Codon Devices Names President And CEO

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Codon Devices, the first venture-backed startup in the emerging field of synthetic biology, announced today that the company had named John P. Danner as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Danner brings more than 15 years of leadership experience to Codon Devices and joins from PerkinElmer, Inc., where he held a number of executive positions including Vice President and General Manager of a $450M group of biopharmaceutical tools businesses.

Prior to his six-year tenure at PerkinElmer, Mr. Danner was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, serving in both the United States and Europe, focusing on strategy development, operational excellence, and organizational restructuring. Previously, he served as an Officer in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine force. Mr. Danner holds a B.S. with distinction in engineering from Cornell University and an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“I am excited and honored to be joining the team at Codon Devices. In the first year since its founding, Codon Devices has attracted world-class investors, scientists and employees and has established a leadership position in one of the most important revolutions the life science industry,” Danner said. “We are very excited to have attracted someone of John’s caliber to lead Codon Devices. He brings a unique blend of strategy development and business execution skills that will be critical to the company as we begin rapid commercialization of our technology,” said Mr. Samir Kaul, founding CEO of Codon Devices and partner at Flagship Ventures. “We genuinely believe that Codon Devices has the potential to bring enabling technology to significant markets. We are delighted that John has joined us and have great confidence in his ability to lead the company,” said Noubar Afeyan, Chairman of Codon Devices and Manager Partner and CEO of Flagship Ventures.

Codon Devices, based in Cambridge, MA, was founded in 2004 to pioneer commercial applications of Synthetic Biology. In June of this year, Codon Devices raised $13M in a Series A financing involving Flagship Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Alloy Ventures, and Mr. Vinod Khosla. Codon Devices’ distinguished founding scientific advisory board (SAB) is comprised of top scientists in the field, including Chairman George Church, Harvard Medical School, David Baker, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at the University of Washington; Jim Collins, Boston University; Michael Elowitz, California Institute of Technology; Drew Endy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Michael Hunkapiller, Alloy Ventures; Joseph Jacobson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jay Keasling, UC-Berkeley; Paul Modrich, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Duke University; Christina Smolke, California Institute of Technology; and Ron Weiss, Princeton University.

Codon Devices is developing its proprietary BioFAB production platform that is expected to accurately synthesize kilobase- to megabase-length genetic code, orders of magnitude more rapidly and less expensively than currently available technology. The company has internally developed and licensed-in intellectual property related to the efficient synthesis of DNA code. In addition, Codon Devices has developed proprietary designs and production processes related to the BioFAB. The company’s early commercial focus is on providing engineered devices for molecular biology research and engineered biotherapeutics. The company’s core technology is expected to enable large- scale biological research, engineered cells that produce novel pharmaceuticals, improved vaccines, agricultural products, and biorefineries for the production of industrial chemicals and energy.

Source: Codon Devices

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