Improving the potential of living medicines

Barry Polisky is the Chief Executive Officer of Microbial Machines. He has worked in biotechnology for the past 30 years on the discovery and development of nucleic acid therapeutics. He was the Vice-President of Research at NexStar/NeXagen from 1992-98, using Selex to discover and characterize aptamers against targets of therapeutic importance. This work led to one of the first FDA approved nucleic acid therapeutics, Macugen, for the treatment of wet macular degeneration. NexStar was acquired by Gilead Therapeutics. Subsequently, he was the CSO at Sirna Therapeutics developing modified siRNAs against many targets including Hepatitis B. Sirna was acquired by Merck and he was Vice President of Research at Merck from 2006-8. After this, he was CSO at Marina Biosciences in Bothell, WA.

Prior to his work in the private sector, he was Professor of Molecular Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he managed a laboratory focused on mechanisms of control of initiation of DNA replication.

Jeff Wagner is a co-founder and the Chief Scientific Officer of Microbial Machines, leading the scientific strategy of the company since its launch in 2019. Before joining Microbial Machines, Jeff was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he engineered Mycobacterium tuberculosis for applications to vaccine development in a project supported by the Gates Foundation. He has an exceptional scientific track record with high impact publications in journals such as Nature Methods and The Journal of Bacteriology and was a recipient of the NIGMS Biotechnology Training Grant Fellowship during graduate school.

Jeff graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with an AB in Cell, Genetic, and Developmental Biology Modified with Engineering Sciences and holds a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Julia Novina is a founding executive who helped Microbial Machines secure seed funding and lab space to launch in 2019. In her role of Chief Legal Officer, she oversees all legal, financial and administrative functions of the company. Julia also serves as founder and Chief Legal Officer Counsel to two other preclinical biotechnology companies, AI Proteins, Inc. and Dynamic Cell Therapies, Inc. She has formerly served as Chief Legal Officer and founder to two other start-up biotechnology companies, NextRNA Therapeutics, Inc. and Courage Therapeutics. At each, she has the same responsibilities as at Microbial Machines, including corporate formation, rounds of financing, board and equity management, technology licensing, contracting and general company administration. She earned her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and graduated magna cum laude from Connecticut College.

Amanda Hussey is a scientist at Microbial Machines focusing on the in-vivo delivery and testing of the lead products. She has a diverse interdisciplinary background in chemistry, biochemistry, and biology doing everything from chemical synthesis of novel probes for excitatory neuron tracking to in-vivo testing of the effect of diet on cancer progression.  Her most recent work investigated the effect of the role of fatty acid oxidation under a high fat diet on colorectal tumor initiation and progression.

Amanda received a BS in Chemistry from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. She completed a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a focus on chemical biology. Her post-doctoral training was completed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in both the Chemistry department and at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Cameron Habib is a molecular microbiologist currently serving as a Scientist at Microbial Machines. Using the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis, Cameron has made significant contributions to the field of bacterial metabolism, as well as bacterial cell wall biosynthesis regulation and stress response.

Cameron received a BS in Biochemistry and a BS in Cell Biology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at Northeastern University and post-doctoral training in the Microbiology department of Harvard Medical School.

Shinya Imada is an intestinal stem cell and cancer biologist currently serving as a Scientist at Microbial Machines. He has a unique interdisciplinary ability in basic, clinical, and translational research. As a member of our in vivo team, he is focusing on the delivery and testing of the lead products using genetic mouse models.

Shinya received an MD and completed a gastrointestinal surgical residency program in Japan. He completed his PhD in Medical Science from the University of Hiroshima and post-doctoral training at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.”

Sydney Solomon is a bioengineer currently serving as a Scientist at Microbial Machines. Previously, she built systems biology tools to study the host-pathogen interactions of human macrophages and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Sydney received a BS in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. She completed her Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Andrew Wong is a Scientist at Microbial Machines focusing on molecular microbiology. For his Ph.D., Andrew used functional genomics to identify and dissect novel mechanisms of intrinsic drug resistance in the global pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Andrew received a BSc with Honours in Microbiology from the University of Toronto. He completed his PhD in Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University.”

Caitlin Morrison is a Research Associate at Microbial Machines. Caitlin has an industry background, previously working with sepsis-causing pathogens for the development of diagnostic testing.  She received a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology with a focus on Microbiology from the University of Rhode Island.