Juliana Blum joins BioAesthetics as CEO
Scientist and entrepreneur Juliana Blum, Ph.D., has been named CEO of Durham-based BioAesthetics Corp., a biomaterials company that received early funding from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Blum officially joined BioAesthetics on Aug. 12 after 20 years as co-founder and executive vice president of corporate development at Humacyte, also of Durham.
BioAesthetics’ first product undergoing clinical trials is the NACgraft biologic matrix, an acellular tissue graft for regenerating the nipple for breast cancer patients undergoing breast reconstruction. The company’s product pipeline is focused on acellular regenerative grafts for advanced wound and reconstructive care.
That groundbreaking regenerative technology focus has similarities to that of Humacyte, founded in 2004, where Blum led the development, management, and execution of its vascular bioengineering platform, eventually transitioning the startup to a commercial-scale public company.
NCBiotech funding helps lay the groundwork
NCBiotech provided Humacyte with a $150,000 Small Business Research Loan in 2006. Hundreds of millions of dollars followed from investment rounds, and it became a publicly traded company in August 2021. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to provide the marketing go-ahead to Humacyte’s first commercially available blood vessel in the next few months.
Since Blum transitioned out of Humacyte at the end of 2022, she has served as an executive strategist for entrepreneurial biotechnology organizations as an Entrepreneur in Residence at NCBiotech. While there she helped young companies advance innovations, set strategic visions and translate research concepts into viable commercial product opportunities in regenerative medicine and biotherapeutics.
Sandra Coufal, M.D., a director of BioAesthetics and CEO of San Diego-based Toragen, Inc., said, “This is an important milestone for BioAesthetics. During the development of every successful biotech company, there comes a time when the founding CEO transitions to a different role and a new CEO with different skill sets is needed for product advancement and commercialization. Dr. Blum’s experience with novel products as co-founder of Humacyte will help guide further progress at BioAesthetics.”
Blum cites 'strong foundation for future growth and innovation'
Blum said she’s “thrilled to join the BioAesthetics team at this stage of the company, working to advance its next-gen drug-eluting graft technology for soft tissue reconstruction towards the clinic.
“The team has done a phenomenal job generating robust pre-clinical data on its drug-eluting graft platform across several indications and continues to evaluate its acellular nipple graft for breast reconstruction, the NACgraft, in the clinic. There is a strong foundation for future growth and innovation around this novel platform that I look forward to leading.”
BioAesthetics was founded in 2015 as a spinout of Tulane University in New Orleans and relocated to Durham three years later. In 2019, NCBiotech provided the company a $100,000 Small Business Research Loan to establish quality systems and a manufacturing process for NACgraft. A year later, the company received a $3,000 grant from NCBiotech’s Industrial Internship Program to host a biomedical engineering student from North Carolina State University for summer project work.
Joseph Nixon, MBA, also a director of BioAesthetics who led the investment team at NCBiotech until 2017, when he became CFO of Locus Biosciences, lauded Blum’s skills.
“Dr. Blum has a proven reputation for developing and managing partnerships and key business relationships critical for organizational growth and portfolio development,” said Nixon. “She has direct experience leading a company from early-stage discovery through planning a commercial launch for an approved product. This experience is critical for the future growth of BioAesthetics.”