Explore the Future of Biomanufacturing
Welcome to my blog! I'm James, a strategic advisor and coach with over 20 years of experience in biotech and executive leadership. I've built high-performing teams and led groundbreaking research in stem cell metabolism, regenerative medicine, and cultured meat. As a passionate advocate for biomanufacturing's world-changing potential, I'm excited to share my knowledge and ideas with you.
What You’ll Discover Here
🔬 Latest Innovations: Explore cutting-edge advancements in biomanufacturing, cultivated meat, and cellular agriculture.
🚀 Founder's Corner: Access valuable tools and insights developed for my coaching program, tailored specifically for technical founders.
🎙️ Industry Voices: Every two weeks, enjoy an in-depth interview with a founder, investor, or operator in the biomanufacturing space.
📘 Things I’m reading this week - 14/02/2025
An excerpt from my fortnightly LinkedIn newsletter. Links to three interesting articles I’ve read in the last 1-2 weeks. This weeks topics include two short guides to raising capital for startups and a guidance document on Good Cell and Tissue Culture Practice
🎓 Don’t Be Like Bob: How to Align Your Tech with Market Demand
After speaking with 200+ technical founders and leaders—and based on my own experience—the biggest challenge remains the same: aligning technical strategy with commercial success.
🎙️ From Glow-in-the-Dark Carrots to Venture Capital
For this week’s newsletter, I had the opportunity to chat with Eshan Samaranayake from Better Bite Ventures and author of the Better Bioeconomy newsletter. This feels like a full-circle moment for me, as Eshan interviewed me shortly after I left Vow in early 2024. Our friendship is a great example of the power of networking—and LinkedIn in particular.
The Sweet Revolution: How Feedstocks Will Shape the Future of Biomanufacturing
Biomanufacturing is reshaping industries—from food and textiles to specialty chemicals and biofuels—by harnessing biology to create high-value products. This field spans technologies like cell cultivation, fermentation, enzymatic processes, molecular farming, and synthetic biology.
While innovations like cultivated meat and precision-fermented dairy often steal the spotlight, one critical factor is often overlooked: feedstocks. As the industry scales, the demand for sustainable, cost-effective raw materials to power these processes is skyrocketing.
Is your team truly aligned?
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working with founders and leaders on communication, goal setting, and team alignment. One simple test keeps proving invaluable:
Ask each team member—individually—what the company’s North Star is for 2025.
🚀 Five Breakthrough Technologies Driving Down COGS in Fermentation-Based Biomanufacturing
Here are five companies developing game-changing technologies that could help make fermentation-based production more cost-effective in 2025 (and beyond)
📘 Things I’m reading this week - 31/01/2025
An excerpt from my fortnightly LinkedIn newsletter. Links to three interesting articles I’ve read in the last 1-2 weeks. This weeks topics include building your unique value proposition, two new biomanufacturing facilities in The Netherlands and a brand new biomanufacturing VC fund exceeds their 150 million target.
🎙️ A Green Genie to Grant Your Biomass Yield Wishes
This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with Nick Hazell, founder and CEO of Algenie, and previously the founder and CEO of plant-based food company v2food.
🎓Your Value Proposition Can Make or Break Your Startup —Are You Getting It Right?
Your unique value proposition (UVP) is more than just a tagline—it’s your North Star. It guides where you spend resources (time and money), how you make strategic decisions, and whether investors, customers, and partners take you seriously.
🎓 The Unique Challenges of Being a Technical Founder and Leader 🌟
Ever feel like you’re caught between your passion for groundbreaking science and the relentless need to focus on customers and products?
🚀 5 Breakthrough Advances in Upstream Bioprocessing That Are Reshaping Biomanufacturing 🚀
For non-clinical biomanufacturers, the priority is clear: drive up yield, drive down costs, and scale effectively. Here are five cutting-edge technologies I’ve come across in the last 12–18 months that are set to make waves:
🎓 Why I Don’t Believe in Resolutions—But I’m All In on Impact 🎯
✨ 2024 was a transformative year—full of growth, learning, and meaningful partnerships. As I step into 2025, I’m doubling down on what I do best: helping biotech teams align their technical and commercial roadmaps to bring world-changing products to market, faster and more efficiently.
🎓2024: A year of big wins, hard lessons, and immense gratitude.
Building a business from scratch has been equal parts rewarding, terrifying, and exhilarating. Here are some highlights (and lowlights) from the year:
🎙️ What does minestrone soup and biomanufacturing have in common?
This metaphor perfectly captures one of the biggest challenges in biomanufacturing today: waste and side-stream valorization. It’s also one of the first things Jason Whitfield, an investment associate at Main Sequence VC, shared with me during our initial conversation. From the get-go, we dived into biomanufacturing opportunities in Australia, and Jason’s ability to clearly articulate complex challenges like this one was striking.
🎙️ How an Octopus can Accelerate your Bioprocess - An interview with Cristofer Rybner of Reocto
For biomanufacturing to have the global impact we’re all hoping for, many things will need to change. Biomanufactured products like food and textiles, while starting in the luxury space, must eventually come down in price to become widely accessible. This will require changes to the underlying technologies. One critical piece of infrastructure is the bioreactor—where cells or organisms are grown at a massive scale 🌱.
🎙️Protein from Air? - An Interview with David McLellan from Jooules
Gas fermentation feeds bacteria with CO₂, hydrogen, and nitrogen, allowing them to grow rapidly, doubling in under an hour. This produces a “complete” protein rich in essential amino acids, making it a highly attractive ingredient. 🍽️
🍖 Waste Valorisation and "everything but the oink"
Beyond biotech innovations and hybrid product development, there’s another compelling path to profitability for cultured meat: waste stream valorization. ♻️ In traditional animal agriculture, every part of the animal finds a use—hence the saying, “everything but the oink.”
🚀 The Biomanufacturing Revolution: Australia's Golden Opportunity 🏭🌲
Biomanufacturing is set to revolutionize global industries, from food and textiles to cosmetics, biofuels, and industrial chemicals. McKinsey reports that up to 60% of consumer goods could have bio-based alternatives, while Boston Consulting Group estimates a staggering $30 trillion in economic potential.
🎙️ Sausages for Science
I had the pleasure of chatting with two incredible founders who've been building a vibrant scientific community right here in Melbourne. Samuel Wines and Andrew Gray, co-founders of the shared co-working lab space CoLabs, shared their fascinating backgrounds, what drives them, and their vision for the future.
🚀 The Biomanufacturing Revolution is here!
🚀For those following my journey, you know I'm passionate about the bio-based manufacturing sector. But what exactly is biomanufacturing, and why should you care?