Professor Stephen Simpson, FRS – Professor Stephen is a Scientific Advisory Board member at BluMaiden Biosciences. Currently he is the Director of the Charles Perkin Centre at the University of Sydney, a Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, and Executive Director of Obesity Australia. Prior to his current appointments, Simpson was at the University of Oxford for over 20 years. In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London as “one of the world’s foremost entomologists and nutritional biologists”.

Simpson is a highly innovative thinker in nutritional science, having developed new measurement and modelling frameworks for studying nutritional intake behaviours in a range of organisms, including humans. This approach, termed nutritional ecology, draws on ecology and evolutionary theory to provide a new foundation for thinking about human nutrition. At BluMaiden Biosciences, he is guiding the scientific team in their attempts to build a platform for microbiome-enabled personalized nutrition.

Professor Kim Lewis – Professor Kim Lewis is a Scientific Advisory Board member at BluMaiden Biosciences. Currently he is a University Distinguished Professor and the Director of Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Formally he held faculty appointments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Maryland and Tufts University. A distinguished molecular microbiologist whose research career has focused on the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance, Lewis is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the American Acade- my of Microbiology.

Lewis’ research has resolved key problems underpinning the mechanisms by which bacteria can resist the action of antibiotics, discovered new classes of antibiotics and demonstrated the potential of finding antibiotic compounds in microbiomes. Lewis has a long-standing engagement with the biotech industry and pharma. At BluMaiden Biosciences, he is guiding the scientific team on approaches for discovering new therapeutic compounds from human microbiomes.

Professor Nicholas Talley – Distinguished Laureate Professor Nicholas Talley AC is a Scien- tific Advisory Board member at BluMaiden Biosciences. Currently he is based at the Univer- sity of Newcastle, Australia and held former appointments as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at Mayo Clinic and Foundation Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney, Nepean Hospital.

Professor Talley is considered one of the world’s leading authorities in diseases of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. Among other advances, his research has document- ed genetic determinants of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and the role of the immune system and gut microbiota in functional gastrointestinal disease. At BluMaiden Biosciences, he is guiding the scientific team as they develop pioneering solutions to human microbiome associated diseases.

Michael Tillmann Joins BluMaiden Biosciences as Investor and as Appointed Chairman of the Board

Singapore – BluMaiden Biosciences Pte Ltd, a Singapore headquartered early-stage biotechnology platform company, announced today that well-known life-sciences investor Michael Tillmann has joined the Company as angel investor and member of the board. Mr. Tillmann will also succeed co-founder Robert Meyer, Managing Partner of Angsana Investments, as Chairman of the board.  

Mr. Tillmann has a stellar 30-year track-record in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry. Having served Roche Diagnostics as its Asia Pacific and North America CEO with a seat in the Roche Global Executive Board, Mr. Tillmann has been running his own bio-tech incubator Amatar Group since 2010. In this role, he also founded Vela Diagnostics Ltd, which was acquired by the Luye Lifescience Group in 2020.

“Michael brings highly valuable and relevant experience to BluMaiden.  His accomplishments in the fields of molecular diagnostics and next-generation sequencing technologies, coupled with his experience from multiple supervisory and advisory board roles, will help guide BluMaiden to achieve its targets in preventing and treating human diseases,” says Dr. Damien Keogh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BluMaiden Biosciences.

Robert Meyer added: “I am delighted that we have been able to win the confidence of Michael both as a financial sponsor and incoming Chairman of BluMaiden. I couldn’t think of a better pair of hands to pass the baton as Chairman of the Board to, and I will continue to support BluMaiden as an active investor and board member. ”

BluMaiden uses proprietary machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches through integrated computational biology platforms to explore the universe within the human microbiome. The company is focused on research, development, and future commercialization of breakthrough microbiome-derived solutions for disease tracking, prevention, and therapeutics. To deepen its drug discovery research and development and bring its health-tech business to global markets, the company is targeting a significant seed round raise in 2022.

The BluMaiden board now comprises Dr. Damien Keogh, Michael Tillmann, Robert Meyer, and Dr. Terence Kelly. The BluMaiden Biosciences Scientific Advisory Board includes University Distinguished Professor Kim Lewis FAAAS, Distinguished Laureate Professor Nicholas Talley AC FAHMS and Professor Stephen Simpson, AC FRS FAA.

Prof Damian O’Connell is Chief Executive Officer the Experimental Drug Development Centre at A*Star – the Agency for Science, Technology and Research based in Singapore. The Experimental Drug Development Centre is a national platform for drug and biomarker discovery as well as early clinical development.

Most recently Damian was Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery – Global Head of Clinical Sciences, Bayer Pharma AG, Berlin – Germany. Prof O’Connell previously held senior positions within Pfizer Research & Development, Parke Davis, Elan Pharmaceuticals and Neurex. Prof O’Connell has both MD & PhD degrees from the National University of Ireland, has been a Medical Faculty member of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center as well as a member of the Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics Department at the University College Cork, Ireland where he was a Professor of Clinical Research. He started his career in the Industry in 1998.

Prof O’Connell is an Adjunct Professor at University College Cork, Ireland; Member Expert Advisory Panel, Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium; Member Advisory Board Investigational Medicine Unit SingHealth, Singapore; Board Member INFANT Research Centre, Cork Ireland; Member Scientific Advisory Board, BluMaiden Biosciences, Singapore; Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine; Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine; Fellow of The Royal Academy of Medicine (Ireland); Member of the British Pharmacological Society; Member of the Drug Safety Executive Council (DSEC); Member American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; Member American College of Clinical Pharmacology.

Singapore – The future is inside us. BluMaiden Biosciences is exploring the universe within the human microbiome, and bringing health and disease insights directly to your family. BluMaiden will use its proprietary human microbiome computational biology insights (DAISY) to focus on disease tracking and prevention, integrating this with the Microbiome AI Drug ENabler (MAIDEN) platform to discover disease therapeutic solutions.

“We have been operating in stealth mode since last year and have received a huge amount of support from the Healthcare and Biotech sector in Singapore. I am extremely pleased to welcome our new investors, and in particular Hong Konglisted Lippo, a major shareholder of Healthway Medical Group. With this financing in place, BluMaiden is well positioned to accelerate its drug discovery and other strategic programs,” says Dr. Damien Keogh, Founder and Chief Executive
Officer of BluMaiden Biosciences. Inspired from his own family’s journey, Damien a biotechnology and microbiology scientist, joined forces with cofounders Dr. Rohan Williams, and Robert Meyer to create BluMaiden.

BluMaiden Biosciences has an ambitious plan and has brought on board distinguished scientific advisors and partners to chart its path. The company will use the funds raised in this round to launch its consumer-facing health-tech platform that will generate population-scale health and disease insights, which will ultimately power its proprietary drug discovery engine. BluMaiden is targeting a significant seed round raise mid-2022 to deepen its drug discovery R&D and bring its health-tech business to global markets. Co-founder and Chairman Robert Meyer added: “BluMaiden Biosciences has developed an ambitious and compelling business plan that has attracted strong interest from top-notch investors. The idea to look within the human body for microbiome signatures with prognostic value, and then leveraging these insights to power a small molecule drug discovery engine, is potentially revolutionary.”

BluMaiden Biosciences also announced that New York-based Dr. Terence Kelly has joined the business as investor and non-executive board member. Dr. Kelly is a leading figure in the Life Sciences sector with outstanding pharma and biotech experience. He has served in various scientific and executive positions with Boehringer Ingelheim in a career spanning over two decades. Dr. Kelly is a medicinal chemist by training and has a broad track record of discovering and advancing small molecules into key clinical studies. Dr. Kelly is the founder of Kelly Pharma Research Consulting, LLC and has been a director of Cardax, Inc. (OTCMKTS: CDXI) since 2014. Dr. Kelly is currently President and CEO of Perception Neuroscience, a clinical stage biotech company developing ketamine derivatives for the treatment of mental health disorders. The BluMaiden Biosciences Scientific Advisory Board includes University Distinguished Professor Kim Lewis FAAAS, Laureate Professor Nicholas Talley AC FAHMS and Professor Stephen Simpson, AC FRS FAA.