Second Genome Appoints Glenn Nedwin, Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Second Genome, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines through innovative microbiome science, today announced the appointment of Glenn Nedwin, Ph.D., as chief executive officer, president and member of the company's board of directors. Dr. Nedwin joins Second Genome as the company accelerates the translation of its microbiome discoveries into a pipeline of clinical opportunities.

Second Genome also announced today that SR One, Limited, the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline, has joined its previously announced Series B financing, bringing the total to $51 million. SR One is the third investment arm of a major pharmaceutical company to participate, along side Pfizer Venture Investments and Roche Venture Fund, and also joins Digitalis Ventures. Jill Carroll of SR One has joined Second Genome's board of directors.

"We are on the cusp of the next paradigm shift in health and medicine," said Dr. Nedwin. "I was drawn to Second Genome because its microbiome-derived technology platform and product pipeline have enormous potential to transform medicine, as well as consumer and animal health, agriculture and industrial applications. I look forward to working with the Second Genome team to build on their success as we use our platform to bring novel therapeutics to the market."

"At Second Genome, we have developed a unique and powerful platform for identifying and developing microbiome-mediated molecular pathways implicated in health and disease," said Karim Dabbagh, Ph.D., Second Genome's chief scientific officer. "I look forward to working with Glenn to exploit our metagenomic profiling of host-microbe interactions and significant microbial databases of diseased and healthy humans for drug discovery and development."

"Dr. Nedwin, with his accomplished biotechnology career, brings strong science and business acumen, as well as leadership to Second Genome," said Corey Goodman, Ph.D., chairman and co-founder of Second Genome. "Glenn has a superb track record of building and growing biotechnology companies."

Dr. Nedwin brings more than 30 years experience in the pharmaceutical and industrial biotechnology industries. Most recently, Dr. Nedwin was chief executive officer of Taxon Biosciences, Inc., an environmental and agricultural microbiome company that was acquired by DuPont in 2015. Earlier in his career, he served as president of Novozymes, Inc. and as executive vice president of the Genencor Technical Enzymes Division of Danisco, that was acquired by DuPont in 2011. Dr. Nedwin received his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from State University of New York, Buffalo, a master's degree in management of technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at Genentech and is a co-author of over 40 scientific publications and patents.

About Second Genome
Second Genome is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco, California. Second Genome's mission is to transform lives with novel medicines developed through innovative microbiome science. Please visit www.secondgenome.com for more information.

SOURCE Second Genome, Inc.