Pluton Biosciences appoints co-founder Steven Slater to CEO position

Pluton Biosciences has announced the appointment of new CEO Steven Slater, PhD. Dr. Slater has more than 30 years of experience in microbial genomics, biotechnology and business leadership.

Founded in 2017, Pluton Biosciences has 15 employees and is headquartered in St. Louis. Pluton is a natural product development company dedicated to discovering new microbes to drive environmental sustainability practices worldwide. Pluton uses its Micromining^® Innovation Engine, a high-throughput microbial discovery platform, to identify and isolate novel organisms within months to dramatically improve R&D throughput for agtech companies.  

As CEO, Dr. Slater will partner with scientific and business teams, investors and the broader community to translate Pluton’s proprietary technology into high-performance products that deliver sustainable agriculture and climate solutions.

His experience with Monsanto, multiple start-ups and as a tenured professor have prepared him for the CEO role - to facilitate operations across many disciplines and technical cultures.

“I’ve been fortunate to dedicate my career to driving science for clean technology in the areas of agriculture, pharma and materials. Pluton is the revolutionary engine to generate precisely this type of innovation, and I am honored to be joining such an outstanding team,” said Dr. Slater.

He holds a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from Case Western Reserve University and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. He has over 50 publications and patents.

Since the announcement earlier this month that Pluton closed its Seed Round raising $6.6 million in new investments, the biotech startup has been able to hire-on many of its founders and consultants full-time, which include Dr. Slater. Founder Barry Goldman, PhD, is now Pluton’s Chief Scientific Officer, a role that leverages his expertise in industrial agriculture and microbiology.

“We are excited to bring Steve Slater on board. Steve brings a wealth of experience in agriculture and genomics to deliver our new products in carbon and traits to market,” said Dr. Goldman.