ChromaDex Names Additional Scientific Advisory Board Members

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- ChromaDex Corp.  (OTCQB: CDXC), an innovative natural products company that provides proprietary ingredients and science-based solutions to the dietary supplement, food and beverage, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, announced today it has appointed three highly respected scientists and researchers to the company's recently formed Scientific Advisory Board (SAB): Dr. Charles Brenner, Dr. Rob Beudeker, and Dr. Bruce German.

Dr. Brenner is the Roy J. Carver Chair and Head of Biochemistry at the University of Iowa, as well as a founding co-director of the University of Iowa Obesity Initiative. In 2004, Brenner, then a faculty member at Dartmouth College, discovered nicotinamide riboside (NR) to be a vital precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), which is made available by nicotinamide riboside kinases (Nrks) that are conserved between yeast and humans. In 2007, Dr. Brenner's lab discovered a second pathway by which NR is converted to NAD+ and showed that NR can extend the lifespan of yeast cells by virtue of elevating NAD+ levels and increasing the activity of the NAD+ dependent Sir2 enzyme. In the past decade, Dr. Brenner has made multiple seminal contributions to NAD+ metabolism, which include engineering a yeast strain to convert inexpensive NAD+ precursor vitamins into NR, identifying a high affinity NR transporter, solving the crystal structure of human Nrk1, and developing the methods for quantitative NAD+ metabolomics. Dr. Brenner's gene discoveries and characterization of the NAD+ metabolome have shed light on distinct pathways by which human cells utilize distinct NAD+ precursor vitamins. His lab continues to focus on characterizing the molecular mechanisms underlying NAD+ precursors and their impact on human health. Groups worldwide have added to Dr. Brenner's discoveries in providing evidence for unique properties of NR in neuroprotection, sirtuin activation, protection against weight gain on a high fat diet, and improvement of blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.

Dr. Beudeker is the Vice President of Innovation, Human Nutrition & Health, at DSM Nutritional Products. Beudeker is responsible for the innovation program for Human Nutrition and Health at DSM, which he steers globally from Switzerland. Dr. Beudeker has an MSc in biology and PhD in microbiology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He did a post-doc at the University of Texas at Austin in molecular biology after which he joined Gist-brocades (now DSM) R&D in 1984. He has been working in various functions in R&D (project-, program- and resource management) and New Business Development at DSM ever since. He has an M.B.A. from the Universities of Rotterdam and Rochester in New York. In October 2013, ChromaDex received a strategic investment from Royal DSM.

Dr. German received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis in 1988. In 1997, he was named the first John E. Kinsella Endowed Chair in Food, Nutrition and Health, and he is currently a professor at the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. German also previously served as senior scientific advisor at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Dr. German's laboratory group focuses on research seeking to understand how to improve foods and their ability to deliver improved health. The model being used to pave the way toward improving the health benefits of foods is milk, which evolved to make healthy mammals healthier. His research interests include the structure and function of dietary lipids, the role of milk components in food and health and the application of metabolic assessment to personalizing diet and health.

The ChromaDex SAB is chaired by Dr. Roger Kornberg, a professor at Stanford Medical School who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for his research on the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription. Dr. Kornberg earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Stanford in 1972. He became a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England and then an assistant professor of biological chemistry at Harvard Medical School in 1976, before moving to his present position as professor of structural biology at Stanford Medical School in 1978. 

Kornberg's father, the late Arthur Kornberg, was a professor of biochemistry at Stanford and was awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1959.  He was among the first to investigate nicotinamide riboside more than 60 years while at the NIH.

The SAB's mission is to assist the ChromaDex's management team in maximizing the value of the company's portfolio of patented ingredients, primarily by advising on such matters as scientific and research focus, clinical studies, safety and regulatory, commercialization opportunities, and assessing new potential ingredient technologies.

About ChromaDex:
ChromaDex is an innovative natural products company that discovers, acquires, develops and commercializes proprietary-based ingredient technologies through its unique business model that utilizes its wholly owned synergistic business units, including ingredient technologies, natural product fine chemicals (known as "phytochemicals"), chemistry and analytical testing services, and product regulatory and safety consulting (as Spherix Consulting). The company provides seamless science-based solutions to the nutritional supplement, food and beverage, animal health, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. The ChromaDex ingredient technologies unit includes products backed with extensive scientific research and intellectual property. Its ingredient portfolio includes pTeroPure® pterostilbene; ProC3G^®, a natural black rice containing cyanidin-3-glucoside; PURENERGY^®, a caffeine-pTeroPure^® co-crystal; and NIAGEN™, its recently launched branded nicotinamide riboside, a novel next-generation B vitamin. To learn more about ChromaDex, visit www.chromadex.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements that are not a description of historical facts constitute forward-looking statements and may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "potential", "possible", "probable", "believes", "seeks", "may", "will", "should", "could" or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in this release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in the Company's business. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2013, the Company's Quarter Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings submitted by the Company to the SEC, copies of which may be obtained from the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

ChromaDex Media Inquiries:     
Beckerman PR   
Jerry Schranz   
201-465-8020                                                                            [email protected]                                                                                                                                    

ChromaDex Company Contact:
Laura Kelly, Executive Assistant
949-419-0288
[email protected]

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  These products or ingredients are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

SOURCE ChromaDex Corp.