Building the Future of Sustainable Manufacturing
We're a team of scientists, engineers, and operators united by a mission to make biomanufacturing carbon-negative.
Leadership Team
Emilio Balderas
Founder & CEO
A Chicago Booth MBA with Fortune 500 consulting and deep-tech venture experience, Emilio brings the commercial and operational expertise to scale promising science into market-ready businesses.
Click to read moreJacob Bhoi
Founder & CSO
A Northwestern-trained neuroscientist with nearly a decade of circadian biology, Jake leads Aura's technology development with rare scientific depth and commercial acumen.
Click to read moreAH Hassaballah
COO
A Chicago Booth MBA with cross-functional experience spanning biotech R&D, clinical operations, and regulatory compliance, A.H. provides the operational foundation for Aura's scale-up from laboratory to pilot.
Click to read moreAdvisors and Mentors
Carl H. Johnson, Ph.D.
Inventor and Advisor
Vanderbilt University
Expert on cyanobacteria circadian clocks — first described the cyanobacteria circadian clock.
Yao Xu, Ph.D.
Inventor and Advisor
Vanderbilt University
Expert in synthetic biology and engineering cyanobacteria.
Wayne Mitchell, Ph.D.
Advisor
Formerly LanzaTech
Computational biology expert who was recruited to start the bioinformatics group at LanzaTech.
Alice Havill
Advisor
Formerly LanzaTech; Breakthrough Energy
Helped scale LanzaTech from the laboratory to pilot through commercial scale-up.
Rasmus Jensen, Ph.D.
Mentor
LanzaTech
Experienced process engineer with experience biomanufacturing with diverse microbes.
Jen Wagner
Advisor
Former President of CarbonCure; Breakthrough Energy
Expert in commercializing CleanTech.
Chris Schweitzer
Advisor
Formerly AbbVie; Mann and Hummel
Venture capital professional with past experience in biotech.
Fellows
Chloe Sun
BS in Economics, University of Chicago
Thomas Evans
University of Chicago
Our Values
The principles that guide how we work and the impact we strive to create.
Sustainability First
Every decision is evaluated through the lens of environmental impact. We build technology that heals the planet.
Scientific Rigor
We let data guide our decisions. Our platform is built on peer-reviewed science and validated at every step.
Collaborative Spirit
The best solutions come from diverse perspectives. We partner openly with academia, industry, and communities.
Ambitious Vision
We aim to fundamentally transform biomanufacturing. Incremental change is not enough for the challenges we face.
Join Our Mission
We're always looking for exceptional people who share our passion for sustainable technology. If you want to make a real impact on climate change, we'd love to hear from you.
Contact Us