Our vision of sustainability
We enable enzymes, nature’s biochemical machinery, to create durable and cost-effective chemical products.
More than just a business solution, our vision combats climate change by shifting from petroleum to enzyme-based manufacturing, aligning economic benefits with environmental preservation and humanity's wellbeing.
Founding Story
The son of an industrial hygienist and entrepreneur, James spent his summers growing up in a lab, testing building materials for lead and asbestos (as young kids do).
This gave James a glimpse at the negative impacts of the chemical industry, inspiring him to earn a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering so he could clean up the industry from the inside.
After a stint as a management consultant at Bain, Alex spent years at Zymergen, one of the largest biomanufacturing companies, looking to use nature’s catalysts to create molecules more sustainably. There, he saw the difficulty and cost of scaling microbial processes and became excited about the promise of enzymes.
While enzyme immobilization goes back over 100 years, success for a given enzyme and application remained a matter of luck. Motivated by a lack of rational and data-driven approaches, James developed new materials to capture and retain enzyme activity under the toughest conditions.
When Alex met James, he knew that James’s innovation needed to be commercialized. After 6 months of getting to know each other, they started Cascade Bio in December 2022.
Meet the team
Our Partners
