Kevin Gutshall, former CEO OpenCell
A year ago 4thEst8 readers learned how OpenCell Technologies hired former MilliporeSigma exec Kevin Gutshall as CEO to pave its way to product commercialization. It’s unclear what happened at the startup but that relationship ended in under six months.
The 4thEst8 initiated coverage on OpenCell because the startup landed a boatload of grants, then claimed to pivot from ‘research tool maker’ into a cell and gene therapy company. It’s POROS platform uses acoustic waves to drive cells through an array of nozzles, one cell at a time, to create a force to ‘porate’ – or punch a uniform hole in – the receiving cell. The idea is to use a low strength electric field to actively drive molecles into the receiving cells through the pores created – for therapeutic applications.
In a statement made last summer Gutshall said OpenCell was “poised to move from an R&D stage to a commercial business” which is why he came aboard. Concurrent with his appointment as CEO OpenCell picked up an undisclosed amount of funding from St. Louis VC’s BioGenerator and Synchrony Bio (Note: Synchrony Bio is a BioGenerator portfolio company as well, formed for the purposes of making investments. Also, BioGenerator is the investment arm of BioSTL, a public/private partnership.).
Exit
In the past year, the 4thEst8 has made a number of attempts to update OpenCell’s achievements. The last attempt was through LinkedIn, where Kevin Gutshall’s profile now says he works as Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at MaxCyte, a cell-engineering platform headquartered in Gaithersburg, MD. What of his job at OpenCell? His profile simply states “less than a year” with his MaxCyte job starting in January, 2021.
Late 2019 the Department of Health and Human Services awarded OpenCell $298,853 in a Phase 1 SBIR grant to expand the capabilities of its POROS platform to deliver multiple payloads into a cell. This is just one of more than $3,000,000 in government grants the small company has landed.
In a relase put out by BioSTL concurrent with Gutshall taking the helm it was announced that BioGenerator’s senior vice president Charlie Bolten joined OpenCell’s board of directors. Meanwhile, Synchrony Bio Venture Partner, Paul Olivo, M.D., Ph.D. serves as an advisor to OpenCell, managing the company’s research team. Olivo is a former BioGenerator Entrepreneur-in-Residence. The 4thEst8 contacted Gutshall, Bolton, Olivo and others for comment in this story. None responded.
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