Management Team . . Board of Directors . . Investors . . Advisors

Meet our Management Team

Junhua (Alex) Tao, Ph.D. – Co-founder, Vice President R&D and Chief Scientific Officer

Prior to co-founding BioVerdant, Dr. Tao was an Associate Research Fellow and creator and Head of the Biotransformations Group at Pfizer Global R&D in La Jolla, CA. Dr. Tao was also a member of the Global API Development Team, API Review Team and Biotask Force Team in Pfizer, and actively involved in exploring biocatalysis for drug discovery, development and manufacturing.

Since its inception in the late 1990's, the Biotransformations group has attained an international reputation in science for their pioneering work in the use of biocatalysis in the chemical development of pharmaceuticals. Dr. Tao has led a team to successfully develop a nationally-recognized green chemistry manufacturing process for Pregabalin, which won the top European Green Chemistry award-the Excellence in Green Chemistry and Engineering Award in 2006. Other notable achievements include the first high throughput enzyme screening robotic system, discovery of unusual and unprecedented solvent effects in enzyme-mediated reactions and development of a continuous enzymatic process for ketone reduction. In just over seven years, Dr. Tao has established himself as a pioneer and world leader in biotransformations for chemical process development.

Dr. Tao has given over 50 presentations on his group's work on the national and international stages. Prior to joining Pfizer in 1998, he earned degrees in three different branches of Chemistry (B.S. in analytical, M.S. in physical and Ph.D. in organic), a rare multidisciplinary occurrence. This path continued when Dr. Tao did a postdoctoral secondment at Harvard Medical School from 2002 to 2003 to learn molecular biology and protein science in the labs of Prof. Chris Walsh. Dr. Tao is the recipient of the 2004 Pfizer Achievement Award, a Pfizer Team Award and a Pfizer Green Chemistry Award. He is an author of over 50 papers, book chapters, and patent applications.

alex.tao@bioverdant.com