Solarea Bio Appoints New Chief Executive Officer

Catherine Balsam-Schwaber Will Bring Track Record of Scaling Mission-Driven Health Companies to Solarea Bio's Breakthrough Solutions for Healthy Aging

Commercial Launch of Bondia™, a First-of-Its-Kind Synbiotic Medical Food for Menopausal Bone Health, Planned for October 2025

BOSTON, Oct. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Solarea Bio, a biotechnology company unlocking the plant-based microbiome to deliver science-backed solutions for healthy living, today announced the appointment of Catherine Balsam-Schwaber as Chief Executive Officer to accelerate the company's next stage of growth.

"Solarea Bio is committed to rigorous science with real world impact helping people live longer, healthier lives," said Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, CEO, Solarea Bio. "I am excited to build on Solarea's pioneering work and bring to market solutions rooted in our uniquely large platform of microbiome strains isolated from fruits and vegetables."

Catherine Balsam-Schwaber brings a track record of scaling mission-driven health companies. She previously served as CEO and Co-Founder of Thoughtful AI (acquired by Spring Health) and CEO of Kindra, a women's self-care company for menopause support. She has also held executive leadership roles at NBCUniversal and Mattel.

Solarea Bio founder Gerardo V. Toledo, Ph.D added, "I'm thrilled to welcome Catherine at this inflection point in Solarea's journey. It's inspiring to see the company grow from a simple idea into the creation of an entirely new product category." Dr. Toledo, who co-founded the company and served as CEO since its inception, will transition from his executive role to serve as an advisor, providing strategic continuity and deep scientific insight as the company enters its next phase of growth.

Solarea Bio will commercially launch Bondia™, a first-of-its-kind synbiotic medical food that slows bone loss in postmenopausal women, later this month. Bondia™ works by addressing the inflammation that drives bone loss. By acting through the gut-bone axis, it helps calm inflammatory signals that accelerate bone breakdown. This restores a healthier balance between bone loss and bone growth, supporting stronger bones over time. Nearly 70% of U.S. women over age 50 suffer from age-related bone loss, meaning that Bondia™has the potential to benefit over 45 million women in the U.S. alone.

About Solarea Bio

Solarea Bio is a biotechnology company based in Waltham, MA, that's committed to advancing the future of aging and measurably improving collective health outcomes. The company has built a best-in-class strain catalog of bacterial and fungal diversity isolated from fresh fruits and vegetables, a database of their genomes, and a computational platform to mine them to develop medical foods. Solarea Bio incorporates the highest level of scientific rigor into every aspect of its process, validating products in robust randomized, placebo-controlled clinical food trials to create novel solutions for managing inflammatory diseases. To learn more, please visit: https://www.solareabio.com.

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SOURCE Solarea Bio