Alga Biosciences

About

Alga Biosciences is a fast-moving startup on a mission to eliminate methane produced by enteric fermentation and consequently slow global warming. Global livestock account for 14.5% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and cattle are the primary emitters via enteric fermentation. Alga Biosciences intends to dramatically impact global methane emissions by stopping cattle from burping methane by collaborating with cattle owners, ranchers, and scientists to do this in the fastest, cheapest, and most scalable way.

Alex Brown, Co-Founder & CEO

Alex studied life sciences and economics at the University of Michigan, where he wrote an honors thesis about the evolution of cooperation. He worked as a Chief of Staff at a software company until he couldn’t stop thinking about how annoying it was that nobody had solved the problem of cow burps yet.

Daria Balatsky, Co-Founder & CTO

Daria is a physical chemist who has worked on various projects, from synthesizing drugs for kidney disease at Chinook Therapeutics to growing EuO thin films with Bi dopants using molecular beam epitaxy at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. Her honors’ thesis was completed on catalysis with tantulum for hydroaminoalkylation after working with computational chemistry at OpenEye Scientific Software. She studies quantum materials as a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley and is the co-founder and CTO of Alga Biosciences.

Caroline Anne McKeon, Co-Founder & CSO

Caroline is a chemist who has worked on everything from quantum electronic structure theory to biochemistry. As co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Alga Biosciences, she is working on how to turn algae into a potent tool to combat the warming of our planet. Caroline holds a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Scientific Computing from Haverford College and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.