Dr. Juliana Blum Joins BioAesthetics as CEO

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioAesthetics Corporation announced today the appointment of Juliana Blum, PhD as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective August 12, 2024.

Dr. Sandra Coufal, MD, Director of BioAesthetics and CEO of 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.”

Dr. Blum joins BioAesthetics following her 20 years spent as Co-founder and EVP of Corporate Development at Humacyte (NASDAQ: HUMA). During that time, she led the development, management, and execution of the company’s novel, commercial scale vascular bioengineering platform, eventually transitioning the start up to a public company. Her experiences and leadership focuses on a broad range of research and development activities through pre-commercialization functions, including global regulatory affairs, CMC development and manufacturing scale up, corporate development activities, integration of key partnerships and alliances, and building a corporate brand and presence around a disruptive technology. Since transitioning 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 the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, advancing innovations, setting strategic visions and translating research concepts into viable commercial product opportunities in the regenerative medicine and biotherapeutics space.

“I am 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,” said Dr. Blum. “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.”

“Dr. Blum has a proven reputation for developing and managing partnerships and key business relationships critical for organizational growth and portfolio development. 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,” said Joseph Nixon, MBA, Director of BioAesthetics and CFO of Locus Biosciences, Inc.

About BioAesthetics:

BioAesthetics Corporation is a biotechnology company focused on transforming lives through advancements in biomaterials. Its first product is an acellular tissue graft for regenerating the nipple (NACgraft™ biologic matrix) for breast cancer patients who are undergoing breast reconstruction. NACgraft is FDA-registered and currently being investigated in clinical studies. In addition, it has a product pipeline focused on acellular regenerative grafts for advanced wound and reconstructive care. BioAesthetics was founded as a spin-out of Tulane University in New Orleans, LA and is now located in Durham, NC.

For more information on BioAesthetics, visit https://bio-aesthetics.com/.