Team
We are a close-knit team inspired by the possibilities of delivering transformative technologies and breakthrough science to change the course of medicine. We value our people as our most important resource and are always looking for talented individuals who can make valuable contributions to our efforts. If you think you’d be a good fit, take a look at our current open positions.
Christina is a pioneer in the fields of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, where she has over 20 years of experience. As Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, her laboratory led the breakthrough research to engineer baker’s yeast to produce valuable plant-based medicines. Her innovative vision and accomplishments have garnered numerous awards, including the Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, Nature’s 10, World Technology Network Award in Biotechnology, and TR35 Award.
Christina Smolke, PhD
Co-Founder & CEO
Zack is a leading executive in operations management, specializing in bioprocess engineering and manufacturing management. He has over 20 years of experience leading manufacturing functions for companies across the pharmaceutical, synthetic biology, diagnostics and automotive industries. Before joining Antheia, Zack was VP of manufacturing and capex project management at Zymergen. He also gained experience managing commercial scale facilities operations for Tesla, where he was responsible for managing 10 million square feet of factory, lab and warehouse space during the Model 3 ramp.
Zack McGahey
Chief Operating Officer
Suzy leads our downstream chemistry processes in Antheia. She has 15+ years of experience in process development, including route development through synthetic chemistry, scale-up of small molecule APIs for GPCR targets under cGMP for Phase I-III trials. Before joined Antheia, Suzy led a full DSP team in Amyris where she successfully pivoted developments from biofuels hydrocarbon products to pharmaceutical intermediate, flavor, fragrance and nutraceutical products. Her leadership resulted in scaling 11 products and taking 5 products to commercial manufacturing.
Suzanne Sato
Head of Chemistry
Kristy has over 15 years of experience in the field of synthetic biology, focusing on yeast metabolic engineering for the production of small molecules. She did the founding work on the benzylisoquinoline alkaloid pathway during her graduate studies and gained valuable industry experience at Amyris and Lygos. Kristy is an expert in tool development, high-throughput screening, and host strain and heterologous pathway engineering. She believes that all plant-derived medicines will ultimately be produced using microbial fermentation technology.
Kristy Hawkins, PhD
Co-Founder & CSO
Yihui leads fermentation research and development at Antheia. He has more than 20 years of hands-on microbial fermentation experience and 10+ years experience in industrial fermentation R&D. Prior to joining Antheia, Yihui built and managed fermentation teams at Codexis and Intrexon and led the development of robust and cost-effective microbial fermentation processes that were successfully transferred and scaled up to pilot scale and demonstration plants.
Yihui Zhu, PhD
Head of Fermentation
Yen-Hsiang is leading strategy and business development at Antheia. Coming from a solid academic background, he has extensive research experience in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering and computational modeling. Yen-Hsiang devotes his efforts to driving technology innovations with commercial success. Before joining Antheia, he was at McKinsey and then led AI healthcare strategy and product development in Tencent AI Lab.
Yen-Hsiang Wang, PhD
Head of Strategy and BD
Board of Directors
Ram Shriram
Patrick Yang, PhD
Christina Smolke, PhD
Kristy Hawkins, PhD