Andrew Ellington is the Fraser Professor of Biochemistry and Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Regents Chair in Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. His honors and awards include the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, Cottrell Scholar, Pew Scholar, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He is known for developing methods for the in vitro selection of functional nucleic acids and coining the term “aptamer.” His lab works on the development of nucleic acid circuitry for point-of-care diagnostics, on accelerating the evolution of proteins and cells through the introduction of novel chemistries, and on machine learning methods for engineering proteins and understanding evolutionary landscapes.

On the launch of the inaugural SAB, Stemloop Founder and CEO, Khalid K. Alam, Ph.D., said “We’re thrilled to have a scientific super team with the world’s most innovative synthetic biologists.” Alam continued, “Jim and Andy are the best possible advisors to push our innovation and capabilities forward,” citing “Jim’s revolutionary work on gene circuits and Andy’s groundbreaking laboratory evolution methods” as directly enabling Stemloop’s cellfree biosensor platform.

Cofounder Michael C. Jewett, Ph.D., added “Andy and Jim are pioneers in synthetic biology and biosensing and we are excited to have them help shape the trajectory of the company.” Cofounder Julius B. Lucks, Ph.D., also added “with Andy and Jim we have the worlds leaders in biosensor research supercharging our scientific team, enabling us to quickly develop and deploy biosensing solutions.”

The announcement coincides with Stemloop’s go-to-market pivot towards biomanufacturing, where the company aims to accelerate strain engineering and scale-up efforts in biomanufacturing by solving analytical testing bottlenecks, and the launch of a seed round fundraising campaign to grow commercial revenues, accelerate platform capabilities, and deepen its portfolio of biosensor intellectual property.