatin, Synthetic Genomics, Agradis, Primordial Genetics and Industry3200.

His background combines strong technical skills in molecular biology, genomics, plant and algal biotechnology and synthetic biology with entrepreneurism and R&D project leadership.

Helge did his doctorate work in yeast molecular genetics in nobel laureate Paul Berg's laboratory at Stanford University's famed Biochemistry Department and received his PhD in 1994.

Following an interest in malaria research he then did his post-doctoral work in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Starting in 2000, Helge worked on a variety of projects in crop plant biotechnology and genomics. He led a group at Chromatin Inc that successfully developed artificial chromosomes as gene delivery vehicles in multiple crop species. As Senior Director for Plant Genomics at Synthetic Genomics Inc, he spearheaded efforts to sequence the oil palm and jatropha genomes and set up a molecular breeding project for castor improvement, while also participating in metagenomic studies of microbial populations in subsurface hydrocarbons.

Sabrina German is the first employee of Primordial Genetics.

Before joining the Primordial team, Sabrina worked as a Research Assistant for 4 years at the Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics (MGGen) in Flagstaff, Arizona while a student at Northern Arizona University.

Her research at MGGen focused on population genetics of bacterial and fungal pathogens of wildlife and humans. During her summers, Sabrina spent time working as a Lab Technician at W.L. Gore & Associates, a medical device company, as well as a Clinical medicine volunteer in Peru.

Sabrina received her B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Northern Arizona University in 2013.

Dominick Mendola, PhD is Senior Development Engineer at the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), and Business advisor to Dr. Gregory Mitchell, PhD, and Phitec, LLC, providers of PG's initial seed capital.

Dr. Mendola was Founder, CEO and Principal Investigator for 14 years at CalBioMarine Technologies, Inc, a pioneering bio-production company for new marine natural products, and in preceding years, a principal in 3 other commercial aquaculture food production companies.

Dr. Mendola received his PhD at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, in Marine Bioprocess Engineering in 2008, and a B.S. in Zoology/Marine Biology from San Diego State University in 1967.

Dr. Biranchi Patra obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

As a research scientist at KGI, he investigated systems biology of micro-environmental control of cellular processes. He identified key molecules, pathways and interconnected networks, inferred predictive network models and elucidated the presence of numerous functionally diverse mechanisms in eukaryotes for circumventing the effects of lethal perturbations. A serendipitous discovery from this work is a mutant huntingtin protein (mHtt) that may interfere with the chromosome condensation process. Dr. Patra is currently working on systems biology of Huntington's disease to understand the spectrum of the degenerative processes using human cell line models and gene editing technologies.

Dr. Patra recently obtained a Postdoctoral Professional Masters in Bioscience management at KGI with a focus in business strategy and clinical and regulatory affairs. With the business and management skills and years of experience in highthroughput genetics and molecular biology research, he is now entering into the field of translational research. He is recipient of many awards and scholarships including Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Scholarship, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (CSIR) fellowships and Melbourne International Research scholarship (MIRS). He is the co-winner of "Bringing Math to Biology" contest as a part of the "Systems to Synthesis" symposium organized by San Diego Consortium for Systems Biology (SDCSB) in 2011.

Egle B. Thomas, PhD, MBA has over 13 years of experience in biotech organizations, including VP of North America Strategy at Green Biologics Inc., Director of Business Development at the Institute of Advanced Learning and Research, as well as various business and scientific positions at Syngenta. In addition, as a consultant, Egle has been driving strategy, business development, funding and commercialization of diverse technologies in industries including biotechnology, life science, healthcare, renewable chemicals, biofuels, agrochemicals and biopharmaceuticals.

Egle B. Thomas earned an MBA from Warwick Business School, UK, as well as a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK, and a B.S. in Biochemistry from North Central College, Illinois.

Alan Greener received his Bachelors degrees in Biology and Mathematics from Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. in Genetics from the Pennsylvania State University Medical School in Hershey, PA. After a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, San Diego studying plasmid DNA replication, he entered the commercial biotechnology field. In the past 25 years, Alan has held high-level R&D positions at Stratagene and at Gene Therapy Systems. In both companies, he developed numerous E. coli strains with higher transformation efficiency, improved yield of recombinant protein and improved recombinant protein solubility. He also developed hosts for random and site-directed mutagenesis, a topoisomerase-mediated cloning host, and strains to reduce rearrangements within cloned DNA segments. All of these strains were developed and released as commercial products. In addition, he holds patents for inventing methods for error-free PCR cloning and infecting mammalian cells with a bacterial virus. Alan will be drawing on this expertise to further improve bacterial host strains using the Function Generator platform technology.

Animesh Ray, PhD, is Professor, Chair of the Faculty, and Director of PhD Program at the School of Applied Life Sciences in Keck Graduate Institute, claremont, ca.

He was previously a professor (1991-2001) and a visiting professor (2001-2004) at the University of Rochester, adjunct professor at UCSD (2001-2004), and visiting professor at the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, and University of Hyderabad, India.

He obtained his PhD in microbial genetics from Monash University, Melbourne, in 1985, and subsequently was a researcher at the University of Oregon, Eugene, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. Professor Ray has published research papers in fields ranging from molecular and developmental biology to computational and systems biology. His publications can be accessed here: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0120-5820

B. Greg Mitchell, PhD is a Research Biologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO).

Dr. Mitchell received his B.S. degree with Honors in Aquatic Biology and Special Honors in Botany from the University of Texas at Austin and his PhD in Biological Oceanography from the University of Southern California in 1987.

Dr Mitchell's expertise is in physiological ecology of photosynthetic microalgae and he has extensive experience with renewable energy projects and companies through his work as a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Algae Biomass Organization. He a founder and investor in a technology start-up focused on automation of laboratory systems.

From 1990-1992 Dr. Mitchell served as NASA Program Manager for the Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program and as Program Scientist for NASA's SeaWiFS and MODIS ocean color satellite missions. For more than 2 decades Dr Mitchell has promoted mass culture of algae to mitigate CO2 and wastewater nutrient loading, and to create biomass for fuel and animal feed.

His current work focuses on optimization of yields of bioenergy molecules in algal growth, numerical modeling of algal yield optimization and design of closed and open photobioreactors that optimize yields.

Dr. Mitchell serves on the Board of Directors of the Houston Advanced Research Center, the Algae Biomass Organization, and the San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology.

Claus Zieler, M.Sc., MBA is Operating Officer and VP Cardiology and Neurology at Bayer Yakuhin Ltd., Osaka, Japan, where he is responsible for a $1bn revenue pharmaceutical business.

He has more than 20 years of experience in different executive roles in commercial, development and strategy functions in the pharmaceutical industry, including responsibilities for different markets in Latin America, Europe and Asia, and for different therapeutic areas, such as cardiology, neurology, oncology, gynaecology and dermatology.

Claus Zieler earned an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, as well as an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a B.A. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.

Michele Rubino is currently with Beta Renewables, a JV between Italian chemical company MG Chemicals, global biotech leader Novozymes and Private Equity TPG focused on commercializing its industry-leading PROESA technology for the conversion of lignocellulosic non-food biomass to low carbon intensity, petroleum replacements such as biofuels and bio-based chemicals.

At Beta Renewables, Michele oversees licensing as well as business and corporate development activities. Prior to this Michele spent 5 years at Synthetic Genomics, a San Diego-based life sciences start-up focused on commercializing Craig Venter's cutting-edge genomic technologies, in a business development capacity within the industrial biotechnology group. Michele also worked for many years in the biofuels division for a large agri-industrial company in both the US and EU. He also has an entrepreneurial experience in the biofuels area.

Michele holds an MS in Industrial Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan as well as an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Justin Stege, PhD has over 15 years of experience leading industrial and agricultural biotechnology R&D programs. He brings with him a diverse background from 1st tier universities and prominent biotechnology companies to impact a wide range of technology areas including biochemistry, biocatalysis, computational biology, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and fermentation. Justin has led numerous enzyme technology development efforts for Diversa, Verenium and BP Biofuels and in partnerships with Syngenta, the US Department of Energy, and New Zealand government research centers.

Under an NIH fellowship, Justin performed his postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute in the labs of Carlos Barbas III and Roger Beachy where he designed synthetic zinc finger transcription factors to control plant gene regulation.

Justin received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1998 and a B.S. in Physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1992.