Jonathan Kotula

Jonathan Kotula, PhD is an expert in synthetic biology and host-microbial interactions, with over 20 years of research and development experience. He is the CEO and founder of Laguna Bio, a company that pursues research exploring how to activate and expand the endogenous immune system with living biotherapeutics. Previously he was the Entrepreneur in Residence and Director of New Ventures at Spero New Ventures and has led interdisciplinary teams of researchers to develop living microbial therapeutics, and initiated clinical research programs at Synlogic, Caribou Biosciences, and Felix Biotechnology. He advises several early-stage biotech companies, and is an inventor on several bacterial genome editing patents. He holds a BS from Pennsylvania State University in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, a PhD from Duke University in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and has conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineerin