Decarbonizing Chemical Design (with Tina Boville @ Aralez Bio)

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Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Aralez Bio is a portfolio company at Climate Capital, where Jenny works as a Managing Partner.

CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision.

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This week on the Climate Capital Podcast, join Jenny Kan in a deep dive with Tina Boville, CEO and co-founder of Aralez Bio. Aralez Bio is transforming production of non-canonical amino acids.

Tina and her co-founder David Romney started their journey while working on a unique technology as postdocs at Caltech. They were developing an enzyme platform that could synthesize new types of amino acids. The idea to start a company was initially seeded by their academic co-founder & Nobel Laureate, Francis Arnold.

The core of Aralez Bio's work revolves around expanding the toolkit of amino acids. Currently, there are 20 amino acids that are easy to make, but the opportunity lies in creating new ones. By developing a new generation of bio-based products, Aralez Bio aims to address challenges surrounding health and sustainability.

The company's journey to scale up their process was not without its challenges. From running tiny experiments to producing a kilogram of amino acids, it took them about a year to accomplish their goal. The triumphant moment of producing their first kilogram of amino acid was a defining moment for the company, marking a significant milestone in their journey.

Tina's advice to budding entrepreneurs is to be fearless. She believes in focusing on the strengths and learning from red flags. She encourages entrepreneurs to learn from their mistakes and move forward.

Looking forward, Tina envisions Aralez Bio growing to capture more of the amino acid world. They aim to expand their platform to make any amino acid imaginable, scale up the production to support various developmental stages, and introduce these amino acids into a new generation of products that are better and more sustainable. Tina & the Aralez Bio team are always eager to connect with like-minded individuals interested in green chemistry, sustainability, and the creation of sustainable bio-based products.

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