Christina Smolke

Christina Smolke is the CEO and Co-Founder of Antheia, Inc., a Menlo Park-based synthetic biology company programming yeast to manufacture complex pharmaceutical ingredients — including the active ingredient in Narcan — in days rather than the years required by traditional plant cultivation. A Stanford professor turned biotech entrepreneur, she pioneered the engineering of baker's yeast to produce opioids and other plant-derived medicines, raising over $175 million to bring her lab breakthroughs to global pharmaceutical supply chains.