Houston-Based SynBio VC Firm Grows Advisory Team with Two New Experts

HOUSTON, April 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --  First Bight Ventures, the Houston-based VC firm which focuses exclusively on the advancement and acceleration of early-stage Synthetic Biology companies, has added two new advisors.

"We are excited to announce the addition of Dr. Gaurab Chakrabarti and Kevin Cocker. These two advisors are experts in their respective fields of medicine and biotechnology. They are proven leaders of Houston-based companies, which is key to our overall growth strategy, as we seek to establish Houston as a geographic center for innovation in Synthetic Biology," Founder Veronica Wu said.

Dr. Gaurab Chakrabarti is the co-founder and CEO of Solugen. As a physician-scientist, Gaurab took an oath to first do no harm—and for him, that goes beyond patients or medicine. In 2016, he started Solugen to decarbonize the chemicals industry, one of the most damaging for people and the Earth. Chakrabarti believes in using biology in unconventional ways to solve incredibly complex problems and is building a world-class team to join him on the journey. Chakrabarti studied computational neuroscience as an undergraduate at Brown University and received his MD & PhD in cancer biology and enzymology at the University of Texas.

Kevin Cocker is the Co-Founder and CEO of Proxima CRO, a regulatory and clinical partner for the emerging biotech and medical device industry. He is a founder and partner of the M1 MedTech accelerator and the Host of the Inventing Tomorrow podcast. Coker received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Central Arkansas, a M.S. in Pathology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and J.D. and M.P.H. degrees from Case Western Reserve University.

"I couldn't be more excited to work with Veronica and First Bight Ventures," Cocker said. "The time is now for companies developing Synthetic Biology products and platforms. Much of this technology has reached commercial level maturity and we are beginning to see exciting things happen, particularly in Houston," he added.

More about First Bight can be found on the company's website at firstbight.com.

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SOURCE First Bight Ventures