WOBURN, Mass., Feb. 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:YTEN) today announced that it has expanded its plant science team with two key hires. Karen Bohmert-Tatarev, Ph.D. has joined Yield10 as Technology Manager and Frank Skraly, Ph.D. has joined the Company as Senior Director of Metabolic Engineering.  Yield10 Bioscience is focused on developing proprietary, breakthrough technologies to create step-changes in yield for major food and feed crops to enhance global food security.

Dr. Bohmert-Tatarev has 20 years of experience in plant science with recent experience in the regulation of GM (genetically modified) crops.   Her responsibilities at Yield10 will include crop regulatory permitting and other related regulatory work, assisting in the management of the intellectual property portfolio of Yield10, and overseeing the development of next generation transformation technologies for crop improvement. 

Dr. Skraly has 20 years of experience in advanced metabolic pathway engineering and optimizing the flow and efficiency of use of carbon in living systems. At Yield10 he will be responsible for the Company's “Smart Carbon Grid Platform,” and further optimization of the impact of our lead yield enhancing traits.

“With the addition of Karen and Frank to Yield10 we now have our core science team in place.  Karen is not only an outstanding plant scientist with a broad background in plant metabolic and chloroplast engineering, but she also has additional experience in the regulatory framework for genetically engineered crops,” said Kristi Snell, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer of Yield10. “We expect she will make significant contributions to our ability to translate our discoveries to important food and feed crops with the management of our regulatory and compliance activities, involvement with our intellectual property portfolio management, and with additional contributions to our scientific platform in novel plant transformation technologies.”

Karen Bohmert-Tatarev, Ph.D. previously held the position of Scientific Officer at the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety in Berlin, Germany. Prior to that, she was Principal Research Scientist at Essentient, Inc., a biotechnology startup. From 2001 to 2011 Dr. Bohmert-Tatarev held senior positions on the plant research team at Metabolix, Inc., including Team Leader, Plastid Transformation Systems, and was involved in regulatory activities at the Company. Prior to her position at Metabolix, she was a Postdoctoral Scientist at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology. She earned her Ph.D. in Biology in 1997 at the Institut für Genbiologische Forschung, Berlin, Germany. She earned her B.S. and M.S. in Biology at Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany.

“Frank is a distinguished scientist with extensive knowledge and experience in metabolic engineering, particularly carbon flow related to photosynthesis. We expect he will make significant contributions to further enhancing our ‘Smart Carbon Grid for Crops’ technology platform and the novel yield trait genes we are developing through this approach, such as our C3003 trait,” continued Dr. Snell.  

Frank Skraly, Ph.D. joins Yield10 from Inari Agriculture, Inc. a genome editing startup, where he was Senior Director, Research and Development.  Prior to that, he was Senior Director, Metabolic Engineering at Joule Unlimited Technologies, Inc. where he held various positions from 2008 to 2016 and gained extensive experience optimizing carbon fixation and conversion efficiency in photosynthetic systems.   Prior to that, Dr. Skraly held various positions at Metabolix, Inc. from 1997-2007, including Team Leader, Microbial Metabolic Engineering. Dr. Skraly holds 19 issued patents on microbial strains, pathways and methods.  He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1997 at University of Wisconsin, and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering with highest distinction at Pennsylvania State University.  

About Yield10 Bioscience

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. is focused on developing disruptive technologies for producing step-change improvements in crop yield to enhance global food security.  Yield10 is leveraging an extensive track record of innovation based around optimizing the flow of carbon intermediates in living systems. By working on new approaches to improve fundamental elements of plant photosynthetic efficiency and optimizing carbon metabolism to direct more carbon to seed production, Yield10 is advancing several yield traits it has developed in crops such as Camelina, canola, soybean and corn.  Yield10 is based in Woburn, MA.

For more information visit www.Yield10bio.com
(YTEN-G)

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This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, expectations regarding the progress of Yield10 Bioscience, Inc., constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including the risks and uncertainties detailed in Yield10 Bioscience’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yield10 Bioscience assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.

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