Plum Organics Chairman, Neil Grimmer, Joins uBiome Advisory Board
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 26, 2016 -- uBiome, the leading microbial genomics company, welcomes Neil Grimmer, Co-founder and Chairman of Plum Organics, to a new position on the company’s Advisory Board. Prior to co-founding Plum in 2007, Neil Grimmer was Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Clif Bar & Co, and Senior Designer at IDEO.
A renowned, innovative designer of ideas, products, and brands, Grimmer has been at the forefront of launching more than 175 new products at Plum Organics, making it the number one organic baby food brand in the United States. He pioneered an innovative first-to-market spouted pouch that revitalized the dormant baby food category.
Educated at Stanford and the California College of the Arts, Grimmer is widely recognized as an industry game-changer and has received prestigious awards including "Entrepreneur of the Year" for Ernst & Young Northern California, “Most Admired CEO” by the San Francisco Business Times and Bloomberg Businessweek’s Top 5 “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs.” He has also been highlighted in numerous media outlets, including recent features in Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes and Inc. Magazine. Under Grimmer’s leadership, Plum Organics was ranked three consecutive years on the Inc. Magazine 500 list of fastest-growing privately held companies in America.
As the world’s leading microbial genomics company, uBiome uses next generation high-throughput DNA sequencing technology to generate detailed analyses of the human microbiome, the ecosystem of trillions of bacteria which populate the human body, both in and on it.
While most of an individual’s bacteria is found in the gut, there are dozens of other bacteria-harboring sites on the body, most with their own distinct microbial profiles. Individuals can have their own microbiomes tested by uBiome by providing a straightforward self-swabbed sample, returned by mail. Analysis is currently provided for five sites – gut, oral, nose, genitals, and skin.
Bacteria in the gut play a vital part in health, supporting digestion and the synthesis of vitamins. However pathogenic bacteria are associated with a range of conditions, some of them serious, such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease – including both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, esophageal reflux and esophageal cancer, Clostridium difficile infection, colorectal cancer, and many others.
“I love the way uBiome is giving individuals a detailed picture of what’s going inside of themselves,” says Neil Grimmer, Co-founder & Chairman, Plum Organics. “And uBiome’s non-invasive tests can be used to check babies and toddlers too. At Plum, we’ve learned first hand just how passionate parents are about what they feed their little ones. Great health starts with knowledge. I’m excited about working with uBiome in its mission to empower its customers.”
Jessica Richman, co-founder and CEO of uBiome, says: “Neil Grimmer has created some amazing products with his leadership positions at Plum Organics, Clif Bar, and IDEO. We’re looking forward to benefiting from his inspiration and insight as he joins our stellar team of advisors.”
uBiome was launched in 2012 by scientists and technologists educated at Stanford and UCSF after a crowdfunding campaign raised over $350,000 from citizen scientists, around triple its initial goal. The company is now funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and other leading investors.
uBiome’s mission is to use big data to understand the human microbiome by giving users the power to learn about their bodies, perform experiments, and see how current research studies apply to them.
Contact:
Julie Taylor
julie(at)ubiome.com
Julie Taylor, [email protected], http://www.ubiome.com, +1 (415) 275-2461, [email protected]
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