Neal Gutterson
Neal Gutterson is the president and CEO of biotech company Mendel Biotechnology.
He graduated from UC Berkeley with a PhD in biochemistry in 1982 and began his biotechnology career at Advanced Genetic Sciences (AGS) in 1983. AGS was acquired by DNA Plant Technology in 1988 and was then subsequently acquired by Savia in 1996. Gutterson led the DNAP research group for several years and joined Mendel Biotechnology in 2002 as vice president of research and development. He became Mendel president in 2005 and was appointed CEO in 2007.[1]
He is a member of BIO, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, as well as BIO's Food and Ag Section Governing Body. He is on the board executive committee of a new program supporting the commercial development of biotech specialty crop products, SCRI (Specialty Crops Regulatory Initiative).[2]
During Gutterson's employment at AGS the company made the world's first officially approved environmental release of a GMO in a field test of the "ice-minus" bacterium, designed to protect crops from frost. It was a GM version of a common agricultural pest, Pseudonomas syringae.[3] The release was approved by the EPA in 1983[4] but was delayed for some years by environmental protests, finally taking place in 1987.[5]
Notes
- ↑ Neal Gutterson PhD, Informed Horizons website, acc 8 Jul 2010
- ↑ Neal Gutterson PhD, Informed Horizons website, acc 8 Jul 2010
- ↑ Christopher Joyce, Strawberry field will test man-made bacterium, New Scientist, 14 Nov 1985, acc 8 Jul 2010
- ↑ Christopher Joyce, Strawberry field will test man-made bacterium, New Scientist, 14 Nov 1985, acc 8 Jul 2010
- ↑ Marcia Barinaga, Field test of ice-minus bacteria goes ahead despite vandals, Nature, vol 326, 30 Apr 1987
