Calyxt appoints Bobby Williams as Gene Editing Director to expand innovation and product pipeline

Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLXT), a plant-based technology company, has appointed Bobby Williams, Ph.D. to the newly created role of Director of Gene Editing to further expand Calyxt’s innovation, product pipeline, and trait discovery efforts and inform product advancement decisions.

Dr. Williams has been on the forefront of advancements in plant sciences, and is an expert in the gene editing field. His accomplishments include developing new gene silencing technology and leading efforts to discover small RNAs to precisely engineer beneficial crop traits. In addition, Dr. Williams led gene discovery initiatives to improve crop traits to support sustainability, specifically drought resistance, improved nitrogen efficiency and yield enhancement.

"The addition of Bobby to the R&D team empowers us to further leverage our technology and develop next generation products to solve unmet consumer, marketplace and environmental demands," said Travis Frey, chief technology officer with Calyxt. "A talented and disciplined inventor, Bobby can immediately contribute to our pipeline with his gene editing and discovery prowess and innovative thinking," concluded Frey.

"Calyxt is an innovation platform company and we believe the successful commercial launch of our HO soybean products proves there is demand for gene-edited products," said Jim Blome, chief executive officer of Calyxt. "The potential benefits of gene-edited products to foodservice and food manufacturing companies (performance), consumers (health) and the planet (sustainability) are significant. We aim, through science, to benefit both people and planet and look forward to accelerating this initiative through Bobby’s addition," concluded Blome.

With more than 15 years of expertise in the agriculture and seed industry, Dr. Williams most recently served as Senior Research Manager at Corteva Agriscience, where he led multiple trait discovery efforts and cross functional teams through field advancements. Prior to Corteva, Dr. Williams was a Helen Hay Whitney post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley studying Drosophila development under Gerald Rubin, Ph.D. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA where he focused on plant developmental genetics with Elliot Meyerowitz, Ph.D.