Pam Contag PhD

Technology Council

CEO Cygnet Biofuels, San Jose, CA

Pamela R. Contag, Ph.D., is currently the CEO of Cygnet Biofuels and the CSO of Origen Therapeutics. Dr. Contag founded four venture-backed start-up companies; Xenogen Corp. completed a public offering in 2004 and was subsequently acquired; Cobalt Technologies, now in product demonstration; Cygnet Biofuels, developing low cost enzymes; and ConcentRx, a novel therapeutic for oncology indications. Dr. Contag was named one of the "Top 25 Women in Small Business" by Fortune magazine. Dr. Contag has held various consulting and board positions, public, private and not-for-profit. Those positions include a consulting Professorship at Stanford School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics (1999-present), the Dean's Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (1999-2005). Dr. Contag was a Director of Xenogen Corporation (Nasdaq) (1995-2005) and was CEO and Chairman of Cobalt Technologies (2005-2008) and a Delcath (Nasdaq) Board Member (2008-2011). She also joined in 2009 the DOE Biomass technology Advisory Committee and two nonprofit boards, Springboard Enterprises, an accelerator of women entrepreneurs and the Molecular Sciences Institute. In 2010 Dr. Contag joined the Merrick Engineering Consultancy specializing in the energy field. With more than 25 years of microbiology research experience, Dr. Contag is widely published in the field of Microbiology and Optical imaging and has over 36 patents and patent applications. Dr. Contag received her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1989 and completed her Postdoctoral Training at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993 specializing in "Host/Pathogen Interactions".