Stephen Van Dien

Dr. Van Dien will lead the effort to commercialization effort. Dr. Van Dien is an expert in the areas of metabolic engineering, industrial microbiology, and mathematical modeling of biological systems. He received his doctorate in Chemical Engineering Berkeley under the direction of Professor Jay Keasling. He then held two postdoctoral positions, one in the laboratory of Victor de Lorenzo in Madrid, Spain as an NSF-NATO fellow, and a second in Mary Lidstrom’s laboratory at the University of Washington. In September of 2002 he was recruited by Ajinomoto Co. (Kawasaki, Japan) to help develop computational biology and metabolic engineering programs, and to train permanent personnel in these areas. He joined Genomatica in November 2003, where he focused on the integration of metabolic models with experimental data, and led the Company’s efforts in the bioprocessing sector. As Sr. Director of Technology at Genomatica he led the Company’s efforts at engineering microbes for the production of industrial chemicals from renewable resources. During his 13-year tenure at Genomatica, Dr. Van Dien developed the integrated technology platform and led 3 large projects for the microbial production of chemicals. Most notably, he managed the multidisciplinary team responsible for engineering E. coli to produce 1,4-butanediol (BDO) at the commercial targets, and supported the program into commercialization. He was also formerly director of the Systems Bioengineering group, where he led efforts to use omics and modeling approaches to overcome challenges and guide all strain engineering work in the company.