Terry Kitagawa, Ph.D.
Product Development, Chemistry in San Francisco Bay Area
About
As an accomplished product development manager, product educator and R&D chemist with over 15 years of experience, I possess a significant breadth and depth of cross-functional expertise in CPG/FMCG and the dynamic world of biotech startups, navigating both B2B and B2C channels in both highly technical and customer-facing roles.
Work Experience
Business Development:
-
Reporting to the SVP, Specialty Chemicals, led the successful launch of Avela™ (R)-1,3-Butanediol functional food and nutraceutical ingredient, resulting in $1.3MM revenue in Year 1, projected $4MM revenue in Year 2 and a robust sales pipeline with 300+ leads and an accessible volume of 300MT in Year 1
-
Developed Avela global expansion strategy, demonstrating the potential for Avela to tap into the $530MM international functional foods and beverages market.
-
Negotiated customer supply agreement terms for Avela, including volume/pricing, usage restrictions and IP terms.
-
As the nutrition subject matter expert, served as the primary customer-facing point of contact for product-related inquiries, excelling at building relationships and forecasting volume through proactive outreach.
Clinical Trial Expertise: Executed a pivotal in-vivo clinical trial (NCT05384106) in collaboration with external partners to substantiate the efficacy and tolerability of Avela.
Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Collaboration: Negotiated the first Genomatica academic partnership with The Buck Institute for Research on Aging and The Ohio State University in support of clinical trial NCT05501366.
Product Development: Formulated two novel Avela functional beverage prototypes in collaboration with external partners, resulting in a 50% increase in lead generation within the first month.
Marketing: Responsible for developing product claims matrix best practices and all public-facing scientific communication copywriting for Avela based collectively on extensive literature reviews and market intelligence.
Speaking
More than 60 years ago, NASA evaluated 1,3-Butanediol as an energy-dense food source for aerospace nutrition. Since then, researchers have discovered its unique functional benefits, showing its promise in supporting human health and performance.
Geno, a biotech company and sustainability leader, has developed Avela™ (R)-1,3-Butanediol, a plant-based, sustainable energy source that provides the performance benefits of ketones on demand. Avela™ elevates BHB levels, delivering an instantly accessible energy source that can improve mental clarity and athletic endurance. Our experts will discuss how Avela can bring these benefits to a broader consumer audience without the need for highly restrictive diets.
This presentation discusses the importance of the human microbiome as a foundation for our health and wellness, and how Renew Life Probiotics can help support a healthy microbiome.
Writing
The invention relates to compositions and methods of treatment employing compositions including a cationic polyelectrolyte, without any anionic polyelectrolytes, so that no polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) is formed. In addition to not forming PECs, and being free of anionic water-soluble polymers (i.e., an anionic polyelectrolyte polymer that could form a PEC with the cationic polyelectrolyte), the composition is also free of random copolymers, block copolymers, coacervates, precipitates, and silicone copolymers. The composition may be a concentrate, to be diluted prior to use to treat a surface.
Superoxide reductases (SORs) are cysteine-ligated, non-heme iron enzymes that reduce toxic superoxide radicals (O2-). The functional role of the trans cysteinate, as well as the mechanism by which SOR reduces O2-, is unknown. Herein is described a rare example of a functional metalloenzyme analogue, which catalytically reduces superoxide in a proton-dependent mechanism, via a trans thiolate-ligated iron-peroxo intermediate, the first example of its type. Acetic-acid-promoted H2O2 release, followed by Cp2Co reduction, regenerates the active Fe(II) catalyst. The thiolate ligand and its trans positioning relative to the substrate are shown to contribute significantly to the catalyst's function, by lowering the redox potential, changing the spin state, and dramatically lowering the νFe-O stretching frequency well-below that of any other reported iron-peroxo, while leaving νO-O high, so as to favor superoxide reduction and Fe−O, as opposed to O−O, bond cleavage. Thus we provide critical insight into the relationship between the SOR structure and its function, as well as important benchmark parameters for characterizing highly unstable thiolate-ligated iron-peroxo intermediates.
Features
Terry Kitagawa is the sort of scientist you’d send to meet retail executives and magazine editors.
He can talk the scientific talk. (He’s got a Ph.D in bioinorganic chemistry, after all.) He can also connect that scientific talk to the manufacturing, marketing and sales side of the business to give Clorox cleaning and laundry products their best chance to succeed in the marketplace.