Willow Biosciences Inc. announced the appointment of Jim Lalonde, Ph.D. as its newest independent member of the Company's Board of Directors, effective February 21, 2023. Dr. Lalonde previously served with Inscripta, a global leader in genome engineering technology, as Lead of its Microbial Digital Genome Engineering Business. Prior to that, Dr. Lalonde was Senior Vice President of R&D at Codexis Inc., a leader in protein engineering.

In his nearly 15 years at Codexis he oversaw development of more than 50 enzymes for drug manufacturing, nutrition, biotherapeutics, and molecular diagnostics. He also led development of the company's pioneering CodeEvolver® protein engineering technology which was licensed to major pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Codexis, Dr. Lalonde held leadership roles in biocatalysis and chemical development at Altus Biologics and in scientific research at Vista Chemical Company.

He holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Lakehead University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Texas A&M University. Lalonde also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Bota Biosciences, a global industrial biotechnology company advancing sustainable biomanufacturing; Curie Co., which is utilizing protein engineering to replace petrochemical-based preservatives with biobased alternatives within personal care; and Invizyne, a pioneer in streamlining synthetic biology with cell free enzyme cascades, to produce a wide variety of high value and difficult to make target molecules.