Former Pfizer and Agouron Pharmaceuticals executive Kim Albizati joins company
SAN DIEGO, CA. — February 26, 2018 — Molecular Assemblies Inc., a company developing a proprietary enzymatic DNA synthesis technology, today announced the appointment of Kim F. Albizati, PhD, as vice president of chemistry and biochemistry. Dr. Albizati has extensive experience building scientific teams and a strong background in enzyme development.
“Kim’s scientific leadership and proven ability to develop successful scientific teams in start-up and established biotech companies will be a great asset to Molecular Assemblies as we further advance our enzymatic DNA synthesis platform and grow the company,” said Molecular Assemblies President and CEO Michael J. Kamdar. “We are thrilled to welcome Kim to our team.”
Dr. Albizati has served in leadership positions in numerous companies, including Pfizer and Agouron Pharmaceuticals. As executive director of chemistry at Agouron, Dr. Albizati built a 70-person department with capabilities in process development, chemical engineering, automation and robotics, high-throughput screening, computational chemistry and intermediate scale drug production. He created the first dedicated group in the pharmaceutical industry to use enzymatic biotransformations in chemical process development. This group gained international recognition for its innovations in high-throughput enzyme screening, solvent effects in enzyme chemistry, process computational chemistry and manufacturing process development. Most recently, Dr. Albizati was the senior director of chemistry, manufacturing and controls at Dart Neuroscience. Dr. Albizati has a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has co-authored more than 70 publications.
“DNA has the potential to be the most important material of the future. However, the fundamental science behind DNA synthesis hasn’t evolved since the chemical approach was developed three decades ago, limiting our ability to innovate,” Albizati said. “Molecular Assemblies’ enzymatic technology stands to revolutionize the writing of DNA, enabling the development of long, high-quality DNA for applications in synthetic biology in health care, agriculture, biofuels, chemicals, electronics and more. I’m excited to join the Molecular Assemblies team and for the opportunity to contribute to the development of this truly novel technology.”
“Molecular Assemblies has made significant advances in developing a completely new approach to writing DNA,” said Molecular Assemblies Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Bill Efcavitch, PhD. “We look forward to benefitting from Kim’s expertise in enzymatic biotransformations as we refine our technology platform over the coming months.”
About Molecular Assemblies
Molecular Assemblies, Inc. is a San Diego-based company focused on developing an enzymatic DNA synthesis technology designed to power the next generation of DNA-based products. The company’s patented enzymatic method, based on making DNA the way nature makes DNA, produces long, high quality, sequence-specific DNA reliably, affordably and sustainably. Molecular Assemblies’ technology will enable the reading and writing of DNA for industries including industrial synthetic biology and precision medicine, as well as emerging applications of DNA for data information storage, nanomachines and bio-based electronics. For more information please visit molecularassemblies.com.
