About Us
Plants are nature's principal chemists, capable of producing a vast array of natural biomolecules that are both critical to their own life cycle and also core ingredients in many cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and agricultural products.
However, the yield of these biomolecules from plants is typically very low, or is limited by the plant species’ population. Due to their complexity the chemical synthesis of these biomolecules is routinely not economically viable or sustainable.
Therefore, producing sufficient quantities of these natural biomolecules to meet rapidly growing public demand can be problematic.
Our Solution
Green Bioactives is an innovative start-up biotech from the University of Edinburgh that has developed a sustainable, reliable and economical plant cell-based biomanufacturing platform of plant biomolecules – utilising natural plant biochemistry, particularly the unique properties of plant vascular stem cells, to produce target bioactive molecules for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and agricultural markets.
Our History
Green Bioactives Ltd was established through the Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) programme funded by Innovate UK. In 2018 Green Bioactives Ltd was awarded a place on the ICURe programme to explore the global plant natural products market, and the company identified an urgent requirement for a robust and sustainable source of plant bioactive molecules across different industrial sectors.
Subsequently, Green Bioactives was awarded significant Innovate UK funding to accelerate the development of our plant cell biomanufacturing platform and supply plant bioactive ingredients in a sustainable way.
The company opened its research lab at the Roslin Innovation Centre (RIC) in March 2020. Since then Green Bioactives has been successful in securing further funding and developing new technologies to fine-tune the production of high-value molecules in cultured plant cells.
2020 Relocation to the Roslin Innovation Centre
2018 ICURe Program
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BBSRC grant awarded
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Patent application filed
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IBioIC grant awarded
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Collaboration agreement signed
2022 Expansion phase
2019 Company formation
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ICURe Follow on funding awarded
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Innovation Cup runner up
2021 Strengthening of our plant cell biomanufacturing platform
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IBioIC grant awarded
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GBL team expanded
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Participation in Bioeconomy cluster Pitch event
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Plant natural products market assessment
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Pre seed investment
Management Team
David McElroy, PhD
David McElroy, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr David McElroy is an experienced agbio leader and joined GBL in December 2021 as Non-executive Board Director. David co-founded agbio start-ups Verdia and NovaSynthetix, as well as natural gas-to-feed company Calysta. He was also instrumental in helping launch computation-based protein design company Arzeda and has held roles as President of agbiotech SME Targeted Growth at DuPont Food & Ag., VP of Business Development at Maxygen and Senior Scientist at DeKalb Genetics/Monsanto.
David holds a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Cornell University where he was a Fulbright Scholar and NATO Overseas Fellow, as well as a BSc (Hons) in Plant Science from University of Aberdeen. David is an inventor on 17 patent families.
Chief Executive Officer
Gary Loake, PhD
Gary Loake, PhD
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr Gary Loake co-founded GBL in 2020. Prior to GBL, Gary was a Professor of Molecular Plant Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and his research experience spans regulation, biosynthesis and production of plant natural products.
He co-founded and was a former governing Board member of the Scottish Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), a networking and support organisation that connects industry, academia and government to bring biotechnology processes and products to the global market. Gary holds a PhD from Durham University and is a scientific advisor to Unilever, PlantIntel and VeryGrass.
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
John Craig
Chief Financial Officer
John is the Owner and Director of DC Consulting, one of Scotland’s leading business advisory & corporate finance practices, and has over 20 years’ experience in corporate finance and business advisory services to SMEs. John is a Non-executive Finance Director of a number of companies.
Prior to DC Consulting, John worked at Mazars as Senior Audit Manager. John qualified as a Chartered Account with Henderson Loggie and is Bachelor of Accounting (BACC) Hons from the University of Dundee.
John Craig
Chief Financial Officer
Chris Meaney
Chief Business Officer
Chris joined GBL in January in 2023 and is an experienced international business development leader in healthcare, nutraceuticals and manufacturing. Chris spent 12 years at Cambridge Nutraceuticals from company formation through to business maturity, in marketing and as Head of Business Development.
Chris joined GBL from Piramal Nutrition Solutions, a global vitamin and mineral manufacturer and supplier, where he served as European Head of Business Development, responsible for launching the business into the European market.
Chris holds a BA in Business Studies from Liverpool John Moores University and has also held roles at Lloyds Pharmacy, Dexcel Pharma and Vivo Healthcare.
Chris Meaney
Chief Business Officer
Yuan Li, PhD
Research Lead
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Yuan Li, PhD
Research Lead
Dr Yuan Li has extensive plant biology, tissue culture and gene editing expertise with experience working with industry partners including Unilever and VeryGrass Corp. on numerous plant cell culture projects. As an industrial partner, Yuan was successful in achieving award funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Scottish Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC).
Prior to GBL, Yuan was a post-doctoral research assistant at the University of Edinburgh. He holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in addition to Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Imperial College and the University of Sheffield.
Samuel Casasola-Zamora, PhD
Production Lead
Dr Samuel Casasola-Zamora is a plant biologist focused on molecular biology and recombinant protein expression with expertise plant bioinformatics and analysis of the plant transcriptome including sequencing data. Prior to GBL, Samuel was a PhD Tech Transfer Intern at Edinburgh Innovations.
Samuel gained his PDRA, PhD and MSc from the University of Edinburgh. Samuel is an alumna of the Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (BioYES).
Samuel Casasola-Zamora, PhD
Production Lead
Andy Hall-Ponselé, DPhil
Head of Operations
Andy Hall-Ponselé, DPhil
Head of Operations
Andy joined GBL in January 2023 and is a biotechnology expert with significant commercial and operational expertise. Andy co-founded Biotangents Ltd in 2015 based on his synthetic biology expertise and DNA assembly technology. Andy led the company as CEO in its first 18 months, secured funding and led its business strategy before becoming Director of Operations, playing a key role in determining the company’s product development and commercialisation strategies and growing the company to 23 FTEs.
Andy holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, where he explored genetic engineering to increase the abundance of secondary metabolites in tobacco cells. Andy also holds a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Edinburgh and he previously held a scientist role at synthetic biology start-up Genabler Ltd.
Dr. Samuel Casasola
Gary Loake, PhD
Gary Loake, PhD
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr Gary Loake co-founded GBL in 2020. Prior to GBL, Gary was a Professor of Molecular Plant Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and his research experience spans regulation, biosynthesis and production of plant natural products.
He co-founded and was a former governing Board member of the Scottish Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), a networking and support organisation that connects industry, academia and government to bring biotechnology processes and products to the global market. Gary holds a PhD from Durham University and is a scientific advisor to Unilever, PlantIntel and VeryGrass.
Founder, Chief Scientific Officer, Chairman and Executive Director
Andrew Durkie
Non-Executive Investor Director
Andrew is a Partner in Eos Advisory LLP, an investor in innovative early-stage science, engineering and technology businesses.
Andrew is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of transaction experience. He was a corporate finance advisor with Andersen and Deloitte and Head of Group M&A at HBOS. He held senior Finance, Corporate Development and Commercial roles within the Insurance & Wealth business of Lloyds Banking Group and has supported a number of early-stage businesses.
Andrew Durkie
Non-Executive Investor Director
David McElroy, PhD
David McElroy, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr David McElroy is an experienced agbio leader and joined GBL in December 2021 as Non-executive Board Director. David co-founded agbio start-ups Verdia and NovaSynthetix, as well as natural gas-to-feed company Calysta. He was also instrumental in helping launch computation-based protein design company Arzeda and has held roles as President of agbiotech SME Targeted Growth at DuPont Food & Ag., VP of Business Development at Maxygen and Senior Scientist at DeKalb Genetics/Monsanto.
David holds a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Cornell University where he was a Fulbright Scholar and NATO Overseas Fellow, as well as a BSc (Hons) in Plant Science from University of Aberdeen. David is an inventor on 17 patent families.
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director
Samuel Casasola-Zamora, PhD
Production Lead
Dr Samuel Casasola-Zamora is a plant biologist focused on molecular biology and recombinant protein expression with expertise plant bioinformatics and analysis of the plant transcriptome including sequencing data. Prior to GBL, Samuel was a PhD Tech Transfer Intern at Edinburgh Innovations.
Samuel gained his PDRA, PhD and MSc from the University of Edinburgh. Samuel is an alumna of the Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (BioYES).
Samuel Casasola-Zamora, PhD
Production Lead and Executive Director